St Hilaire church by Mathieu Lehanneur

Tuesday 17 May 2011

St Hilaire by Mathieu Lehanneur; photo by Felipe Ribon


French designer Mathieu Lehanneur has renovated the choir of the St Hilaire, a church in Melle, France. Lehanneur has installed an undulating white marble floor, in-built baptistry and an altar and ambo made of coloured alabaster.

St Hilaire by Mathieu Lehanneur; photo by Felipe Ribon


Lehanneur describes the addition as: "A mineral presence justifying that the church was built there. Reflecting the extreme care paid to the telluric energy of stones and territories in the building of Romanesque churches, this place of worship would have been built on this specific area for the discernable energy that emanates from it."

St Hilaire by Mathieu Lehanneur; photo by Felipe Ribon


Lehanneur continues, "I imagine that when this ‘box’ was sunk into the ground as if pushed by an invisible, maybe divine hand, it revealed the geology of it, the visible aspect of a mineral and massive form: a revelation which seems anterior, and not posterior, to the construction of the church."

St Hilaire by Mathieu Lehanneur; photo by Felipe Ribon


For more, WGSN-homebuildlife subscribers can read our report, Design for the afterlife.

St Hilaire by Mathieu Lehanneur; photo by Felipe Ribon
St Hilaire by Mathieu Lehanneur; photo by Felipe Ribon