Thirteen years after the launch of a global design contest for the design of a new Baha’i temple, winner Siamak Hariri and the firm in which he is a partner, Hariri Pontarini Architects, revealed their new building in October. The temple, which lies in in Santiago (CL), is translucent, made with cast glass and Portuguese marble.

The Baha’i religion is fairly new, founded in the 19th century, and it does not yet have determined architectural style. However, two of the grandest temples are both essentially round with nine sides and domes. The new temple lies in the same line. It is a round dome surrounded by nine elements, which look like petals. These begin wide at the bottom of the building, and then become narrow upward to meet in a spiral at the top, separated by crescent-shaped windows and a round window at the top.

Hariri wanted to make the building translucent from the start, but the material he had in mind, alabaster, turned out not to be suitable. Alabaster starts to change irreversibly at about 37 degrees Celsius. On a hot day in Santiago, with a power failure, the building skin might well reach that temperature.

Instead of using alabaster, the architects chose to make the outside surface of the petals of cast glass components of 32 millimetres thick, which have a ruddy, milky quality to them. Inner surfaces are made from smooth Portuguese marble. Both layers, which are resting on a steel construction, are translucent. During the day, light can come in through the material as well as through the crescent shaped windows at the top of the dome, and the building glows at night when the lights are on inside.

Each of the two surfaces has more than 1,000 separate components, in more than 150 different shapes. Each piece was shaped using digital models.

The 2415-square-metre (26,000-square-foot) building is essentially one open room, with a mezzanine wrapped in curves of walnut. The nine doors are of bronze, with custom handles. The temple is expected to last 400 years, as requested by the Baha’i governing body.

The Baha’i temple is open to everyone, in accordance with the core principles of the religion that state that all major religions have the same spiritual source. Read more about the story behind the temple here.

Photos: Hariri Pontarini Architects