Daylight Study St Moritz Church

Architecture and light are, of course, intimate cousins. Natural light is the perfect compliment to an environment of contemplation and reverence, and John Pawson and his team wanted to maintain the rhythms of natural light throughout the space, as well as benefiting from the changing aspects of light throughout the day to animate the space.

Our study showed that there were no serious challenges presented by the ingress of direct and indirect sunlight, although we were able to establish that the dark stained glass windows rendered the Apse dark relative to other areas of the church. This influenced the decision to replace the stained glass windows with translucent onyx, which is a striking aspect of the finished scheme.