A rainbow floats

Church of Blessed Maria Restituta, Brno, Czech Republic

A glorious glass “crown” sits on the Church of Blessed Maria Restituta in Brno, Czech Republic. This rooftop, rainbow-hued glass circle is made of high-performance glass enhanced with Vanceva™ Color interlayers. Visitors to the church are offered multiple viewing points of the color spectrum—the church’s inner sanctuary, exterior street views, and even reflecting up into the sky—making this treasure worthy of an honorable mention in the 2022 Vanceva World of Color Awards™.

Built on a rectangular plateau that defines the sacred district, the church has three basic geometric shapes: a rectangle, a circle, and a triangle. The existing spiritual center is rectangular. The church is an oversized, white concrete circle with a glass top. From the glass top, the church is connected to the triangular-shaped, 31-meter high concrete tower by an overhead bridge.

The white concrete geometric shapes give the Church of Blessed Maria Restituta a modern aesthetic. The most striking feature of the design is the 80-meter glass ring at the top. Architect Marek Jan Štěpán intended the rainbow-hued glass ring to be the dominant architectural element.

Due to the large size of the glazing panels and the method of anchoring, VSG ESG HST 1010.4 glass was used to support the glass structure. The design team at glass fabricator Saint-Gobain was already familiar with Vanceva Colors, having used the interlayer system for more than 20 years in other architectural projects. Using the Vanceva color configurator on the Vanceva website, the team selected the colors needed to create the architect’s idea for a complete rainbow palette. Through stacking the interlayers in varying combinations of two to four colors, the rainbow’s colors flow seamlessly as they transition from color to color.

The result is a serene and beautiful space to worship, as light and color play throughout the sanctuary. The colors of the rainbow are transmitted from the “crown” encircling the church, offering an uplifting spiritual dimension to the sanctuary. On the exterior, the sky reflects the colorful glass, and it can appear as a rainbow circle floating above the Lesná community.

The project was a long time in the making. According to the design team, “The construction was planned since the 1990s and was paid for by the donations of ordinary people. The fact that the construction was finally realized shows amazing patience of the local parish priest.”

WOCA juror Monika Kumor noted that “It’s interesting to see the very abstract form of the church emphasized by the use of color juxtaposed against the natural forested background.”

Fellow juror Joe Jacoby agreed: “I love the simplicity and impact of the forms, highlighted with the rainbow-colored glass.”