Zumthor | Field Chapel: A Triangular Steel Door

A rough, pentagonal concrete volume in the middle of a field, its only opening a narrow, tall triangular steel door. The door surface is untreated, rusted steel, opening on a pivot, almost flush with the wall when closed. The concrete's exterior surface shows horizontal bands left by layered pouring, rough like rammed earth. Upon pushing the door open, the interior reveals a cavity left after a formwork of over a hundred stacked spruce logs was burned away, with walls of charred, irregular tree trunk imprints, and a teardrop-shaped opening at the top allowing the sky and rain to enter. Shot from the field during the day, with the volume isolated and the door as the sole fissure. Avoid: changing the door to rectangular, adding door frames and hardware, smooth concrete surface, adding a roof at the top.

Translated from Chinese by AI.

田野中央一座粗糙的五邊形混凝土量體,唯一的開口是一扇窄而高的三角形鋼門,表面為未經處理的鏽蝕鋼,以樞軸開啟,關上時幾乎與牆面齊平。混凝土的外表面帶著分層澆置留下的水平帶,粗糙如夯土。推門進去之後,內部是一個由一百多根雲杉原木堆成的模板燒掉後留下的空腔,牆面為焦黑而不規則的樹幹壓痕,頂端敞開一個水滴形的洞讓天空與雨落進來。日間從田野中拍攝,量體孤立,門為唯一的裂口。避免:門改為矩形、加設門框與五金、混凝土表面平滑、頂端加蓋。