SPIRITED AWAY

Although the DOXA DEO CHAPEL in Pretoria's Brooklyn be but little, it's a FIERCELY BEAUTIFUL - and quietly confident - addition to the suburban sprawl that surrounds it.

- ΑΝΝΕΤΤΕ KLINGER

A side view of Doxa Deo chapel in Brooklyn, Pretoria shows off its horizontal fenestrations, which let sunlight in during the day, and emit electrical light after sundown. 

AN ETHEREAL, LUMINOUSLY WHITE slip of a thing, the latest architectural addition to the Doxa Deo Church campus could not be more diametrically opposed to the buxom, blocky facebrick buildings that it shares a plot of land with. But, according to NEO Architects' Dries Verbeek and Phoebe van Dyk, the little chapel is anachronistic by design.

"The former AGS church and admin building were built in the 1970s to fit in with the suburban fabric of their surroundings - not according to any architectural style, per se," says Dries. "The client commissioned a chapel that would pay homage to the early Christian buildings of the Roman era, but we took a shot and sent him references of more contemporary styles. Luckily, he loved them."

The roof culminates in a cantilevered shard, which emphasises the chapel's narrow footprint.

"There's an unwritten rule in architecture that a new building must display elements of its surroundings," Phoebe adds. "We decided to do something totally different and make the chapel stand out."