Laudato Si’ Garden – The Living Chapel
An open-air garden chapel designs for the celebrations of the Special Year Laudato Si’
“Laudato Si’ Garden – The Living Chapel” a sacred space inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis and the goals for Sustainable Development of the United Nations and that wanted to launch a message of reconciliation between man and nature.
The project involves the seven municipalities of the Parco del Delta Po, located in the territory of Rosolina, precisely in Porto Caleri. The event, wanted by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, wants to be an example of human development respectful of “our Common House” (Encyclical “Laudato Si”).
The message of the installation is about the need to reconnect with nature, for this reason anthropic elements have been chosen to complement the native vegetation.The concept of the installation was born from the suggestion of two symbolic elements: nature and light; in fact, the chapel is made of a light structure of thin poles, supporting a ring of suspended light, symbolizing the light of the world and the metaphorical circle of “Sora madre Terra” that dematerializes the divisions between built and nature. Below a wooden platform evokes the Cansiglio forest, an ancient forest from which the timber for the ships of the Serenissima was made. This element also wants to resume a contemporary ecological message to give a new life to the wood of the trees felled by the Vaia storm.
The chapel, on the afternoon of Sunday, October 4, 2020 (date of the inauguration of the installation), was the setting for an opera music show, intended as an expression of the importance of art and celebration of biodiversity represented by an inclusive model of ecological development.
Type: Installation
Customer: Department for the Integral Human Development Service and Municipalities of the Po River Delta Park
Project: Mario Cucinella Architects
Project team: Antonella Di Luca, Paolo Greco, Elena Biason (MC A); Artemide (definition and realization of the light scenography); Gi Planet Group (ingeneration);
Production and assembly: Municipality of Rosolina
Visual: Mario Cucinella Architects
Photo credit: Federico Villa, Luca Pavanello
