The Holy Redeemer Church stays in Canary Islands, Spain, designed by Fernando Menis. A project spanning over 15 years, coincided with the transformation of Las Chumberas, a 1970s neighborhood with flats blocks, shopping centers and industrial buildings. Supported by the Bishopric of Tenerife, Menis envisioned the Church as a catalyst for urban and social changes, aiming to establish Las Chumberas with its own identity amid a confusing urban fabric.
The resulting compound includes a Church, a community center, and a greenery-surrounded public square, addressing the neighborhood’s needs. Financed through donations from organizations, neighbors, and committed businessmen, the project exemplifies collective action. The uneven remittance rhythm determined the logic of the project, delivered in phases with the community center, housed in two volumes, completed in 2008, awaiting funds for the remaining works.
The building, inspired by the geology of the volcanic island, is embedded in the ground, and ascends with four massive volumes resembling restless rocks. The exposed concrete’s rough texture starkly contrasts with the conventional residential context. It appears as if a geological phenomenon has disrupted the outskirts, with nature resisting banality. Narrow cracks filled with sculptural metal and glass structures separate the petrous volumes, allowing daylight to sculpt an austere and stark compound without superfluous elements.
Fernando Menis
Daylight filters through the cuts, shaping a free-flowing, introverted void, playing a crucial role in emphasizing each Christian sacrament. At sunrise, light cascades through the cross, filling the space behind the altar to symbolize Jesus Christ’s burial cave, illuminating the baptismal font. The altar, confirmation, and communion receive noon light through skylights, followed by a shaft of light on the confessional. Strategically placed skylights have a similar effect on unction, matrimony, and priesthood.
The use of concrete as the main material in this building addresses several aspects at the same time: exterior, interior, structure, form, matter, and texture. First, it is a common material, accessible locally, which allows the architect to work only with local companies and materials, in accordance with the Km 0 architecture principles to which Menis adheres. Second, the energy efficiency provided by concrete, due to its isotropic nature, is enhanced here by the thermal inertia of the thick solid walls. Finally, as in his CKK Jordanki Culture, Music, and Congress Hall (2015, Poland), or Magma Art and Congress Center (2007, Tenerife), Menis experiments here with concrete’s acoustic potential, challenging the belief that it is acoustically inferior. For diffusion, conventional exposed concrete was used, while for absorption, the surface of the exposed concrete previously mixed with light porous volcanic stone (picón) was chipped. The achieved acoustics resemble the usual in the opera, suitable for speech and song, ideally designed for a building that combines ecclesiastical and social functions.
Photo
ROLAND HALBE, HISAO SUZUKI, SIMONA ROTA
