Love for natural harmony: A green church building in Taoyuan Daxi

One day in the end of April, I drove under the 32 Celsius heat towards the Catholic Franciscan Spirituality Centre in Daxi, Taoyuan. This is a Catholic church with over 60 years of history. It was rebuilt in 2009 without any air conditioning but is still able to maintain a comfortable humidity and temperature even with a gathering of 300 hundred people in this scorching hot summer!

What kind of design allow for this simplistic and neat little center to overcome the summer heat? In order to answer this question, we must first learn about the “Franciscan Spirit”.

Franciscan Spirit: Zero-Waste Frugality

In the Catholic faith, Francisco is a peace and nature-loving saint. He is for the “integration” of human beings and the world. He practices frugal living, no waste, and use only what he needs. This is exactly the spirit that has made an influence on the architectural design of the center.

When you first enter the center, you will find a large ecological green land. To be precise, the building area occupies less than a third of the total area of the base. The architect responds to this by saying: We only take the space we need. Why not leave everything else back to nature?Then, slowly walk into the classroom, and waves of wooden scents will greet your arrival. This used to be the main pillar inside the old church. The architect had decided to preserve and reuse it for the front door of the new holy hall as it is still in wonderful condition, and to conserve the aroma of history. 

Furthermore, all the chairs and tables you see in the church, the cafeteria, and the spiritual center are made of old bowling alley wood. These materials that were declared scraps were given a new life in the Franciscan spirit.

What is also remarkable is the mud wall inside the cafeteria - The Last Supper. The mud came from the excavation of the foundation for the new church. The high porosity and permeability loess mud of the painting will automatically absorb humidity when it has risen too high. The colors will automatically adjust itself and it prevents counter tide in the building. It has a dual effect of “natural dehumidification” and “artistic integration”!

The center is covered in green. The scenery, the sounds and the aroma are all satisfying for the visitors

Some tricks to naturally cool down the church

Now let’s take a look at the power efficiency tricks used by the buildings in the center. The first secret is to avoid erecting too many pillars. The often “high heat seal” property of the bricks and reinforced concrete structure often makes the inside of the buildings hard to cool down. Therefore, the architect filled the extra wall space with two rows of windows to constantly bring in a breeze and outside air.

The second trick is to build an external sunshield. The red grill fence surrounding the church allows wind to pass through and avoids direct sunlight. When the wind blows across the pond in front of the church, water vapors also enter inside and become natural temperature controlling agent. The west-facing church is protected by sufficient shading from the winding corridor, so that the interior temperature is complete unaffected by the afternoon sunlight. This design also allows sunlight to decorate with a beautiful light and shades through the grill fence and glass.

The holy cross window on top of the roof fills thechurch interior with variable light and shadows

The exterior color of the building also has a certain impact. The light gray paint can significantly reduce the heat absorption on the surface of the building and reduce the indoor heat worries. The holy cross window on the church roof was designed for fire safety regulations, but it coincidentally matched the criteria for “wind-driven ventilation” and attracts warm air to flow upwards, so that the air in the building’s top and bottom temperature layers are vertically exchanging, cooling down the building at the same time. When the weather is nice, the light projects the cross in the church and even moves with the sun! The circular sky window resembling the Pantheon in Rome, and surprisingly doubles as a sundial.

A Green Building is one that knows how to use nature’s blessings

There are four main blessings of nature that one can find in the overall Franciscan Centre”: wind, light, water, earth. They are all fully utilized in the architectural design to bring excellent natural cooling, lighting, dehumidifying, and other effects. Living alongside nature so, is exactly what the Franciscan philosophy continues to point out.

Now, the term “Green Buildings” has been in fashion for many years. It is worth some pondering to figure out what is a “Real Green Building”. The Daxi Franciscan Spirituality Centre has no plans to apply for any green building label, but it uses the concepts of green buildings throughout its design process. The final cost is 30% less than similar building, and the annual electricity consumption per square meter is less than 12 kWh. These are all reminders that: The essence of a green building is merely follow the rhythm of nature, to create a power and material-efficient building.