Praise be to architecture Holy architecture?the Vatican City?s first ever exhibition for the Venice Architecture Biennale is now open. The Holy See?s pavilion, appropriately named Vatican Chapels, showcases a series of 10 chapels designed by architects from around the world, including Norman Foster, Eduardo Souto de Moura, and Andrew Berman.

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Norman Foster?s chapel.

The experimental chapels sit outside of Venice on the wooded island of San Giorgio Maggiore. The brief asked architects to reinterpret the Woodland Chapel, a geometric structure designed by the Swedish architect Erik Gunnar Asplund?s Woodland Chapel in the early 20th century. Naturally, the 10 architects each had their own take.
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Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores?s chapel

Norman Foster designed an angular, open air chapel built from wooden slats, while Spanish architects Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores created a terra-cotta hued adobe structure that invites visitors into a warm alcove.

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Aerial shot of the chapels in forest.

Symbolically, each of the chapels represent one of the Ten Commandments. Practically, they take on even greater meaning: At the end of the Biennale, the structures will be dismantled and rebuilt in Italian towns that have been affected by devastating earthquakes.
Check out all of the designs here.
Via: ArchDaily

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