30/09/2026
How Do We Pray in the Rain?
Engraved Chapel, Peloponnese (2026)
Engraved Chapel is a study for a small space of prayer and contemplation within a dense pine forest in the Peloponnese. The project is situated on a steep rocky slope and forms a minimal architectural intervention in direct relation to the ground, the rain, the shade, the wind, and the humidity of the forest.
The proposal is organized through five stone walls, arranged in a spiral configuration. These walls enclose a sequence of descending steps and define the movement from the upper level of the slope toward the lower space of prayer. The inclination of the ground becomes an architectural structure: it generates a perimeter stone boundary that surrounds the descending body and gradually limits the direct visual connection with the landscape. Prayer is thus placed within a condition of concentration, where movement, pause, and descent form a single spatial experience.
The project remains open to the sky. The first protection from sun and rain is provided by the pine forest itself, which acts as a natural filter of light, shade, and humidity. Within this condition, rain acquires a structural presence. It follows the inclination of the ground, moves across the stone, and becomes visible through the drainage channels at the edges of the steps. Water runoff is both part of the constructive logic of the project and an element of its bodily perception.
Over time, the weathered steel will leave marks on the stone walls, recording the path of water. The chapel will slowly change through its exposure to the weather, carrying the traces of rain as part of its materiality and of the memory of the place.
At the end of the descent, a narrow cut passes through the stone boundary that encloses the body and opens a controlled view toward the sea. Through this minimal opening, water reappears as horizon: as a point of orientation for the body and as a connection between prayer and the wider world.