CITY OF SPIRITS: Bringing spiritism and architecture together 
Author: Rafaella Campos / Advisors: Ana Rolim and Robson Canuto
Catholic University of Pernambuco (UNICAP), Brazil

Winner of Faith & Form/IFRAA Awards program for Religious Art and Architecture, student category award.

The North American magazine Faith & Form and the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA) awarded 28 religious architecture projects in 2016, classified into 10 categories. Rafaela Paes, a student from the Catholic University of Pernambuco (UNICAP), won the student category with her project "City of Spirits," guided by professors Ana Luisa Oliveira Rolim and Robson Canuto. The project aimed to adapt the facilities of the Spiritist Federation of Pernambuco to its growing public and explore the relationship between architecture and the divine.

 

To create the temple's atmosphere, the project focused on phenomenology, examining the interplay between human experience and space. Light was central to this approach, as defocusing our vision allows us to perceive only light and shadow, sharpening our senses and facilitating reflection. The building was designed to dematerialize as it ascended, symbolizing intellectual and moral development. Luminescent effects, such as crystal veils and atomization, were employed to accentuate this vertical evolution, culminating in a sensorial observatory at the tower's peak. This process symbolized the transformation from materialistic to spiritual, both in man and in the building itself.

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The project was featured on Faith & Form magazine and Archdaily.

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