Santuario de San Antonio Parish Church
3117 McKinley Road, Forbes Park, Makati
Structural Engineer: MACRO
Structural Engineer: MACRO
Completed April 2021
A two-story Annex wraps around three sides of the existing Crypt 3 building of the Santuario de San Antonio Parish Church compound. The Annex consists of a corridor that is loaded on its two sides with banks of niches, organized along a series of arched frames. Clerestory perimeter windows bring natural daylight and ventilation into the Annex, and indirectly into the original Crypt 3 building. The project is therefore not just about creating additional new niches, but also about improving the natural cross-ventilation of the existing building.
There was an earlier idea to locate the new crypts elsewhere on the parish compound, at the Multi Purpose Chapels, but we proposed that the most efficient and least obtrusive way to garner additional niches was to attach them to the existing Crypt 3. The Annex is simply the offset of the old Crypt 3’s exterior facade by a distance of about three meters. Within that offset, one finds a one-and-a-half-meter wide corridor lined on both sides by columbarium niches that are about 60 centimeters deep.
The niches along the inner side of the corridor are attached to what was the exterior facade of the old Crypt 3 building. The windows of that old facade expanded to become new doorways.
The reinforced concrete roof slab tucks under the original Cyrpt 3 roof eave as it extends 65 centimeters beyond the face of the new exterior facade with its own eaves protecting the windows below from sun and rain.
The main entrance of the existing building remains as the main entrance for the Annex. The existing semi-circular arch pediment at the roof-line generates the new semi-circular balcony on the second floor below, which in turn serves as an entrance canopy of the main entrance below that.
The semi-circular main entrance canopy inspires the quarter-circle of the northwest corner as well as the three-quarter circle drum at the northeast corner.
The vertical bands that march in equal spacing across the exterior facade are actually the outer edge of an interior precast arch. These precast arches march down the corridor separating the columns of columbarium niches on either side of the corridor. The repetition of these precast arches creates the illusion of a vaulted ceiling. That illusion is interrupted where an actual and not illusory vaulted ceiling is required. This occurs when the inner side of the corridor has no niches but instead has an opening - typically an old window expanded to become a new doorway - that connects the new annex to the old building. The result is a precast vaulted ceiling, typically three bays, that celebrates the encounter between new and old, as well as the new influx of natural ventilation.
This encounter between new and old is celebrated in other ways. A 6-millimeter brass circle is laid in the terrazzo floor under each precast vaulted ceiling.
Six-millimeter brass inlay in the floor is also used to mark important axis lines, as well as to border the corridor floor. Between the brass-edged border of the corridor floor and the vertical face of the walls is a floor depression that is about five inches wide and acts as a separation between floor and wall, horizontal and vertical, living and the dead, as well as serves the pragmatic maintenance purpose of a canal.
Between the vertical bands and above each niche column is an arch window which is deep enough to keep out the rain.
The iconic image from Assisi of the Basilica resting on a base of the repeating vertical arches of the monastery serves as a reference for our project in terms of the visual hierarchy of the Crypt 3 Annex in relation to the church building of Santuario de San Antonio. In addition, the Assisi image is also a basis for how the columbarium niches are organized in a series of repeating arches.
On the ground floor, in the northeast corner, the windows above the columbarium niches are in the shape of the cross of San Damiano, the church near Assisi where Francis heard the command to "go and rebuild my church." Franciscan imagery will also be present in the arched windows that will flank the main entrance door; the grill-work of both windows will be in the T-shape of the Tau cross, which is important to the Franciscans.
Image of Assisi from Wikipedia
At the front facade, the semi-circular arch pediment at the existing roof-line generates the new
semi-circular balcony on the second floor below, which in turn serves
as an entrance canopy of the main entrance at ground level.
Main entrance at front facade, to be completed with new arched windows that will flank the new main entrance gate; the grill-work of both windows will be in the T-shape of the Franciscan Tau cross.
Front facade with a distant view of the roof of the church sanctuary
Front facade
Northwest corner
Secondary entrance at Northwest corner will have a grill gate and metal canopy.
North facade extending from Northeast corner drum at left to Northwest corner at right.
North facade
Northeast corner drum, next to the parish's outdoor stations of the cross
Northeast corner drum, next to the existing statue of the good thief Dismas who said "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
East facade and Northeast corner drum
East facade
East facade
First Floor corridor, West wing, showing the typical detail of white precast arches and posts separating columns of columbarium niches. Connections between the new annex and the old building take place at openings that were previously windows and now enlarged into door openings. The terrazzo floor marks these junctures with brass strip circles.
First Floor corridor, North wing, looking towards San Damiano cross apertures of Northeast corner drum. The Annex is composed of a corridor lined on both sides by columbarium niches that are about 60
centimeters deep
Second Floor corridor
Second Floor corridor
2nd Floor corridor West wing towards Balcony
2nd Floor corridor West wing Balcony area, with existing window at left to be converted to door opening as soon as possible, as called for in the architectural drawings and as part of the role of the Crypt 3 Annex project to bring natural ventilation to the original Crypt 3 building.
2nd Floor corridor East wing at right; existing window at left to be converted to door opening
What used to be windows
of Crypt 3 become door openings that bring natural light and
ventilation from the Annex to the original Crypt 3.
What used to be windows
of Crypt 3 become door openings that bring natural light and
ventilation from the Annex to the original Crypt 3, seen here with its elaborate wrought iron guard rail.
What used to be windows of Crypt 3 become doorways that bring natural light and ventilation from the Annex to the original Crypt 3.
A precast vaulted ceiling spans three bays to express the
encounter between new and old, as well as the increase of natural
ventilation.
At 2nd Floor, looking toward northwest balcony corner from inside the original Crypt 3
February 2021 Google Earth view of site
Walk-through video of proposed design
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