Pilgrimage Chapel
Rukomo, Rwanda
2019
Competition scheme for a pilgrimage chapel and radio tower on a mountaintop plateau in northern Rwanda.
The beautiful site hosts a large stand of conifers and includes an existing cloister housing local Clare nuns. The proposal seeks to make a pilgrimage chapel representative of “Christ in nature”. The design extends a tradition of similar woodland chapels in architectural history, such as Asplund’s Woodland Chapel and Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp.
As an addition to the brief a ‘Calling Tower’ is proposed, crowned with an illuminated cross. The tower works both as a radio mast from which messages and readings are broadcast to far away villages, and as a visual sign guiding the approaching pilgrim to their destination.
The structure for the chapel is comprised of local rough-hewn timber columns supporting a large, cross-lapped timber roof structure. The proposed building is not fully enclosed so that the surrounding conifer wood can be glimpsed over half-height perimeter rammed earth walls, which contain the space and define views and movement. Local granite is proposed for pews and to create an entry screen.
