Methods vi project 3 jaime esteban solano

Iglesia de IESU.

Iglesia de IESU: Natural Light

Architect: Rafael Moneo

As we can see in the pictures, the natural light could be catalogue as the main fixture in the project. It is use in such a versatile way that can create the feeling that the whole roof is floating in between the concrete pillars, Also the natural light is use to bath the inner walls creating some focusing points along the church, and a visual interior-exterior connection as well.

Iglesia de Iesu, is a church located at San Sebastian, Spain. It is a Project design by the Pritzker winner architect Rafael Moneo.

The church main characteristic is the use of natural light to enhance the inner space with a tone of mysticism and sanctity.

The fact that the architect main source of light is the natural light doesn’t mean that he doesn’t use the artificial light in such a way that is not another actor in the movie but instead is the co-star at the church.

The artificial light in the project is used for make some special points in the project stand out from the rest of the church.

The Architect use basically natural light complemented by three types of light fixtures that depending their disposition in the project can produce different feelings on it

But, what happened then when there is not natural light to illuminate the space?

Iglesia de IESU: Artificial Light The architect uses three different kinds of light fixtures:

Adjustable Light: The architect uses this fixture in two ways, the first one is as a light supply for the ceiling when there is none natural light.

In order to keep the illusion of a floating roof or a sanctity presence in the project, the architect as we can see in the photo on the right, uses adjustable exterior light fixtures to illuminate the space in between the roof at nights, by making this, the architect provide a similar feeling during the day as well as during the night.

Adjustable Light:

Suspending Light:

The second case where the architect makes use of the adjustable light fixtures is when he want to accentuate a specific point from the distance, kind of looking for put some area on the spot light.

The last fixture that is used in this project is the suspended light fixture, and basically Moneo use it a an strategy to scale down the monumental high the church has to a more human being scale.

As we can see in the images on the right, the adjustable light is use to illuminate two special spots inside the church: the choir and the altar, but why does he do this?. This is because in the catholic traditions people can communicate easier by singing and the altar is the spot where the priest does all the rites involve in the ceremony.

Reel Light: This kind of light is use only at the low high spaces inside the church.

This conic fixture use all along the church in this particular case brings light to the darkest spaces in the project, this way the architect guarantees that everybody is receiving light during use.

In the picture above we see the scale of the church regarding the human scale, and in the picture on the right we can see how the scale is bring down toward one more adequate with the human scale. He does this by just simply suspend the light from certain high to one much lower and appropriate for people who go there.

When I mention “bring to human scale” I’m referring to bring the high from the roof which is close to 30 feet to one more related with people which in this case is 10 feet, and also as we can see in the pictuare on the right, the suspended light are only located by the are where the “common people” sit, while in the area from where the priest conduct the service doesn’t have any suspended light providing an open space above this person.

The suspended light besides to be used as a mechanism for bringing down the scale, it is also use as a method to accentuate certain “holly” spots inside the church.

For instance to the left we see how the suspended light is used as a focal point for the baptismal font.

Connections: The light in the project both, natural and artificial light is used to create connections in between spaces, visual connections from one internal point to another, by doing this the architect is generating one more feeling to the public inside the church.