Toronto Star

The colours dance slowly on the walls of St. Gabriel's Catholic Church, descending gently down one wall, and then the next. Throughout, light floods in through the church's floor-to-ceiling south window, the room's minimalist décor an ideal canvas for nature's offerings. For congregants, it is creation brought indoors. For architect Roberto Chiotti, it's theology in concrete and glass. "We are connecting our sacred space into the sacred space of creation," he says, reflecting on his firm's creation on Sheppard Ave. E., near Bayview Village Shopping Centre. As a Passionist congregation, St. Gabriel's stresses communion with nature. It emphasizes the Christian Bible's call that people be stewards of creation. Chiotti wanted St. Gabriel's building to be a reflection of that theology.