Saint-Paul-de-La-Plaine: a new church in a new neighborhood

The shape is obvious as soon as you approach it: a lying roller coaster, formed by two steel loops, which intersect in the middle. One of them, covered with a “skin” made of champagne-colored aluminum plate, demarcates the church; the other loop, smaller, a space open to the street, intended to become a garden planted with a white flowering tree. Lit by thirteen small zenital openings (the apostles, plus Saint Paul), the 200-seat nave resembles a drop, the end of which, in a triangle, delimits the choir. “The plan of a church corresponds to the liturgy of the time in which it is built. Also, we sought to bring together two forms in the same space: the assembly can choose to meet in a circle, or to turn towards the altar,” explain Patrick Berger and Jacques Anziutti, the two architects of Saint-Paul- de-La-Plaine, also designers of the “canopy” which will cover the Forum des Halles, in Paris, in a few months. Glassed, the choir of the new church is wide open to the street and the surrounding life. “It was one of the directives of Mgr Dominique Lebrun, the bishop of Saint-Denis, who launched the project,” underline the two creators. If the altar, in shell marble, and the ambo were designed by Patrick Berger, the cross and the tabernacle are the fruit of our competition “A heritage for tomorrow 2012”. The “Pèlerin – Chantiers du Cardinal” creation prize had in fact focused on this furniture project. The winners, the architect Édouard Ropars and his brother Antoine, a craftsman, made them in Burgundy stone and bronze, with refined shapes. All that remains is to bring Saint-Paul-de-la-Plaine to life. In this matter, Father Jean-Marc Danty-Lafrance, whose parish has another bell tower, Sainte-Geneviève, lacks neither energy nor ideas. “La Plaine is a former working-class suburb which has been completely transformed, with the construction of an impressive number of head offices of large companies, universities, but also housing. Many employees are asking for a time of prayer and meeting at lunchtime. Your readers are also welcome. But tell them that La Plaine-Saint-Denis is nothing like the cut-throat town that some media portray!” That’s done.