The Lighthouse

Date: 2016
Authors: Eduardo Delgado Orusco, Javier Viver
Publusher: VIA, Recolectores Urbanos
Pages: 130
Finalist in the third edition of the BigMat International Architecture Award

 

(...)It became clear the need to achieve a certain height that would meake the Monstrance visible from anywhere in the chapel.

Based on the experience of some other columns such as the Column Without End by Constantin Brancusi or the Project of Tower-Museum by San Isidro de Francisco Alonso for Madrid, we understood that a certain triangular geometrization of the lighthouse would simultaneously contribute to provide it with a law of growth and a certain plastic vibration.

Out of Brancusi’s column we adopted the construction by superimposed modules, in our case using a pentagonal base that came originally given by the geometry of the accesses of the dome, although subjecting this geometry to a slight movement by rotating that base, like in Alonso’s project. Nevertheless, and to facilitate its quick construction, we only worked with a triangular piece. As a matter of fact we found that geometrization suitable for the scale at which we were working at and it proved to be a wise move to facilitate its execution as this was carried out with a single piece repeated 45 times.

The vibration provided by that geometrization to the column, in turn activated by the candlelight base, pursued to evoke the fire of the column described in Exodus (13:21-22) which guided and illuminated its village. In fact, the same column, at the top, desmaterialized becoming a golden crown that concealed en the presence of the Eucharist. However that crown was projected with the same geometry that the rest of the piece, transforming the edges of those triangles into golden brass bars with gold leaf allowing the Monstrance to be seen inside.