Architects: Nicolás Campodonico.
Location: La Playosa, Córdoba, Argentina.
Year: 2015.
Photographs: Courtesy of Nicolás Campodónico.
Named after the area’s patron saint, the San Bernardo Chapel is situated on a tiny hill of trees in the Pampean plain to the east of the province of Córdoba. The chapel was constructed using bricks reused from a rural home and its corrals had been demolished for construction purposes. The location lacks running water, electricity, or any other form of utility; nature imposes its limitations. The chapel’s volume opens towards the setting sun at the line separating the grove from the open field, letting the evening’s ambient light illuminate the interior area. A vertical stick and a horizontal stick are positioned separately on the exterior of it and are aimed inward. As a result, every day of the year, the logs’ shadows move down the chapel’s curving interior, eventually crossing one another’s paths. Today, we are aware that Jesus Christ only walked to Golgotha while carrying the crossbar on his back. The concept of the crucifixion is defined by how the two pieces of wood come together to form the cross. The shadows of the sticks travel the appropriate route independently daily, following the “Via Crucis” until they eventually come together to create the cross. This cross is no longer symbolic but a ritual in nature, where the passion from the sun is reenacted day, engaging a cosmic dimension.
