Among other students at IIT we designed and built this baroque sculpture named The Iron Chapel.

The intent of the project was for students to explore the principles of the baroque era through the use of modern materials. The primary inspiration for the chapel was the dramatic lighting created by the architecture of the period. To achieve this drama in their structure the students built panels that they assembled into columns which connect at the top to create a triangular profile. The positions of the overlapping panels creates apertures that allow light to pass through the walls of the structure supplementing the light from the oculus in the above. The shifting perspective of the viewer gives the structure a life of its own. The use of carbon fiber allowed them to explore form, work with a singular material and have a lighter weight and therefore more manageable fabrication process.

Exposed on the McCormick Place in Chicago.
Professor: Alphonso Peluso