Chapel of NotreDame du Haut gatehouse and convent
(2 vote, 60.00% worth checking out) 
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Ronchamp
France
coordinates: 47.7044907,6.6205716
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Building names(s): Chapel of NotreDame du Haut gatehouse and convent
Architect/Designer: Renzo Piano
Images: add an image <== click Here
Completion date: 2011
function(s): convent, gatehouse
for more information including how to get here and admission cost see Chapel of Notre Dame Du Haut Ronchamp
construction cost: £9m including landscaping and site rehabilitation
monastery area: 1700 m²
gatehouse area: 450 m²
roofed area: 1386 m² (convent : 263 m² ; poor clares’ living area : 296 m² ; workshops : 120 m² ; oratory : 260 m² ; guest quarters: 443 m²)
Program/Scope of work::
design of a convent with its related functions; demolition of the existing gatehouse and construction of a new one; demolition of the existing parking lot to be replaced by a smaller, planted one; landscaping and overall rehabilitation of the site.
the convent:
living spaces: 12 cells and spaces for common living (1 common room; 1 refectory with annexed kitchen; 2 cells for the disabled; 1 infirmary)
guest quarter: a nondenominational space for hosting visitors made up of 8 cells + 1 cell for disabled; 1 dining room; 1 small meeting room
communal areas: 2 workshops (sewing rooms), 2 offices (12 m²), 3 parlors (10 m²), oratory for 35 people
the gatehouse:
areas open to public include: small meeting room, ticket office, refreshment corner, shop corner, bioclimatic winter garden, public restrooms administration: first aid room, office for researchers, archive (le corbusier’s work)
landscaping:
including: demolition of the existing parking lot replaced with a smaller planted parking lot, enhancement of the ancient path leading from ronchamp up to the chapel, requalification of the entire site (clearance, planting etc)
architectural drawings:
siteplan
gatehouse plan
convent plan – typical bedroom
convent section
1 comment/review
J Glancey review of the Renzo Piano designed Convent and Gatehouse at Ronchamp says:
Sep 29, 2011
…… Piano has made a great improvement to the hilltop site. A grim concrete visitors’ centre that had lurked between car park and chapel has been demolished. A new visitors’ centre, dug into the hill, forms the base of the convent. There is a bookshop and a gallery behind a welcoming zinc-and-glass facade; in winter, a roaring log fire set behind a glass screen will greet those who have battled with snow and fog to get here.
Above is the convent proper. This wraps itself around contours of the hill, burrowing into the landscape like the strands of a rosary pressed gently into the earth. The strings of the rosary are the convent’s corridors; its beads are the rooms leading off them. The crucifix at its centre is the chapel, the Oratory.
On one side of a simple central entrance, a long corridor lined with sweet-smelling, floor-to-ceiling cedar cupboards leads to the nuns’ cells and living quarters. There is room for just 12 Poor Clares. Aside from their life of prayer and work, they will look after visitors seeking more than architecture and landscape can offer.
The cells are spare, calm and chastely beautiful. They are no more than 2.7 metres square, but have custom-designed timber furniture, warm orange walls, superb natural lighting and stirring views south and west to the valley below. The rooms are fronted by private winter gardens, glazed suntraps serving as architectural gaps, or pauses, between inner and outer worlds. (They will also help keep the cells warm in winter, cool in summer.)
Every light switch, every chair
The refectory is gathered around three sides of a courtyard, with glazed walls but open to the sky. It must be wonderful to eat here as the rain or snow falls. At the heart of the convent, the chapel’s concrete vault curves in two different planes, like the upturned hull of a boat (an image of the Church as a ship of souls), while a concealed slit in the chancel wall facing the hillside brings a halo of daylight into its deepest recesses. “Architecture,” as Le Corbusier said, “is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light.” Piano’s work here is quietly masterful, built around a minimal palette of concrete, timber and zinc; the fact that he and his team have designed and crafted every last detail, from chairs to light switches, within such a modest budget is a minor modern miracle. Buried into the hillside, the convent should prove cheap to heat and light. Deep bore holes bring warmth from the ground, while daylight is reflected through the building at every turn. It felt comfortable here on the intensely humid day I came to visit…..