Our Lady of the Fields

Project Details

Project Description

In May 2015, Pope Francis published an encyclical titled “On Care for Our Common Home”, offering a new vision of ecology and the relationship of the Church with the creation. Pope Francis’ encyclical is an opportunity to find a new impulse in church design. A new church aesthetic and symbolism could accompany the renewal of the Catholic community.

I- Concept and Context

Our intent is threefold:
• Bring the believers’ community in close proximity with Nature: by inviting the garden into the church.
• Invite the community of believers to a journey: by using natural elements to symbolize the Passion of Christ, a cycle from life to death, and life again.
• Welcome the Other: the church, by using its green component, welcome others, and not only the community of believers.

The park of Dorchester Heights, in Dorchester (MA), was chosen for its centrality to its very religious neighborhood, and the vast space it provides for our project. The installation of the church on the site will revitalize the park and offer a strong center for the Catholic communal life in Dorchester.

II. Design

The church faces the south, the entrance stair is at the north. On its west side, two stairs bring people from the street to the park on the roof, which is at ground level. The roof of the building is landscaped with a park of trees and bushes. The paths meander in a dense nature, offering to the visitors an Eden Garden-like experience.

Sunk in the ground, the building is surrounded by a landscaped slope. Taking the entrance stairs at the back of the church, the visitor enters the church. There, he discovers the central perspective of the main altar, framed by 20 concrete piers.


At the same time, the light enters through the spaces left between the concrete piers, offering 16 curated views towards the outside. Each view uses both the landscape in the background and a strong iconography to evoke the Passion of Christ. The preciosity of the 14 Stations of the Cross, painted by Veronique Charpy, contrasts with the rough minerality of the church. Beyond the aesthetic intent, a deeper theological meaning: the presence of the divine (gold) in the mundane (concrete), the extraordinary present in the ordinary.

Throughout the day, the light moves from the first stations (east) to the last stations (west), following the cycle of the Passion of Christ. The landscape adapts accordingly: mineral paving for the first stations, vivid and green nature for last one. Beyond the didactic aim, a theological meaning: Christ rises and dies for us, symbolized by the daily cycle of the sun and “mineral to vegetal” gradation of the landscape.

Far from post-modernist architecture, Pope Francis might have open a new creation-centered path for christian building design.