Moramanga Church

Nature has always inspired great creations. It is the purest and most authentic reality, the dimension in which we move and to which we belong, willingly or unwillingly.

In nature, outside the built-up area, the first temples were built. In blazing deserts were the dwellings of prophets and oracles, while in the mountains rose the first hermitages and monasteries. Indeed, in nature lies an ancestral spirituality that has always nurtured faith and sacredness shaping hopes and meeting the need for spiritual elevation and for the innermost meaning of the human soul. 

Despite of the secularization that has invaded the Western world, some communities are still viscerally connected with the colors and sounds that surround them. In an island that is currently a tourist destination with almost dreamlike features, dwell local peoples with a deeply rooted spirituality and desire for true and profound contact with the Other. Surrounded by the crystal-clear waters of the Indian Ocean, the people of Madagascar can find in their surroundings a connection with themselves, the others and the divine.

In line with this thirst for relationship and connection, architecture can be the the anchor to settle, embed and strengthen exchanges within the community and with the quintessential Other. This is the question at the origin of Moramanga Church: how to give shape to the need for relationship? How to add to an almost pristine nature a human space that is consistent with its surroundings and at the same time fostering interaction and social development? How to progress without betraying what defines one’s identity?

Answering these questions with architecture is the guiding principle of the competition promoted by YAC and the Frate Sole Foundation. Such competition aims at designing a place of worship that reflects the local values of spirituality and communion, enhancing the development of a society which is alive, authentic and, through the encounter with nature, the other and the divine, deeply human. Within its walls, this place will reflect the meaning of union, with the other and the others, that is the foundation of all communities. It will also shape the sense of infinity that can give fulfillment to human existence.

YAC and the Frate Sole Foundation thank the designers who will take up this challenge.