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IIT Students’ Field Chapel is a Silent, Simple Sentry

The Field Chapel in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany was designed and built by students from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago, the same architecture school founded by Germany native and Modernist giant Mies van der Rohe. Image courtesy of Brigida Gonzalez, Stuttgart.

A modest, simple wood structure under a vast horizon, the rolling plains of this part of southwestern Germany are not unlike the American Midwest that surrounds Chicago, where Mies refined his landmark theories on structural expression and formal succinctness. Image courtesy of Fritz Krippner, Buchen.

The chapel was the product of a partnership between IIT architecture professor Frank Flury and 12 students with IIT grad Dea Ecker, who introduced the students to the projects’ client, according to <em>IIT Magazine</em>. Image courtesy of Brigida Gonzalez, Stuttgart.

The students began designing the structure in 2009. Image courtesy of Brigida Gonzalez, Stuttgart.

The chapel is made entirely from locally-sourced wood. It’s built on a hill and is accessible only by foot or bicycle. Image courtesy of Brigida Gonzalez, Stuttgart.

The Field Chapel recently won an AIA Chicago Honor Award. Image courtesy of Brigida Gonzalez, Stuttgart.

Light filters down into the sanctuary, through horizontal wood slats. Image courtesy of Brigida Gonzalez, Stuttgart.

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