Journey of Ascension

The Christian Study Center is a center to bring faith back into academic spaces. It is a place for the sacred to meet the secular, and for a unique interaction between the two. This center focuses on how the sacred space of chapel meets the secular university campus, and how to create a space for pre-gospel witness through community and relationships. The chapel is given hierarchy as the sacred space through vertical emphasis, sitting atop the hill, but the forms of the chapel begin to spiral down to cover the central courtyard. This demonstrates the importance of the courtyard as a transcendent space where relationships can be built. The program encompasses the building, pulling the user inward toward that courtyard. Little pockets of space provide intimate zones for connection, mimicking the chapel’s form to suggest transcendence not only in the chapel but in the entire program of the study center.