Architecture takes on a higher calling

Conejos River Colorado Vacation, Colorado Fly Fishing, and Colorado Vacations

BY: Laurelin Kruse
07-29-2008

From The Valley Courier
Posted: Tuesday, Jul 29th, 2008
BY: Laurelin Kruse

Architects Ron Rael and Virginia San Fratello stand next to a temporary bishop’s chair in the full scale model of El Santuario de los Pobladores. ALAMOSA — Architects Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello walk through a labyrinth formed by straw bales. Loose straw litters the gravel around the bales and tall plywood structures stand throughout the labyrinth. Someday, when El Santuario de los Pobladores (The Sanctuary of the Settlers) is complete, bales will be replaced by adobe walls six feet high and permanent altars will take the place of plywood. The full-scale model was constructed for the 150th anniversary celebration of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Conejos. A member of the parish passed away, leaving money to the church. A committee formed to decide how it would be spent and formed goals of creating something that would benefit not only the church, but the outside community as well. They commissioned Rael and San Fratello to do the rest. Rael and San Fratello are architects who refuse to spend their careers building hospitals and houses for the rich. “We want to build something contemporary but something that could be a monument in 150 years,” said Rael. He was born in La Florida, a tiny village near Antonito. “I grew up seeing ruins,” he said about old potato sheds and buildings he lived near. “These structures have become the subjects of photography and painting,” said Rael. “I want to build something monumental.” To Rael, this doesn’t necessarily mean something important, but enduring. El Santuario de los Pobladores has the potential to be one such project. The idea to build a labyrinth came from a book San Fratello was reading at the time they began the project, “Wanderlust: A History of Walking.” The book discusses the connection between meditating and walking. San Fratello said labyrinths around the world have been created for spiritual purposes, allowing Christians to walk the footsteps of Christ close to home. “Suddenly you could walk that path where you live without going to Jerusalem,” she said. El Santuario de los Pobladores has four quadrants corresponding with the rosary prayers. Each quadrant has five nichos, or altars with religious icons. Unlike a maze, a labyrinth has one unambiguous path. The path leads through a series of nichos, each one presenting an opportunity for prayer. In the center is a bishop’s chair and several rows of pews. Rael and San Fratello invited a member of the parish to pray inside the labyrinth. “We wanted to see how it was actually done,” said Rael. “It was intense.” The building progress of the labyrinth is dependent on donations. Funding has already come from a wide range of sources from the community, including other churches. They will be auctioning off temporary panels, created for the anniversary celebration, made from thin plywood and laser engraved with religious images. They hope to pour the foundation this fall, but Rael and San Fratello won’t be around to see it. They moved to California this week to begin teaching architecture. Rael will teach at Berkley and San Fratello will teach at the California College of the Arts. “There’s no one way or one right way to design something,” said San Fratello. Both she and Rael said their education taught them idealism and experimentalism they didn’t want to throw away. “I always thought architect school teaches you for something that doesn’t exist yet,” said Rael. But the idealism and experimentalism are perhaps still important concepts in architecture they will impart to their students.

All find meaning in labyrinth