Angled white walls will mark the entrance to underground contemplation spaces at Herzog & de Meuron's roadside Autobahnkirche chapel in Switzerland.

Set to be developed on the outskirts of Andeer beside the A13 highway, Autobahnkirche will become the country's "first motorway chapel" once complete.
Herzog & de Meuron's proposal seeks to challenge traditional places of worship, and will be designed as a response to its setting and without religious signs or symbols.
This is to prevent the chapel seeming kitsch, and ensuring it offers a quiet place for any person of any faith to relax, pray or simply observe the surrounding landscape.

"We couldn't use [traditional chapels] as an analogous model for today's contemporary architecture. It is impossible to conjure the aura of old walls without resorting to kitsch," explained Herzog & de Meuron. "The idea for the chapel in Andeer had to emerge from the site alone, from the location, from the road. And we did not want to work with explicit religious signs or symbols," it continued.
"We were looking for architecture that would sharpen the perception of visitors ? of the location, the natural environs, and even of the way they see themselves."

Herzog & de Meuron tried and tested a number of forms for the chapel as, unusually, the project was not dictated by set limits or boundaries of a site. However, its overriding priority was that the building should block out noise from...