MIT Chapel, chapel on MIT campus designed by Eero Saarinen
MIT Chapel is a round brick building set on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, surrounded by a shallow concrete moat. A single dome-shaped skylight above the altar is the only source of natural light inside the otherwise windowless structure.
The chapel was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and completed in 1955, nearly a century after MIT was founded. It was the first building on campus built solely for spiritual use.
The chapel carries no religious name and is deliberately tied to no single faith, which is visible in its bare walls and plain altar. It draws students, staff, and visitors from many different backgrounds who use it for personal reflection, ceremonies, or quiet moments during the day.
The chapel is open daily and sits in a central spot on campus, easy to reach on foot from most academic buildings. Because the interior is small, it is worth checking in advance if you plan to visit during a ceremony or campus event.
The metal sculpture hanging behind the altar was made by artist Harry Bertoia, who positioned it so that light from the skylight creates shifting reflections across the walls throughout the day. Saarinen personally commissioned Bertoia for this piece, treating the sculpture and the light as a single design element rather than two separate things.
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