With hot summers and mild winters, this Arizona church set in the desert sands of southern America has a vibrant Mexican heritage and growing congregation. The architecture of the parish campus is modern Spanish revival but the interior of the church simply communicated modern without clear indication of Catholicism, save of course the large cross in the center. Remove the cross and the purpose of the structure is immediately lost. By collaborating with the clergy and building committees we are able to develop digital renderings of the proposed changes. Renderings are an excellent tool for visualizing the completed project and making strategic design changes. The intention of this project was not only to beautify but to establish a distinctly Catholic interior.
The purpose of decoration is to support and embellish the architecture. With that idea in mind, the whitewashed plaster substrate transformed into a sacred space with color and design. The earth tone palette gives a nod to the sunny Arizona landscape and the designs call to mind heritage of the community. Even the organ pipes, as a part of the sanctuary, are detailed in the same fashion as the rest of the interior. The importance of continuity throughout the structure is integral to the cohesive visual effect of the church.
The stain glass windows are abstract scenes of the life of Christ and the saints. The turquoise trim compliments the blue in the windows and symbolizes Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Mantel. The blue color offsets from the warm tones throughout the church and creates depth. The Stations of the Cross, in between the windows, seemed to float in space with no sense of permanency. The new design frames the Station and holds the image in space.
The light burst come from the Holy Spirit leads your eye down to the center of the sanctuary, the tabernacle. Christ should be the center and the light of our lives, in the new design for this church that idea is visually communicated in order to reaffirm the Faith we strive to live. The color and design of the new interior give the structure purpose. The space functions proportionally to what it intends to represent, a distinctly Catholic and sacred space.
