© Mathew and Ghosh Architects

This small church is located in a run-down neighborhood where basic amenities are few. Although most of its present members are not from this neighborhood, it hopes to be a beacon in the area through its various outreach programs. Notions of the neighborhood are undefined around the site and amorphous in the adhoc growth of Bangalore, India. As largely characterless entities, the public perception of the neighborhood is limited and seen only as proximities and distances to trivia.

© Mathew and Ghosh Architects
© Mathew and Ghosh Architects

This local church primarily presents itself as a self-contained form, whose street facades seem to reconstruct the cuboid. On the street, juxtaposed against this form is the plinth of negotiations-the street platform. This is not a street deck (where one is the spectator) but a place of dialogue, shorn of boundary walls. This space stretches from the outside to the atrium on the inside. Other than this gesture, the building does not make any direct references to its immediate context, preferring instead to establish a more abstract configuration.

The sanctuary is lifted off the street level and its sloping slab sits on exposed concrete columns. The lower space opens up completely as pivoted door fins onto the two street sides. Movement up to the sanctuary is a slow and discontinuous movement defined by the irregular steps of the street platform. As one turns to the main door, one is on axis with the last flight of steps leading to the sanctuary. Now, what was perceived as a cuboid on the outside transforms into a series of shifting planes (a solid form sculpted from the inside), which together with the gently stepped floor leads to the space of the altar.