Kluge Chapel by David Easton
Charlottesville, Virginia

"The chapel has a wonderful south sun that comes in during the day," says architect and designer David Easton of the building he designed for Patricia Kluge on the grounds of her winery. The chapel is sited so that the sun shines through at just about 4 p.m., making the space glow. "It's magical," says Easton, whose practice is based in New York.

Set in a glade overlooking vineyards, the chapel is designed in the English "Gothick" style (an 18th-century reinterpretation of the Gothic of the Middle Ages), to fit into a larger estate, which includes the manor known as Albemarle House, a log cabin, greenhouses, an early 19th-century guesthouse, and a farm shop. But the chapel is also isolated in that it is a 10-minute walk "across hill and dale," says the architect.

Easton turned to historical sources for inspiration, particularly 18th-century English artist and draftsman Batty Langley, author of several books and designer of what Easton terms "extraordinary pieces of Gothic architecture."

The chapel is constructed of a pink-hued Virginia brick in homage to its setting, as well as textured cathedral glass, stone, and marble. The walls are a stucco paint, "to make it look old," says Easton. The furnishings were copied from a charming Gothick chapel in Shobdon, Wales, and made in England. Statues of Mary and Joseph were carved in Italy, and the ceiling was painted by Graham Rust, an English muralist. Everything in the chapel, except the early 19th-century organ, is new but designed to have the patina of age.

This is a Catholic chapel, which means that it faces east and includes all the liturgical elements of the faith. But it is at Christmas or Easter, or during a wedding, when worshippers gather, Easton says, that it all comes together -- architecture, art, music, history, family -- to bring "a totality to the architectural design."