Ring Chapel
Manenggon Hills, Guam, USA
Riccardo Tossani Architecture

An optical trick marries the Ring Chapel to its site

© Koji Okamura

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

Located on the edge of a mountain lake at the center of the Pacific island of Guam, the Ring Chapel responds to its colorful tropical setting and addresses its primary function through architectural devices such as transparency and engagement. The chapel’s form, tectonics, and interior elements celebrate space and light—particularly the changing hues and shadows of the tropical day.

Large windows in the chapel enable the lake, gardens, and dynamic sky above to become part of the interior space’s character. Soaring curtain walls at both ends and tall sashes along the nave give the chapel a high degree of transparency; these elements also evoke a sense of buoyancy and make it feel as though the structure is floating across the lake. An array of custom-designed brise soleil help control sun glare and modulate the light, casting a striated pattern of shadows across the nave while accentuating the vault’s elliptical curve. Bands of multicolored glass on the east curtain wall cast striped azure and indigo shadows across the marble floor.

The chapel engages its setting in a literal way. Its vault descends through slender columns into the earth, like two hands reaching into the ground. Projecting into the lake, the west end creates the illusion of engagement by reflecting the vault into a perfect ellipse. This ring, which is especially apparent at night, lightens the chapel’s apparent mass while doubling its size and reinforcing the impression that it is floating across the lake. The ring also makes an obvious allusion to the notion of marriage as an enduring institution.

The “Crystal Shower,” a mobile designed by Atsuko Itoda, hangs from the vaulted ceiling. Comprised of 3,000 Swarovski crystals, it is perpetually dancing and sparkling in the air, refracting and reflecting sunlight into beams of rainbow light. Viewed from below, they appear like raindrops in suspension. At night, in the glow of spotlights, they become a constellation of colored stars.

Formal name of Project:
Ring Chapel

Location:
Leopalace Resort, Manenggon Hills, Guam, USA

Gross square footage:
2,000 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$1.5 million

Owner:
MDI, Guam, USA

Architect:
Riccardo Tossani Architecture
S Building 2F
2-30-2 Chuo
Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-0011 Japan
Tel 81 3 3364 2301
Fax 81 3 3364 2162
www.tossani.com