Situated on a hill overlooking the Seto Inland Sea is the breathtaking ‘Ribbon Chapel’ designed by Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP Architects.

The unique wedding chapel is part of the Bella Vista Sakaigahama resort hotel in Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan and was completed in 2014.

 

 

 

 

“By entwining two spiral stairways, we realized a self-supporting structure that architecturally embodies the act of marriage in a pure form. A wedding chapel is originally a building type that consists of passage. The aisle a bride walks down with her father becomes the departing passage for the bride and groom, and along the way is filled with profound memory and emotion.” [source]

 

 

 

 

“In this chapel, the ceremony also takes form as the bride and groom climb separate stairways to meet at the top, ask for heaven’s forgiveness to join as one, and declare their marriage. The two who used to walk separate paths unite as one at the top, and descend the stairway together. It is essentially an architecture purely composed of flow of movement.
 
Although it is a small architecture, by extending the passage to be 160m to emphasize the act of marriage, we wanted the architecture to embrace the excitement of a bride and groom, and also the emotions of the attendees.” [source]

 

 

 

AWARDS

LEAF AWARDS 2015 Overall Winner
ArchDaily Winner of 2016 Building of the Year Award in the Religious Architecture category
Architizer A+Awards 2017, Jury Winner in Religious Buildings & Memorials
Wallpaper * Design Awards 2015 Best Chapel
第10回日本構造デザイン賞
第57回BCS賞（2016年）
日本商環境設計家協会　JCDデザイン賞2014　大賞