Studio Duearchitetti

La cappella. Arialdo

La cappella. Arialdo

La cappella. Arialdo

Duearchitetti

ARCHITECTS
Duearchitetti

STATUS
Built

YEAR
2013

LOCATION
Varese, Italy

TYPE
Cultural › Religious

San Arialdo is the name of a small chapel located in Velate, a small community in Varese.

It was presented to us as a lecture room in the parish house used by the children to prepare the communion.

La cappella. Arialdo
La cappella. Arialdo
La cappella. Arialdo

The room, modest and simple in its shape, spontaneous in its furniture, though flooded by an intense natural light, has been used in the previous years as a space where a small group of believers gathered to pray.

Among them a careful and sensible person residing in the community, addressed our studio to do a requalification project.

The appeal of the place was immediately obvious so our first approach was to listen respectfully with the aim of maintaining the historic memory and the spontaneity of the place.

La cappella. Arialdo
La cappella. Arialdo

The project’s aim has been to understand the spirit of the space, reorganizing it and emphasizing the quality of the light coming from the southern wall which is completely windowed.

The choice was to realize some wide frames upholstered by white textile in order to regulate the sunbeams during the various hours of the day creating a celestial nave in the direction of the alter.

The holy furnitures have been redesigned conserving only the original benches with their canonical shape and their dark color which seem to request remaining fastened to the existing floor.

La cappella. Arialdo
La cappella. Arialdo
La cappella. Arialdo

A wooden cross, created by the artist Giorgio Vicentini, is placed on the wall behind the alter. In the tension and vibration of its shape it appears as an admirable summary of the honest and original auspices which the cross symbolize.


La cappella. Arialdo
La cappella. Arialdo


La cappella. Arialdo
La cappella. Arialdo
La cappella. Arialdo


La cappella. Arialdo
La cappella. Arialdo

Studio Duearchitetti
T +39 0332 482120
Studio Duearchitetti
Via Carlo De Cristoforis, 8, 21100 Varese VA, Italy