Marian Church

Can places of worship enhance our connections to the natural and the spiritual?

Alabang, Philippines
Competition

The design of Marian Church weaves the building into the surrounding environment, using the terrain to encourage people to gather and experience the sacred space as a community. The slopes flanking the Church form a natural amphitheater where people can come together to attend mass. This open-air amphitheater faces the interior garden, connecting the adoration chapel, sacristy, and priest quarters with the main congregational hall.

SOLITUDE AND TOGETHERNESS

People enter the Church from multiple points and move across the grounds, each following an individual journey that invites solitary contemplation and prepares them for communal worship in the congregation hall.

BUILDING ON TRADITION

The congregational hall’s vaulted ceiling references Gothic, Romanesque, and Renaissance traditions of sacred architecture. Natural light enters the Church through the clerestories between each vault.

  • SIZE: 42,464 SQF
  • PROJECT TEAM: Carlos Arnaiz, Jingjun Li, Laura del Pino, Jun Deng, Nutchanun Boontassaro
  • CLIENT: Filinvest Alabang Inc.