Niijima Chapel

Niijima Chapel, Niijima Junior College The Chapel is named after Joe Niijima. Joe Niijima is a missionary who introduced Protestant Christianity after Japan’s two centuries long national isolation. During his years serving as a missionary, Joe Niijima founded Doshisha English school which later became Doshisha University. Niijima Gakuen Junior and Senior High School was later founded in honor of Joe Niijima. These schools can be referred to as the seeds which Joe Niijima planted that grew into a forest. In a metaphorical sense, the design of the walls encapsulating Niijima Chapel derived from the idea of the forest. The existence of this forest could be biblically referred to as the Garden of Eden. The design of the walls took almost a year in order to carefully carve out the imagery of the imaginary “forest”. Light penetrates into the space through the permeable dotted screens which blurs the boundary between the real and the imaginary. The real world is enveloped and slowly disappears into the forest of light. The plan of the chapel consists of a nave and aisle layout as seen in traditional chapels. The design of the nave creates depth within the inner chapel through its Vierendeel structural system. Made out of genuine timber, small angled braces are situated randomly within the structural grid which acts as a soft mesh structure in order to absorb and dissipate vibrations during an earthquake. It is rather uncommon for an architect to ornament the walls just as how a painter paints a canvas in recent years. However, ornaments used to play an important role as a form of cultural expression. In this sense, there should not be a differentiation between an architect and an artist. Therefore, Niijima Chapel is an attempt to revitalize this lost methodology in Architecture.