Church of St Mary of the Angels

Last Sunday I spent an hour or so at the St Mary Church (at Bukit Batok if you are interested) by Woha. I was glad to have Alex and Tiang Soon with me to give me some valuable pointers. I think Im really clueless when it comes to appreciating good architecture. Almost everything seems good to me, especially if the architect is a high profile one. I simply enjoy learning. I can never teach.

But seriously, this church is good. It was presented with President's Design Award in 2006. I guess the play of light and shadow and natural ventilation is something to learn, especially for me now being in the environmental core.



The chapel in the background had a brilliant play of light and shadow. Check out the following pictures!


From the outside, I asked Alex why are there deliberate slits in the facade... and we thought it was just.. "pattern"! Nevertheless fanciful shadows were cast on to the exterior walls.


We entered the chapel to see what the slits were all about. WOW. It was the 10am sun and we deduced that the shadows will be cast at different parts of the chapel at different times of the day when you view from inside. WOW.


See? at 10am the other sides of the cuboid volume chapel didnt have the shadows.


We took this photo during their Mass interval.


Instead of hanging the lights down from the ~20m high ceiling, the architects decided to shine the lights onto a canvas and reflect it to the floor from merely ~3.5m high? Another efficient use of energy here, not to mention the use of skylight at the periphery of the Church.





The entire columbarium was lited using skylight. Above it is a plaza with some landscaping towards the entrance.



my favourite photos of the day :)


I started my journey there at 8.45am, left the Chuch for Bras Basah at 11.30am and rushed home for Yoga at 1pm. Note to myself, a short span of 5 hours can get many things done if one is disciplined enough. No more excuses, Yut!


I was pretty happy with myself that Sunday :)