Our religious building project “La Ascensión del Señor” Church, located in Seville, Spain, has been recognized with the First Prize at the World Architecture Festival (WAF) in the Completed Buildings, Religious category, in which it has competed against other four finalists from the Netherlands, Israel and Singapore.

The architectural proposal designed by AGi architects for this Catholic Church, that is integrated into a newly established residential area in Seville, has been led by Spanish architects Joaquin Perez-Goicoechea and Salvador Cejudo. The work was completed and blessed in September 2013, being part of the planned facilities for the area.

AGi architects, an international design firm based inSpain and Kuwait and led by Joaquin Perez-Goicoeceha and Nasser Abulhasan,will present again “La Ascensión del Señor” Church to the WAF Jury next Friday, October 3, competing now for the coveted World Building of the Year award, the same that will do the rest of category winners, that will be announced during these days.

“We are very pleased to have succeeded in conveying the values ​​of our project to the jury, those which have inspired us to develop a contemporary religious building designed from economical saving and sustainability premises, a simple and efficient building providing the neighborhood with a landmark. Our goal has been to devise a church that is very close to the community, creating a meeting and fraternization place in order to develop both spiritual and welfare tasks”, said Joaquin Perez-Goicoechea, co-founding partner of the firm and who presented the project in Singapore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the fourth WAF Award for AGi architects after receiving previous Future Projects awards in past editions.

“La Ascensión del Señor” Church

The project is the result of the competition organized by the Archdiocese of Seville in 2010. AGi architects’ proposal arises from the reflection not only of the importance of the quality of religious architectural space for the development of the liturgy, but the ability of these representative spaces to change society.

This building proposed by AGi architects means the completion of the Parish Center started now fifteen years ago and its empowerment as focus of community activity for a neighborhood in which more than 2,500 apartments have been recently built to house around 7,000 people, therefore increasing the existing population to reach a figure close to 20,000 inhabitants. The new building has an area of approximately 1,000 sqm including the main worship spaces and auxiliary facilities, to make final complex reach a total area of ​​2,000 sqm.

The project aims at strengthening the Parish Center as a meeting and fraternization place, in order to develop spiritual and welfare tasks, enabling the participation of different role players in the neighborhood around a community regeneration objective. The project is also extremely sensitive to the current economic circumstances, so we have resorted to materials and construction techniques chosen by economical saving and sustainability premises.

The spatial scheme of the building is structured through three different qualifying voids: the large central courtyard that belongs to the first phase of the Parish Center, which now articulates the relationships between worship spaces and the rest of facilities. Its stone surface is prolonged inwards to enter the main space of the church and, bending towards the walls, creates a huge vessel that houses the congregation of believers. There are other two smaller scale courtyards, one of them linked to the area of the baptismal font, the other to the penitential chapel and sacristy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Due to security reasons, the nature of shelter and interaction inherent to the project are only revealed to the outside in the main entrance that plays a relevant role as an open attraction space to welcome and invite users inside. The shape of the roof, which unfolds freely to cover the assembly space by joining various inclined planes, allows the introduction of natural light inside, to achieve a clear qualification of the different areas needed to comply with liturgy requirements.

World Architecture Festival

World Architecture Festival is the world’s largest festival and live awards competition dedicated to celebrating and sharing architectural excellence from across the globe.

This year’s ‘super jury’ comprises a selection of the world’s leading architects and designers, led by renowned British architect Lord Richard Rogers. Rogers will be joined on the superjury by Rocco Yim (Hong Kong), Julie Eizenberg (USA), Enric Ruiz Geli (Spain) and Peter Rich (South Africa).

The theme for WAF’s main conference sessions in 2014 will be ‘Architects and the City’. Speakers will examine the contribution architects can make, and the way they affect and are affected by, politics, infrastructure, planning, communities and technology.

The seventh edition of the Festival is being held in Singapore between 1-3 October.

For further information:

• “La Ascensión del Señor” Church.
• World Architecture Festival.