Architect and 2007 Penn State alumna Gillean Denny and a group of students, faculty and research assistants in the Stuckeman School are celebrating the virtual unveiling of a “Living Chapel” they designed to promote environmental consciousness as part of Global Catholic Climate Movement activities in Rome from May 16-24, and the United Nations World Environment Day on June 5.
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Gillean Denny worked with the Penn State team to redesign aspects of the chapel structure using a model the student team built before fabrication began in the fall of 2019.
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The Pennsylvania College of Technology faculty that led the fabrication of the chapel’s frame: Jacob B. Holland, Cody W. Wolfe and James N. Colton.
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Students from the Pennsylvania College of Technology that assisted on the fabrication of the chapel framework.
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The Penn State team designed and 3D-printed the scoops that are affixed to the end of the mallets that play the steel drums in the chapel.
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A finished mallet with the 3D-printed cup designed by the Penn State Team affixed to the other end.
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Kacie Ward welds together some of the auto scrap that make up the walls of the chapel’s chime wall in January 2020.
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Becca Newburg instructs two undergraduate architecture students on how to assemble the parts they will make for the walls of the chapel in late January 2020.
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Once the core team at Penn State came up with processes to mass produce parts for the chapel, architecture undergraduate students were recruited to assist in the assembly of the parts in the Laundry Building in late January 2020.
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A Penn State architecture student assembles a frame for one of the steel drums in the Laundry Building in late January 2020.
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The Penn State team laid out the auto scrap pans that will make up the walls of the chapel in the Laundry Building before affixing them to the structure in late January 2020.
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The walls of the chapel are laid out on the floor of the Laundry Building prior to being affixed to the framework in late January 2020.
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The framework of the chapel’s chime wall stands with the walls mostly completed by the Penn State team in the Laundry Building in early February 2020.
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The steel drum system can be seen within the framework of the chapel’s chime wall.
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A fraction of the students and research assistants pose before the chapel is packed up to head to Rome in early February 2020.
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The chapel was packed into shipping containers for its voyage to Italy during February 2020.
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Chapel pieces arrive via truck in the Rome Botanical Garden in early March 2020.
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Installation of the chime wall began in the Botanical Garden during early May 2020.
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More permanent foundations are laid out under the chapel in May 2020 to allow the structure to remain in the Botanical Garden for a longer stay than originally expected.
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Various plants are installed on one of the green walls in a mosaic pattern prior to the chapel’s opening in Rome and saplings are in barrels that will be placed throughout the structure.
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A view of the Living Chapel from the chime wall side in the Rome Botanical Garden.
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The promotional poster about the Living Chapel that stands with it in the Botanical Garden in Rome.
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The Living Chapel was blessed by Monsignor Bruno Marie Duffé, secretary of the Vatican Dicastery of Human Development, on May 24 and the first Catholic mass was held with churchgoers wearing masks and being mindful of social distancing guidelines.
