The genesis of the Congresos Internacionales de Arquitectura Religiosa Contemporánea is recalled and the process of organization of the current event, dedicated to the theme Beyond the Sacred Building: architecture and evangelization. Starting from the experience of the Mexican Indian chapels, several case studies are proposed: open-air altars for multitudinous events; the permanent liturgical containers for mass concentrations; the spaces of worship for emergency situations, the spaces of silence and celebration located in university centers, ships, military bases, airports or sports facilities; the temporary spaces of worship in parks, beaches, shopping centers or seasonal tourist centers; the churches in Christian minority countries; or even the official pavilions of the Holy See in universal or thematic exhibitions. In all these programs, the missionary zeal of the Catholic Church - recently claimed by Pope Francis -, its interest in expanding and transmitting the message received is visualized.
Welcome greeting to the participants in a congress that takes place in Seville, a city that is an expert in elevating magnificent fleeting altars for liturgical celebrations. The tomb that was built in the cathedral for the funeral of King Felipe II in 1589 is especially remembered, and it inspired the famous sonnet by Miguel de Cervantes, which captures one of the most interesting ideas of religious ephemeral architecture: showing the beauty of faith but, at the same time, signify the transience of human constructions.
In the history of architectural culture, the Scripture is the archetypical source not only for designing worship buildings but also for the construction practice in general. The Old Testament offers a repertoire of spaces and buildings that has nurtured the architectural imaginary both in the area of the Mediterranean and in Europe. When we consider the New Testament, the references to the architectural forms become more elusive. In fact, some episodes have suggested that Christianity has no need for specific sacred spaces; that is to say, these passages have been used in support of an atopic conception of the Christian cult. Not only had the Temple in Jerusalem to end, but also the sacred architecture should give way to a saint architecture, made of saint Christians as living temples of God. The impulse to surpass worship architecture is corroborated by the eschatological vision in the last book of the Scripture: the apocalyptic vision of the New Jerusalem is considered in its entirety a model, but in the city of the end times the material mediations of the relationship with God will no longer exist. The whole city will be the place of the Presence. The hypothesis that material Christian temples are not necessary represents a recurrent aspiration in the history of Christianity and in architecture, despite the fact that no organized community has ever tried to realize it. This topic is again at the center of the debate over architecture in the post-conciliar epoch, which focuses on the construction of the celebrating assembly. So tenuous a link between Christian architecture and the Gospel also has significant repercussions on the relationship between Christian architecture and evangelization, which is the theme of our conference.
The liturgical space cannot avoid testifying to the miracle of a Presence, and can only do so by its own means: through the evidence of structural masses, the combination of materials, textures, colours; the harmonious shape of forms; the fluid movement of light that covers it and, at the same time, is dominated by it. This activates a silent communication that stirs the soul through the senses, and that, by touching our spirit, helps us to live the experience of God, thereby making us like all those who, in all ages and places, have turned their eyes to heaven, have elevated prayers and built temples. I firmly believe that this natural vocation of liturgical architecture preserves its value intact even in the altered setting of the contemporary city, and that the church space should still strive to answer that need of the sacred that dwells in each of us. This does not mean shaping more or less bold prospects, intended to suggest a vague mysticism or induce an indefinite emotional suggestion, but it implies a conscious and deliberate inquiry into those architectural themes that for centuries have been able to give the place of worship traits clearly referable to the Person of Christ, to the theology of revelation, to the history of salvation.
Presentation of the short film titled «Dove Dio cerca casa» (Where God seeks home), commissioned by the Italian architect Giorgio Trebbi to his friend Renzo Renzi, on the occasion of the celebration of First Congress on Sacred Architecture (Bologna, 1955). On it, a group of priests struggling to turn an old disused building as a church. Can also be seen the status of Bologna in the early fifties, with intense contrast between the historical center, seated, and the periphery, understood as mission territory. The situation was similar in other European cities of the age, and still is extrapolated to the current state of different metropolises across much of the world.
