Rainbow hues are cast onto the walls of Kubo Tshushima's Tokyo wedding chapel
Japanese studio Kubo Tsushima Architects has renovated a wedding chapel in Tokyo's Ebisu district – painting each windowsill in colours of the rainbow to "impart faint hues" as light filters through (+ slideshow).
![Rainbow Chapel by Kubo Tsushima Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/Rainbow-Chapel-by-Kubo-Tsushima-Architects_dezeen_468_8.jpg)
Originally constructed as an annex to a members-only salon, the oval space was previously lined with steel panels that made the space dark and "gothic-looking", according to architect and studio co-founder Yumi Tsushima.
![Rainbow Chapel by Kubo Tsushima Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/Rainbow-Chapel-by-Kubo-Tsushima-Architects_dezeen_468_2.jpg)
"The current owner desired to eliminate the existing building's excessive ornamentation and realise a design animated by natural light," she told Dezeen.
![Rainbow Chapel by Kubo Tsushima Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/Rainbow-Chapel-by-Kubo-Tsushima-Architects_dezeen_468_0.jpg)
Once the panelling was removed, the architects installed vertical fins constructed from fibre cement board.
![Rainbow Chapel by Kubo Tsushima Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/Rainbow-Chapel-by-Kubo-Tsushima-Architects_dezeen_468_7.jpg)
"We wanted to give maximum play to the oval plan and high sidelights of the chapel," said the architect. "We wanted to use light to produce ornamentation."
![Rainbow Chapel by Kubo Tsushima Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/Rainbow-Chapel-by-Kubo-Tsushima-Architects_dezeen_468_1.jpg)
The architects chose to paint the sills of the transom windows that run along the top of the hall in a gradient of rainbow hues.
The fins around the walls continue over the windows, helping to reflect the colours onto the ceiling.
![Rainbow Chapel by Kubo Tsushima Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/Rainbow-Chapel-by-Kubo-Tsushima-Architects_dezeen_468_9.jpg)
"We decided to use those paint colours, so as to create a beautiful rainbow," Tsushima said.
"The light from the outside comes and bounds to the inside, reflecting those colours onto the walls," she explained. "By painting each high sidelight window a different colour, we imparted faint hues to light entering the chapel."
![Rainbow Chapel by Kubo Tsushima Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/Rainbow-Chapel-by-Kubo-Tsushima-Architects_dezeen_468_10.jpg)
Matching the floorboards, wooden chairs designed by the architects fix together to make a series of pew-like benches.
A glass lectern is situated at the front of the hall, while glazed doors on one side open out onto a terrace used for conducting ceremonies outdoors.
![Rainbow Chapel by Kubo Tsushima Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/Rainbow-Chapel-by-Kubo-Tsushima-Architects_dezeen_468_4.jpg)
Dezeen has compiled a list of 11 stunning chapel designs, including a Batman-shaped church by Schneider+Schumacher and a concrete chapel that teeters over the edge of a mountain in El Salvador.
Photography is by Koji Fujii at Nacasa and Partners.
Project credits
Client: Prior Corporation
Designer:Kubo Tsushima Architects – Hideaki Kubo, Yumi Tsushima
Contractor:Fujita Bill Maintenance
![Rainbow Chapel by Kubo Tsushima Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/Rainbow-Chapel-by-Kubo-Tsushima-Architects_dezeen_2_1.gif)
![Rainbow Chapel by Kubo Tsushima Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/Rainbow-Chapel-by-Kubo-Tsushima-Architects_dezeen_1_1.gif)