Field Chapel in Boedigheim, Germany is the product of the design-build studio at the students of Illinois Institute of Technology and Germany-based architectural firm Ecker Architekten.
The nine meter high chapel tower, as seen from the exterior, appears diaphanous and permeable. Louvers cladding the upper portion of the tower are mounted incrementally further from one another as they rise in relation to the solid, enveloping base. This calibration of enclosure makes the tower appear to be expanding in height, and results in a remarkable play of light and shadow as one moves around the building.
This openness, however, is not perceptible from the interior of the chapel. From inside, the distance between the louvers appears to be identical, collapsing the perspective space. The volume of the tower appears to be one that is completely closed - an introverted space of reflection and silence, occupied only by an ever-changing body of light. The distortion of perspective transforms the volume into an abstract body that is simultaneously intimate and limitless.