A church must have the face and the heart of the land and of the people where it is built. To project the spaces for worship, it is important to know the lives of people, to share their visions and true aspirations and to learn the language of their hearts, also through the observation of nature. The experience in Africa has suggested the removal of any preconception to welcome the novelty of a virgin world, capable of inspiring in its simplicity, the most essential forms and true, without artifice and reminiscences of other worlds.
This presentation aims at understanding which are the determinant factors for the programming and conception of a roman contemporary church in a country with a catholic minority. The intention is of identifying the characteristics that confer an identity to the church space as such and define criteria to assess their adequacy. To that effect the recommendations of the Second Vatican Council were taken into account as well as the influence of tradition in church architecture. Finally the theoretical discussion is focused on the case of the new church of the convent of the order of Discalced Carmelites in Snagov, Romania.
This paper presents the possibilities of the development of new forms of religious architecture in Serbian Orthodox Church, on the basis of certain traditions. Current situation in this field is analyzed with special emphasis on non-typical religious buildings and spaces. The authors show that the domination of traditionalism in architectural expression is not based on the canonical restrictions, but rather the result of striving to establish the interrupted continuity by replicating forms from previous époques. Freedom of architectural creation in this field is strongly supported with the variety of forms existing through history of which zapis is particularly interesting.
The discovery of America meant the birth of an architecture designed to undertake the Christian initiation of pre-Columbian indigenous people. Recognition of the key elements of this architecture should give us clues to create proper spaces for the new evangelization in Latin America. The lack of material resources did not prevent the creation of this architecture. Therefore, some central elements were taken into consideration. The atrium —as a meeting place—, charity and education, the enhancement of the eschatological dimension of the Christian temple and the cardinal and theological virtues are some of the essential elements in this new architecture.
An interdisciplinary scientific committee was formed to set the cornerstones of a new living community in Drávapiski, Hungarian popular daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet (May 6, 2013, 4) reports. According to long term plans, a new place for Christian worship along with a monastic settlement will help local people open a new chapter of both religious life and agriculture. Members of the committee believe that this kind of complex evangelisation is the only and last chance of this region to regenerate. The design process has started, and is ready to yet invite any participants to contribute to the mission.
Studies examining the orientation of Christian sacred spaces have appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. The reinterpretation of the relationship between functional elements placed in space has also investigated the issue of hierarchy. The symbolic position of these sacral space-elements is decisive also within the community engaged in the liturgy. With the changing liturgical concepts, the issue of central or longitudinal use of space has determined the whole 20th century. At the same time, around the turn of the millennium an intensified need has emerged, which used the symbolism of hidden secret in the concept of the access to sacral spaces instead of a direct approach that had previously been usual for hundreds of years. The indirect path, designed with changes of direction, was composed with the logic of discovery and gradual understanding. It is particularly interesting that this architectural composition appears typically in ephemeral—like temporary buildings or in small sacral spaces formed simply, only with a few architectural means.
The present text tries to analyze the phenomenon of the religious monumental architecture in Mexico during the XXth century, so much that one realized to lodge the catholic worship, as for the evangelical worships and Mormons who seem to dispute the urban supremacy, across a big proportions that can owe so much to the expression of the victory of his faith, as to a proselytizing strategy in the apprehension for future members of the parish.
The Instituto Nacional de Colonización was born in 1939, in order to carry out the construction of new villages in the rural areas and thus allow the reactivation of an agricultural sector that was holding the postwar economy. However, its interests were both economic and socio-political. Its aim was to build new settlements to regenerate farming, but also to build the ideal setting for a rural life and spiritual simultaneously. Its target was to link the work of the field to the spiritualization of community life and there- fore evangelization of the settlers. Thus, the Church building becomes key in their architecture, both by its ability to represent the community feeling, its presence in the urban scene, or the conversion of the belltower into a landmark.
In 1970 father Joseph Champlin writes: «the vast majority waits this new epoch in the life of our church». Mark Mills develops in 1971 the project BEA, a submarine chapel inspired in the form of a manta ray, that would travel all over the world becoming a«marine symbol consecrated to peace». The proposal, seen as a realistic project, follows the research of countercultural archi- tectures next to Fuller’s, in which the habitat of man and his relationship with nature and the community become essential elements of the project, defining a more cognitive and sensible space but symbolic or figurative.
