S-AR's Oratory Chapel in Mexico Reuses Materials from Predecessor

In Santiago, Nuevo León, Mexico, architecture firm S-AR has completed the Oratory Chapel, a 4.6 sqm structure that reinterprets a previous chapel on the same site. The design features two 8 cm thick reinforced concrete walls set at varying heights along a diagonal, supporting a 6.5 cm thin concrete slab to form a narrow, tunnel-like space. Openings in the walls allow light and air to penetrate. Inside, a wooden bench rests on crushed red brick flooring, and a geometric iron cross marks the boundary. These elements, along with exposed reinforcement bars and the existing foundation, were salvaged from the earlier chapel, which shared the same orientation and scale. The project emphasizes material and spatial continuity, integrating memory and site into a compact form.