Park, Shop, and Pray. Sacred-Profane Mixed-Use Building in San Sebastian by Rafael Moneo

Church, supermarket and parking garage in a single structure

Churches are architecture whereas supermarkets and parking garages are not. At least, that's what we've been taught by the likes of Nikolaus Pevsner and others. What, then, do we make of a single building designed by none other than Rafael Moneo, Spain's only Pritzker Prize winner, that contains all three of these functions within its walls? Situated in Riberas de Loiola, a new neighborhood of San Sebastián, the Iesu Church occupies the corner of a park (the Garden of Memory, which honors the 829 victims of the ETA terrorist organization), forming a transition between a rolling verdant landscape and apartment blocks. The inclusion of commercial retail space and parking in the church's basement allowed the church to offset 75% of construction costs.

Although this sacred-profane multi-use building is a single structure, each of the stacked functions is nevertheless entered separately, at different levels and on opposite sides of the building: the church is entered from the highest point of the site while the supermarket and parking garage entrances are entered from the lowest, taking maximum advantage of the site's topography.

The temple provides not a single hint of the supermarket, just as the supermarket makes no reference to the church. In fact, the supermarket even sells condoms.

Plans and section courtesy Arquitecturaviva