COPTIC CHURCH AND YOUTH CENTER

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Designed for an upstate New York congregation, this church and youth center complex is organized around a circular garden. The church represents the spiritual half, and the youth center the temporal half; together, they symbolically and physically complete the whole and define the center garden. As a reference to historical Coptic paintings and architecture, the sacred space of the garden is protected not only by the surrounding buildings but also by an implied overhead dome – suggested by the forms of the dome-like church walls and completed by the sky and stars.

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The arrival sequence is intentionally measured and contemplative. Entering the site, visitors first cross a stream over a bridge, leaving the bustle of everyday life behind. They circle around and then approach the church through several layers of enclosed spaces designed to slow down movement and refocus the mind. They then emerge into the nave as the space opens up to the garden and the dome of the sky above. The glass, ribbed roof – symbolizing the body of Christ – draws their gaze upwards toward heaven.