Saint Colomban Church and parish complex
Date :
2016
Place :Paris
Client :Val d’Europe - EPA
Project :Jean Marc Schivo & Lucilla Revelli
Parish complex “Val d’Europe”
The municipality of Val d’Europe, closely connected to Disneyland Paris Park, will soon have to build a parish complex dedicated to Saint Columbanus, a missionary monk and Celtic evangelizer, known for having founded numerous monasteries and churches in Europe as abbot.
To commemorate his life and works, the complex was oriented along an ideal axis that connects Bangor Abbey in Ireland, from where he started, and Bobbio Abbey in Italy where he is buried.
Located in a major urban hub and divided into three levels, it is equipped with a church, a series of important school facilities requested by the Diocese and equipped spaces for the community.
The structures of the church’s sails, landscape elements that compete for height with the emergencies of the Disneyland Paris park, enclose and support the large stained-glass window of the apes, conveying its message visible from a great distance.
The theme of the medieval cloister “Ortus Conclus”, a representation of geometric and cosmogonic balance, is reinterpreted here, giving rise to the creation of an internal park around which are positioned classrooms, school complex infrastructure, meeting rooms, gyms, a canteen and accommodation for pensioners.
The gardens thus become the protagonists of a great space for reflection, but also for play, socialization and openness towards the neighbourhood.
Around this vertical element, continuously modified by light, are placed two altars, one internal and the other external, surrounded by an artificial lake.
The church overlooks, on one side, an urban park, connected to the Disney Park hotels by a pedestrian path, and, on the other, the parish and school complex equipped with gyms and event rooms.
The large glass window acts as a filter between the internal and external worlds.
