What makes a building speak to one’s soul? How does a building become spiritual? Anglican Communion News Service asks:
The elliptical Bishop Edward King Chapel at Ripon College in Cuddesdon, Oxford, is the new place for worship for an order of nuns and 250 student clergy. It’s also up for the Royal Institute of British Architect’s (RIBA) Stirling Prize.
Take a look at the BBC’s video report of the unusal building…
Worshippers, both of the religious and architectural kind, enter through a dark hallway.
There are three steps down to the polished floor of the chapel, but above, the latticed woodwork draws the eye towards high windows with dappled light from the surrounding trees.
“It raises you up like a kite,” says Rev Martyn Percy, the principal of Ripon College in Cuddesdon.
“The idea that you are grounded and yet lifted up was extremely profound for us. It shows a very implicit understanding of what we wanted.”
You can vote at the BBC site.