BLOG - Steven Holl

Steven Holl is one of my favorite architects and for years I have wanted to visit the Chapel of St. Ignatius that he designed for Seattle University.  In Holl's own words, he envisioned the chapel as:

"Seven bottles of light in a stone box; the metaphor of light is shaped in different volumes emerging from the roof whose irregularities aim at different qualities of light: East facing, South facing, West and North facing, all gathered together for one united ceremony. Each of the light volumes corresponds to a part of the program of Jesuit Catholic worship. The south-facing light corresponds to the procession, a fundamental part of the mass. The city-facing north light corresponds to the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and to the mission of outreach to the community. The main worship space has a volume of east and west light. At night, which is the particular time of gatherings for mass in this university chapel, the light volumes are like beacons shining in all directions out across the campus."

Part of Holl's genius lies in his use of natural light to create spaces that change and evolve over the course of the day.  In this Chapel, Holl utilized two sources of colored light: "light bouncing off color fields painted on the back of suspended baffles creates a halo of light on the surrounding walls, while light passing through colored glass lenses in the exterior windows and openings in the baffles casts onto the chapel walls and floor."

And a few more buildings designed by Steven Holl that explore the relationship between space and light.

Linked Hybrid Mixed-Use Project in Beijing, photo from Steven Holl

Department of Philosophy at NYU, photo: Steven Holl

Above and Below. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO. Photos from stevenholl.com