Gatehouse and Monastery, Ronchamp

About

Designed by Le Corbusier, the Chapel of Notre-Dame du Haut draws thousands of visitors and religious pilgrims every year. The project focuses on bringing the site back to a more contemplative and spiritual dimension with the settlement of a community of Poor Clare nuns in the premises of the hill. The scope of the project is to create a peaceful environment, whose quiet and discreet beauty highlights and complements the chapel, while at the same time enhancing existing facilities for visitors’ reception. Immersed in the lush vegetation of the Bourlemont hill, the monastery is a place “of silence, prayer, peace, and joy,” where everything contributes to spiritual contemplation. The project includes three main items: the gatehouse, the nunnery, and the landscape. In order to enhance the existing visitors’ facilities, the original gatehouse has been replaced with a new more functional building that houses a ticket office, corner shop, bioclimatic garden and a meeting room, along with administrative spaces. Part of the building is also dedicated to the research and conservation of the archives.Cut into the slope of the hill the new gatehouse merges within the surrounding landscape. It features a large glazed facade that opens to the visitors arrival area and parking.

Sources

• Arquitectura Viva