March 2008 Archives
Trans-(am)-bulatorium
Manifesto for a new church
Purification – illumination – union with God.
(new Atrium) – (New Nave) – (New Altar)
The Atrium can be seem , along with the Narthex, as the place where the first stage, purification, is emphasised, a basin with holy water for ablutions is usually placed in its centre. The Nave is associated with illumination, particularly through the world (scripture readings, sermons and singing are done here). And the Altar is associated with union, particularly through participation in the Eucharist.
It seems we only fully appreciate and respect things when we have to struggle for them. The passage from the loud and chaotic city to the “entrails” of God’s house is too fast and too accessible, for the inside space experience, and contact with God, to be powerful. Especially in our days within a context of dense urbanism and globalisation which brings high tourism, churches have become attractions with which respect for the sacred character of the space has decreased. God’s house gets violated by the easy intrusion of people entering the space. The Church should be a space disconnected from the material world to allow a more profound contact with the spiritual world. In early years, the addition of Atriums to churches was aiming in this aspiration to create a smoother transition and preparation from the broken world to the wholly. Labyrinths were also used in many Cathedrals to act as a symbolic pilgrimage in order to clean your soul, before entering the heavenly. The hierarchy of space is here realised not through visual distinction of special condition within a space but through spatial transition, from space to space.
I propose a new understanding of the Atrium in association with the meaningful journey of labyrinth to create interstitial spatial condition allowing purification towards union with God. . From the courtyard one can get a glimpse of the inner church, with its candles and sound of chanting before entering
Formal Manifesto for a new church
Your purifying journey evolve in a landscape of steps, allowing a three dimensional pilgrimage experience in a semi-open (referring to the city) semi-enclosed (Referring to the church) environment. Some of the paths in which the spiritual journey takes place, cut through the stepped landscape, pressing through the interstitial layers of the church. These paths connect at point and diverge at others creating enclosures or islands of different levels with the potential for various programs. This new Atrium space represents a place of purification and preparation, for that reason it is darker and narrower then the main church space, which helps to quieten and prepare the soul for an encounter with the deeper mysteries of the faith which are experienced in the nave. Your purifying pilgrimage ends where the illumination starts in as elevated nave-programmed ambulatorium where the choir is located. Illumination is followed by the
Programmatic Manifesto for a new Church
Because the Atrium works as mediation between the city and the house of God it can incorporate both programmatic elements within it. From small charity shops, cafés, child day care (on the city border) choir practice space and storage, to spaces for after-liturgy gathering and other meetings, or spaces used for small liturgical acts such as week days mass, individual meditation in smaller chapels, paschal service, exorcism before baptism, confessions and church fairs or other church activities open to the general public. As such it would operate as missionary interface between the parish and the external modern world.
