Chappel for Ležáky memorial area
competition 2011
client: Památník Lidice
The chapel should be part of doomed village Ležáky, but it shouldn´t be dominant. Most powerful impression is made now by individual grave houses. The chapel should be place to stop and remember the fate of the villagers. Chapel should be dignified, but modest and its forms should represent its purpose.
We placed the chapel into the forest over one of the last houses, by pathway leading up the hill. Pathway and place in front of the chapel are deliberately unpaved as it is traditional of front of rural chapel.
Stone mass with square footprint 4,5 x 4,5m is covered by pyramid roof finished with cross on the top. There are only two openings in the walls – entrance door with massive wooden wing and cross-shaped window, covered by single glass pane.
Interior of the chapel reflects its exterior form. Equipment is simple, there is one piece granite altar, one piece wooden benches and two glazed, timber clad columbaria. Cross-shaped window is dominant in the interior; it brings light inside and creates a view back to Ležáky.
The whole chapel is made of massive granite blocks. At the top of vertical walls the building will be locked by hidden steel rods. Cross foot works as arch keystone of the roof.