In the aftermath of World War II, twelve million Germans were forced to seek refuge elsewhere in their country. Their sort attracted the attention of Catholic charities such as the Eastern Priests Relief Organization, which provided material and spiritual assistance through a fleet of mobile chapels. This paper claims that this action was a genuinely ‘modern’ form of missionary work in the sense that both its method and message were a child of its time: dwelling on a culture of generalized mobility and mass communication, it spread the word of a triumphalist church claiming moral superiority over other world views, in particular communism. Moreover, the chapel trucks anticipated a fundamental paradigm shift in pastoral care, bringing the church to the people rather than the other way around.
Based on the personal experience of design and construction management of a temporary church on the earthquake that shook the region of Emilia Romagna, this text contains a synthesis of reflections on the themes of evangelization in the emergency have accompanied the process from the design phase through implementation. The immediate need for a shelter and at the same time, a place where being able to recognize and celebrating community, marks the transition from solutions defined outdoor spaces, even if they are temporary and tents. But in the long term, the community clearly sees the precariousness of the store, which recognizes a value for evangelization in the interim, but no formal expression of the church. So looking for a space for the cele- bration of the Eucharist in which to find at least some of the characteristics of the place of worship that the closer to normal. Hence the temporary church takes shape.
In the earthquake of 8.8 intensity on the Richter scale that struck Chile on February 27, 2010, 47% of the country’s Catholic churches were damaged, and 80% of the temples of the worst affected areas, destroyed. About a million faithful could no longer congregate in its usual form. Given this, the AIS Foundation (Ayuda a la Iglesia que Sufre) launched a campaign entitled «Chapels in Emergency: let’s rebuild Chile with Christ», which was to build forty-five chapels in the devastated areas. The design, inspired by the Mantle of Mary, is a steel structure and stretched canvas which meets the requirements for the proper development of liturgical celebrations. Each chapel has an area of 185 m2 and a capacity for one hundred seats.
The worship in spirit and truth brought by Christ is not restricted to a unique physical location. The material place where it is developed is a liturgical space, defined from the various symbolic elements that make up the rite: individual and collective movements, gestures, foci of action... The eventual liturgical space project has at its disposal a number of design resources: a high plane where to place the foci of celebration, the limit, the design of the place of the participants, the dialogue with the environment, the iconography, the light... The eventual liturgical space is flexible, complex, organic and open.
As first described by Gaudium et Spes, we know the Church's relationship with society should and must evolve. Our moment in history, perhaps, is not as simple as past eras when the Church (the physical edifice and the institution) acted as the axis of both life and culture; churches anchored towns and their public spaces; church bells tolled the order of the day, calling all to toil and prayer alike; the liturgical calendar established the very rhythms of the seasons, and thus life itself. For most modern Westerners, it is no longer so; the Church is far removed from the daily routine. It is the sanctuary where we attend Mass on Sunday, but not much more. For those who have fallen away or have yet to be evangelized, the church building is often nothing more than part of the homogenous fabric that constitutes most urban, suburban and rural cores.
The Church no longer dominates culture and society in the way it once did, and it is forced to compete with virtual connectedness for the attentions, affections and devotion of the masses. How often have you seen a person in a beautifully constructed sacred space entirely consumed by the world encapsulated in their smart phone? Have we become so virtually connected that we are paradoxically disconnected from physical drama of the human condition happening all around us?
The church does not require more grand architectural gestures, but rather new, more networked and nuanced ways to exist and connect to each other and God in the built world; in other words, new ways to manifest to contemporary women and men “the mystery of God, who is their final destiny.” (Gaudiem et Spes)
The influence area of a temple is greater than the plot where it is built. The aim of this article is to think about the potential of urban spaces —particularly the ones attached to churches. They can turn their crossing point attributes into liturgical and socia- lisation ones. Some historical and contemporary examples of urban areas in Barcelona used like community room are given. All of them show that only with a good management and with few reversible elements is possible to transform the common urban space into living space between buildings. With this attitude is not even necessary to build any costly disposable infrastructure to shelter any kind of major event. And it is a way of act more in accordance with the austerity of the Gospels.
