The geometry of the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel derives from a 130-meter-diameter circle that inscribes the irregular 19,000-square-meter site at the entrance to Evo City, Kawit, Cavite.
By offsetting this circle, the ancient Christian symbol of the Vesica Piscis is formed, an almond shape that defines the floor plan. The white terrazzo of the nave floor is inlaid with brass strips that echo the overlapping circles of the plan. When cut in section, this same geometry generates the profiles of the front and rear elevations and the building's cross section.
The building is oriented along an east-west axis. The west facade faces the entrance to Evo City, while the east facade addresses the rising sun. This orientation allows the building to choreograph daylight across the nave. The intense afternoon sun is filtered through small, prismatic, bead-like openings embedded in the west wall, forming an inverted teardrop pattern, evoking the rosary that was an original inspiration for the design. In contrast, the east facade is defined by the Gloria Patri stained glass window, also an inverted teardrop, which receives the morning light.
The Gloria Patri stained glass window expresses the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Its composition draws the eye toward the narrow tip, where the imagery resolves in Christ on the cross.
This 25-meter-high interior is defined entirely by its dialogue with light. In the morning, a golden teardrop of light enters from the east, moving across the white terrazzo floor. By afternoon, light enters through the rosary-like beads on the west, casting a shifting field of prismatic light that gradually overlaps with the eastern window toward late afternoon.
The north and south elevations extend this dialogue further, with light entering through the horizontal band of glass doors and sliding windows at both ground and mezzanine floors. These also allow breezes to pass through. Air moves across the gardens before entering the church carrying scent into the nave, rising via the stack effect to escape through the gap behind the skylight above.
The GFRC steps at the entrance arch and those cladding the columns initially signified prayer, their repeating rhythm suggesting the incantatory nature of the rosary. But over the course of construction, the steps came to represent time.
The entire space thus becomes an instrument for perceiving the passage of time through the movement of light. At the center is the altar table, where the Eucharist—fons et culmen, source and summit of the liturgy—takes place. At the Eucharist, one can say that time stops. This is why the altar table is without the steps that represent time. It is composed of smooth faces of marble.
Behind the church, along the central axis, the adoration chapel completes the almond-shaped Vesica Piscis in plan. The monstrance displaying the Sacred Host at the adoration chapel is placed at the easternmost tip of the almond shape, with natural light filtering through the translucent host, as if it were a window.
