Forms of Inquiry

I will remember my visit to Notre Dame du Haut for the rest of my life.

Although we planned this trip with the specific intention of visiting the chapel at Ronchamp, our first sight of the building atop the hill still came as a huge surprise.

Architectural decisions such as the plan, the composition of space, the roof, the influx of light, the use of materials and colour — all have an original solution in this building. At the same time functional things, such as drainage and shelter, are considered in the same way.

You get the feeling that each element of the building has been considered in relation to the others, and solved in a unique way. Architectural conventions are questioned simply by the fact that they appear not to be there — but they are. From my own viewpoint as a typographer I was struck by the way the openings in the walls are ordered in different sizes. It seems not to be ordered according to any grid or rigid system, as is usual in architecture (and typography). It is more a sculpture with a completely autonomous and utopian character — playful but at the same time strict and erudite.

For me, the chapel is the ultimate symbol of free and independent thinking.

Inquiry

Notre Dame du Haut Ronchamp