La Calera Chapel: Bogotá Building

La Calera Chapel, Bogotá Religious Building, Colombian Architecture, Photo, Design

La Calera Chapel : Bogotá Architecture

Colombian Religious Architecture, South America – design by Daniel Bonilla Architect

9 Jan 2013

Chapel in La Calera

La Calera, Bogotá, Colombia

Design: Daniel Bonilla Arquitectos

La Calera Chapel Bogotá Building
photo : Alberto Fonseca

The chapel in la Calera has a basic geometry that tries to alter the territory as little as possible. It uses the natural features of the environment, the wind and the light, to create an essential harmony.

La Calera Chapel Bogotá architecture
photo : Alberto Fonseca

The chapel is designed to open to the outside to allow worshipers to gather in mass, this architectural design appeases both small private groups and large public functions, in a country full of contrasts, making this transformation a symbolic within itself.

La Calera Chapel Bogotá La Calera Chapel Bogotá
photos : Alberto Fonseca

The relation between a still and a mobile volume represents “the passage between two worlds, between the known and the unknown, the light and the darkness. As the door opens, a mystery is revealed, and has a dynamic and psychological value, not only showing us a landscape, but inviting us to pass trough it.

La Calera Chapel Bogotá La Calera Chapel Bogotá
photos : Andres Tellez

This change of focus, scale and perspective, transforms the component of the chapel; the space for the altar turns into the space for the choir, the main nave transforms into the lateral nave and the tabernacle becomes part of the landscape. To make all aforementioned things possible, the placement of the building was scrupulously studied.

La Calera Chapel Bogotá La Calera Chapel Bogotá La Calera Chapel Bogotá
photos from architect

The materials work on these same principles, they mimic the natural surroundings. In this way the rigid structures are static as the stones, while the mobile body made of steel, glass and wood form an interwoven design. The reflecting pond, on one of the chapel’s sides, dilutes the massive structure into the landscape, and it also accents and distorts the volume to make its density to fade away.

La Calera Chapel Bogotá
photo : Natalia Borda

La Calera Chapel – Building Information

Project: Capilla Porciúncula de la Milagrosa
Location: La Calera, Bogotá, Colombia
Client: Durán Gómez Family
Architect: Daniel Bonilla
Design Team: Daniel Bonilla, Akira Kita, Ana Lucia Cano
Constructor: Jaime Pizarro
Date: 2003-04

La Calera Chapel Bogotá images / information from Daniel Bonilla Arquitectos

Daniel Bonilla Arquitectos

Location:La Calera, Bogotá, Colombia

Colombia Architecture

Colombia Architecture Design – chronological list

Bogotá Architecture Tours

Colombian Architect Studios – Design Office Listings

Colombian Architecture
Santa Elena House
photo : Carlos Tobon

Church Buildings

South American Buildings
Paraty House
photo : Nelson Kon

Bogotá Convention Center
Bogotá Convention Center
image from Saucier + Perrotte architectes

Church Architecture

Comments / photos for the Chapel in La CaleraBogotá Church Architecture page welcome

La Calera Chapel Building

Website: Bogotá