St. Mark’s Coptic Cathedral

The Village or Campus is envisioned as a composition of state-of-the-art designs forming a harmonious collective whole of interrelated buildings. This vision includes idyllic spaces of peace, serenity, beauty; a symphony of shape, texture and color expressing the religious concepts of the Christian Coptic Orthodox faith, tradition and spiritual values; historically grounded yet relevant today.

The challenge is to achieve an outstanding urban design for the new millennium and to mark an historical transition for the Copts. The congregation wishes that the cathedral in particular will embody a sublime expression of their faith, traditions and spiritual values in a contemporary architectural vocabulary.

Despite the existence of different entities, the Campus is read as a well-coordinated whole, a unified entity. The parts fit into a harmonious composition with a dual value:

• a monument for the city
• an inviting enclosure for the Coptic community

A ring construction, hosting almost all the uses along the perimeter of the site, protects the interior Holy Space, concentrating in the centre the main religious functions. This idea brings together an equilibrium between the desire of life in community (in direct contact with the urban environment) and isolation (in the inner spaces of the site).