The Stations of the Cross for WYD Madrid 2011 was a project of novelty, as proposed integration of the language of contemporary architecture with traditional imagery coming in Spain. First generating physically a Via-Dolorosa would be covered by Cross Youth; and secondly, it was a large-scale action, which could be fitted in the modern discipline of urban land art. From the point of view of the history of World Youth Days included the integration of the figure of the Virgin Mary on this journey, which appears in the fifteenth station dedicated to her.
Most buildings of contemporaneous religious architecture are parochial churches. The term parish etymologically means neighborhood, although it also has the biblical connotation of foreign, migrant or pilgrim community. This eschatological dimension of tending towards Christ and the Parousia is the Christian utopia. In contrast, postmodern utopic architecture, in the sense of no- place, is a priori non-religious. However, today we can analyze proposals that accompany the faith of the users in the everyday movement and live, in dialog with the traditional road crosses, outdoors devotional altars and hermitages.
Throughout the twentieth century, the railway stations located in major European cities become important nodes of exchange of travelers, with a programmatic complexity, that brings together various complementary and different uses along with platforms, making the station a public place where transit can become a pleasant and satisfying experience. Among these complementa- ry uses, the chapels of the stations are a unique kind of places for worship, because of the characteristics and conditions they have. They are small churches that seek to offer privacy and temporary seclusion against the constant bustle of the a railway installation.
University chapels are evangelization outposts offering the possibility to give evidence on the presence of the Church in places otherwise not reached from the ordinary pastoral action. In most Italian campuses there is no place for worship. Indeed, Italy presents a variegated phenomenology of university buildings and related chapels, understandable looking at their history. The liturgical problem arises noting that university chapels are places of particular relationship with the sacraments, great invitation to meditation and occasions of architectural experimentation. Helped by some international examples, this search means to enrich the historiographical and critical outline of the architecture-liturgy connection.
The text traces the presence of the Holy See in the different international exhibitions, both universal and thematic, from the creation of the Vatican State in 1929 until today. With these pavilions, the popes from Pius XI to Benedict XVI, wanted to rep- resent the Catholic Church in international forums, understanding them as potential acts of evangelization against contemporary secularism.
As a silent revolution was defined by Jacinto Rodríguez Osuna the arduous parish restructuration initiated by the Technical Office of the Archdiocese of Madrid in 1965. The priest and sociologist was the main commissioned for carrying out the new parochial division of the city, who needed more than 300 temples. This emergency situation was evident in the introduction of temples in commercial, with no urban presence. The architects had to reconcile technical aspects such as ventilation or acoustics with different strategies to get sacred spaces from commercial.
When a worship place is a temporary one? What kind of construction characteristics make the difference between a temporary parish church and a permanent one? What does it mean to build a temporary worship place?
Building a place of worship comes not only from urban needs but mainly from pastoral needs and from the will of a community of having a place where meet together. This paper tells about the creation of a small prefabricated wooden church of about 450 square meters, in an area devoted to the building of the definitive parish center, outcome of a diocesan contest.
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¿Cuando un lugar de culto es temporal? ¿Qué tipo de características de construcción marcan la diferencia entre una iglesia parroquial provisional y otro definitivo? ¿Qué significa para construir un lugar de culto temporal? La construcción de un lugar de culto no sólo proviene de las necesidades urbanas, pero sobre todo de las necesidades pastorales y de la voluntad de una comunidad de tener un lugar donde se reúnen. Este artículo habla de la creación de una pequeña iglesia de madera prefabricada de unos 450 metros cuadrados, con un área dedicada a la construcción del centro parroquial definitiva, resultado de un concurso.
This article aims to highlight the work of the Secretariado das Novas Igrejas do Patriarcado de Lisboa (SNIP) in the 1960s and 1970s. SNIP developed a small architectural office, which acted as a lab for the synthesis of liturgical and pastoral programmes. Their main achievement was the case studied chapel-hall: a low cost project, which responded to different needs of local com- munities with low resources. These adaptable solutions featured a modest chapel for daily use and a multipurpose room (e.g for education or training) for enhanced capacity during special occasions. They provided an opportunity to explore both unity and flexibility.
