New Taipei City, Taiwan
Open Heaven is a light-filled worship space for the Evangelize China Fellowship Church in a rural coastal district in northern New Taipei City, Taiwan by Joshua J. Pan and Jong-Yu Cheng and their design team from JJP Architects and Planners.
For its inspired design, Open Heaven has recently been awarded a 2022 International Architecture Awards Honorable Mention by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The project is part of a long-term elderly care village planned by of the Evangelize China Fellowship.
The overall campus incorporates three different programs with the church as the kernel building of the whole complex.
In consideration of the elderly users, the first and the second floor are designated for public areas, such as activity rooms, restaurants, shops, and gymnasiums.
The site plan also incorporates various age-friendly pocket spaces despite its narrow shape.
Situated on a 1,500-square-meter plaza between two dormitories, the building program consists of a church that doubles as a multi-use hall for the elderly care center.
Architecturally, the interior spaces are composed of three hyperbolical solid shells that naturally form two voids enclosed by fully transparent glass.
Specifically, two primary shells compose the main chapel on the second floor and the multi-use hall at the ground level.
A secondary shell is offset from the main shell to create a lobby that integrates the vertical circulation between the hall, the chapel, and underground parking.
Horizontally, the church is bisected by a double-height glass corridor that connects the entrance lobby and administration center on the ground floor, and assembly halls, recreational facilities, and panoramic outdoor terraces on the second floor.
The warm wooden interiors are deliberately homogenous in order to emphasize the primacy of light and create a humble and meditative place of worship.
On the façade, steel-framed shells are clad with diamond-shaped overlapping aluminum panels with a depth of four centimeters each.
This depth intensifies the effect of sunlight on the curved facades and produces a rhythm that mimics the nearby sea.
Inspired by a biblical passage—Matthew 3:16—the curvature of the gaps at the top of the shells follows the sun’s path to allow maximum natural light to penetrate into the interiors throughout the day, thereby producing a tangible manifestation of the “open heavens” imagery.
The audio and lighting components are mounted onto two suspended curves that mimic the flight patterns of a dove.
The omnipresence of light fills the interiors with an aura of spirituality as it washes across the curved walls.
Project: Open Heaven / Evangelize China Fellowship Church
Architects: JJP Architects and Planners
Lead Architects: Joshua J. Pan and Jong-Yu Cheng
Design Team Chung-Tsai Huang, Steven B. J. Chen, Yuan-Pin Weng, Guan-Liang Liou, Rafael Martinez, Chun-Chang Tsai, Zac J. Siao, Yu-Ting Lin, Shih-Fang Huang, and Chia-Ling Yang
Client: Evangelize China Fellowship Church
Photographs Courtesy of the Architects
