Rukomo Chapel

A project for a chapel on a mountaintop plateau in northern Rwanda. The site is littered with conifers and consists of an existing cloister housing local ‘Clare’ nuns. The response was to design a pilgrimage chapel that was representative of Christ in nature, with formal references to Asplund’s Woodland Chapel. As an addition to the brief, a ‘Calling Tower’ was proposed, crowned with an illuminated cross. The tower works both as a radio mast from which church messages and readings are broadcast to far away villages, and as a visual sign guiding the approaching pilgrim to their destination.