Santa Maria del Mar Basilica, Mexico Development, Mexican Architecture Contest

Cancun City Basilica, Santa Maria del Mar

Mexican Architecture Competition – design by sanzpont [arquitectura]

14 Jun 2013

Santa Maria del Mar Basilica

Design: sanzpont [arquitectura]

Location: Malecon Tajamar, Cancun City, Mexico

Contemporary Mexican Building

sanzpont [arquitectura] are an architecture firm located in Mexico and Spain. This is their latest project, the 2nd place winner of the competition for Cancun City Basilica, Santa Maria del Mar.

Design Concept

Santa Maria del Mar is one of the oldest virgin avocations. She isn’t related to any apparition; instead she relates with the need that marines and their families who stay on land feel for having the highest protection from heaven. Stella Maris, Star of the Sea is how they call her since ancient times.

image by architects

Cancun, Sun and Beach.

Cancun is a city of sun, beach and tourism. The architectural project though of religious character must respond to these 3 key elements and their correspondent transcendence. The city owes its foundation to the Caribbean architecture, composed of open and green spaces, latticeworks, etc. which provides natural comfort to the user.

Aesthetic and Harmonic Beauty.

When designing a basilica one must offer an official religious public building for the liturgical celebration and the adoration of the lord, a sacred space that provides purity, protection and serenity which by tradition is achieved by a standard of identity, top esthetic beauty, symmetry and proportion.

The Sea as Identity.

Inspiration for the concept comes from the strength and softness of the Caribbean ocean waves and the white sand of its beach. The rhythm of the ocean and the sensation of peace and harmony serve as design principles to provide a unique identity with a strong relation to the region and the project site.

The Mantle as Inspiration.

The project is composed of a big public-religious (Catholic) space that can receive hundreds of people for mass inside a space of purity that radiates protection, harmony, softness and peace, all this simulating the protecting mantle of Santa Maria del Mar as maternal inspiration.

Integration to the Public Space.

The project is located in a new public sector of recreation in front of the Nichupte lagoon. The project must integrate, relate and complement the public space throughout a strong pedestrian connection with the new walkways, generating a plaza with green areas that invite the user to enter to the religious center.

image by architects

Architectural Concept: for a functional, bioclimatic, emblematic and urban project.

The virgin’s mantle inspires the project’s form as a maternal protection symbol. The ocean waves underline the roof’s silhouette in search for rhythm, harmony and balance. The perfection and balance of marine life also serves as inspiration in the design line.

Religious architecture is the reflection and evidence of culture through time.

Cancun City Basilica, Santa Maria del Mar images / information from sanzpont [arquitectura]

sanzpont [arquitectura]

SCancun City Basilica Santa Maria del Mar – external link to the architects’ page on this building proposal

Location: Cancun City, México, North America