Church in Playa Granada, Motril

About

On Granada's Costa Tropical, south of Sierra Nevada and very close to the sea, a slender tower heralds the presence of a new church, a simple concrete piece, close and accessible, rising amid the trees of an open garden. Faced with the challenge of building a space for gathering that evokes transcendence, the decision here is to not do anything new but resort to the tradition of the first Christian temples. Architecture is put at the service of liturgy integrating the elements that configure the complex: atrium of access, baptistry with octagonal pile, crypt, presbytery, bell tower, and choir. A svelte tower makes the new church visible from afar. The building’s design was determined by a series of factors, such as the proximity of the sea, the sloping site, and the low-rise houses around it. The project takes a series of conditions as point of departure: the topography, with a slope that gives access to the nave from the park level at the west, and from the east to the crypt that functions as a base; the high water table, which determines the floor level; the urban planning regulations, which limited the height to eight meters to avoid surpassing the two-story houses around it; the proximity of the sea and its aggressive effects on steel; the importance of acoustics for the building’s use...

Sources

• Arquitectura Viva