Amereida Cultural Corporation located on the terrains of the Ciudad Abierta (Open City) of Valparaiso (Chile) has several contemporary religious buildings, however, religious practice is also done by other architectural processes less common but equally important. The aim of this paper is to study both the first and the second order to discern the role of religion in these architectures.
The present paper describes the story of Santo Domingo de la Calzada chapel, and its last transformation in 2013, due to the necessity of solving serious problems related with water penetrations. The chapel was constructed in 1978 into a long 35- meter tunnel under a M-30 road. Many functional and liturgical difficulties derived from this fact. The paper describes mainly how those problems were studied and solved —specially those questions about the design of the tabernacle and the altar— during the last rehabilitation works.
This communication reflects on the great Eucharistic celebrations held occasionally by the Church in public places and proposes some guidelines to its development. To do this, it uses the examples of the Masses held by Benedict XVI in Valencia and Lisbon, the Mass by Pope Francis in Lampedusa and finally a Mass celebrated in Fatima by Jesuits General Father Adolfo Nicolás sj. Through these cases is visible how a poor and simple construction generated by a humble architecture can be as beautiful and noble as the richest, but more importantly, its testimony of Christ becomes considerably more credible.
In 2012, as part of World Design Capital program, Kamppi Chapel of Silence was inaugurated at the entrance of Kamppi shopping centre inHelsinki, providing a place for citizen’s moment of silence, relax and meeting in the busiest area. These facts raise questions: What was the real aim behind this? Is this the result of citizens’ wishes to be with God, undisturbed by tourists? A strategy for attracting more Christians in multi-religious society? A new way of Lutheran charity in service to needy people? My paper analyses relationship between architectural forms and emotions in sacred spaces through historical Finnish churches.
The message developed by the Synod of the Catholic Bishops (2012) exposes the keys of the new evangelization, that illuminate the answers of the architecture to the challenges that it lays out. In the same year, there is inaugurated in Helsinki the Chapel of Silence, that offers a place of spiritual meditation, opened to all the people. In an environment very popular —Narinkka squa- re— his showy form wakes curiosity up. A community that receives in the lobby, it drives to discover a serene interior that he invi- tes you to the contemplation and to the silence. The provoked response, it contributes to the analysis of his architectural qualities, near to the aims of the new evangelization.
The Carmelite Order has a distinctive spirit of contemplation which calls for an autonomous figurative language of architecture. Cloistered Carmelite Nuns live in a symbolic desert, the enclosure of their monastery, just as early followers of Elijah lived in hermitages scattered across Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. Despite their call to simplicity, Carmelites are permitted to creatively ornament their monastery chapels. This paper provides an introduction to the Carmelite spirit, architectural implications of their constitutions, examples of Carmelite foundations, and principles for a new Carmel.
Stella Matutina is the 2nd phase of John Pawson’s project for the Monastery of Our Lady of Novy Dvur (Czech Republic). The principles, fundamentals and basis of the Cistercian ideal are met, through contemporary details, which are still connected with the thoughts of Saint Bernard in his «Apology to Abbot William» (12th century). The Cistercian Spirituality was connected to Contemporary Architecture through Cistercian principles, contemporary minimalist principles or even for its impact, in the region where it is inserted or as a 21st century historical and architectonic landmark, thus being also a way catechizing and evangelization.
During the closing session of the Third International Conference on Contemporary Religious Architecture, Ignacio Vicens y Hualde recounted his personal experience in the construction of the provisional liturgical structures that were erected in Madrid to host the visit of His Holiness Benedict XVI for the Youth World Day 2011: an altar at Plaza de la Cibeles, a portable confessionals in Parque del Retiro, and the great altar at the military airfield of Cuatro Vientos.
The second way to participate in the congress is the Panel format. It is about projecting A SMALL SPACE OF SILENCE AND PRAYER, adaptable to diverse urban circumstances, where you can go individually or in a group to gather in silence and adore the Eucharist. The site must contemplate the possibility of carrying out acts of Catholic worship. Its versatility, portability and iconic capacity will be especially valued.
