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Santuario de La Salle is a new, inclusive religious space nestled within a larger campus masterplan the studio also created for De La Salle University in Biñan City. A departure from the traditional form and spatial order of a church, CAZA conceived Santuario de La Salle as a union of several volumes to create a form that is refreshingly new and unexpected. An aggregation of different shapes offers a spatial experience that is more than the sum of its parts, much like individuals coming together to create a community bound by faith and common mission.
In a bustling university campus, Santuario de La Salle allows people to connect with their personal faith, their religious community, and with nature itself. It weaves together culture and ecology, offering congregants a different idea of spiritual inclusiveness.
The rhythmic outer skin of the building encloses a semi-outdoor space that helps transition worshipers from the bustling university environment into quiet, sacred areas. Circular rooms link together within a porous ambulatory area, creating pockets for liturgical functions that vary in spatial constraints and degrees of formality. The placement of columns and their width are architectural representations of self-discovering bodies walking through space.
The chapel is designed to take individuals and make them part of a larger, connected group, its spatial journey giving physical form to the idea of participating in a community of faith as an individual. Inside the church, fourteen separate doors, a reminder of mortal individuals losing and finding themselves in this world on their singular journey towards enlightenment, lead worshippers to a double-height central core. This drum-like congregation space has a celestial tilted ceiling with an arc similar to the orbit of planets and the moon, further emphasizing the connection between the individual, the sacred atmosphere, and nature. The lighting is designed to be almost star-like, with pendants hanging weightlessly from the ceiling like little dots of light. A long clearstory window, like the light of a star, evokes the experience of looking up at the light in the history of church design. This space signifies that we are all celestial beings in an incomprehensibly vast universe.
"Santuario de La Salle is a gift of the Lasallian Family to the Church on the occasion of the 500thanniversary of Catholicism in the Philippines. De La Salle University is blessed to partner with Arch. Carlos Arnaiz and the rest of CAZA for this landmark project. Their skill and artistry translated our highest hopes into a significant and meaningful edifice".
Carlos Arnaiz is the founder and principal of CAZA, a Brooklyn-based design studio and think tank that operates offices in Peru, Colombia, and the Philippines. CAZA specializes in creating concept-driven environments, buildings, and urban plans that shape meaningful experiences, enhance their context, connect people to their heritage, and promote sustainability.
Carlos has a diverse range of professional experience in designing and constructing large-scale mixed-use complexes, as well as developing strategic sustainability plans for new cities worldwide. His work has earned him multiple accolades, including two consecutive Progressive Architecture awards in 2008 and 2009 and the AIANY building merit award in 2008. Carlos has also been featured in ARCHITECT Magazine, Metropolis, Kerb, Dialogue, and 50UNDER50, and his work has been recognized as a Finalist for ArchDaily's Best Buildings of the Year and Architizer A+ Awards.
