reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches
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Mies van der Rohe may be considered a direct influence on Prof. O’Neill’s architectural outlook. He in turn is influenced by the father of the Bauhaus movement, Walter Gropius. Such an architectural progeny is indeed cause for disquiet. 😮
For examples of Gropius’ work see the following link:
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/gropius.html
An interesting critique on Bauhaus architecture from a religious point of view is E. Michael Jones, Living Machines: Bauhaus Architecture as Sexual Ideology, published by Ignatius Press. For details, see the Amazon website at this link:
Duncan Stroik, Chair of the Architecture School of Notre Dame University, has an interesting critique of the approach of the Modernist school (of which Gropius and Mies van der Rohe are two important representatives) to Church architecture. In “The Roots of Modernist Church Architecture” he outlines the guiding principles behind the work of the school. Although many churches are still built to the designs of architects of this school, such as a recent church by Richard Meier at Tor Tre Teste in the suburbs of Rome and the concrete box that passes for a cathedral in Los Angeles, the modernist style is now becoming somewhat passé, as more recent church architects (though, alas, not yet in Ireland) pay more attention to liturgical sign, symbol and typology, and pay more heed to the great church buildings of the past for inspiration. Is it too much to hope for that more recent thinking in this area will eventually come to influence Irish church architects?
Here is the link to Stroik’s article: http://www.adoremus.org/1097-Stroik.html
For Meier’s church in Rome:
More delights from the modern school: Los Angeles Cathedral and Mario Botta’s Evry Cathedral, France. 😉
After our little trip abroad, perhaps it’s time to take a look at some of the home-grown variety. A particularly eloquent example is the “Eucharistic room” in Carlow’s Institute of Pastoral Liturgy, designed by the architect Richard Hurley and theologically justified by the notorious Sean Swayne.
The architect tells us that that “The uncompromising character of the all-white space is softened by the intimacy of the assembly. The space comes alive during the celebration. The complete flexibility of the timber furnishings, designed by the architects, respond to similar flexibility required by the liturgical celebrations from time to time. “
Sounds like musical chairs!Moving quickly northwards, we come to Pugin’s St Mary’s Chapel in Maynooth College, enhanced by Richard Hurley, following a rather eccentric reordering in 1967.
For the present reordering, which owes little to the principles of pointed architecture, Hurley was aided and abetted by Benedict Tutty (tabernacle) and others.
He tells us that “This ensemble, designed by the architect, creates an explosion of colour on the west wall, and presents a strong and prayerful focus, outside of the Eucharistic area.”“Explosion” is indeed the operative word here! 😀
For description, follow the link http://www.rha.ie/maynooth.html
For photograph of the “explosion” see the attached photo.
Qiuite clearly, Richard Hurley has not read the Institutio Genralis Romani Missalis as his arrangement in St. Mary’s Chapel, Maynooth, does not conform to the requirements laid down for the celebration of the Eucharist – not least being the demarkation of an area that is specifically a “presbyterium”. Even in churches where there has been an antiphonal arrangement for the celebartion of the Liturgy of the Hours, such always antecedes the presbyterium, as is the case in an abbatial church where the offices are daily sung, or indeed in JJ McCarthy’s great masterpiece which is the College Chapel in Maynooth. It is very difficult to see where R. Hurley is taking his cue from but one thing is certain – it is not from the established norms governing Catholic worship.
Maynooth College Chapel, from the presbyterium:
The grace and elegance of Hurley’s efforts in St. Mary’s oratory in Maynooth can easily be understood from the thought and art-historical acumen invested in the furnishings:r
http://www.fitzgeraldsofkells.com/images/samples/p_maynooth2_small.jpg
I would regard it as highly foolish of R. Hurley to have attempted anything like an antiphonal church arrangement in Maynooth of all places where he simply begs uncomplimentary contrast with JJ McCarthy’s great Choir Chapel disposed in a true antiphonal fashion and architecturally articulating all of the main spaces to be included in a Catholic church -with the exception of the nave, which the circumstances of Maynooth College did not require. When one looks at the faux antiphonal pastiche and at the poor quality conception of the the furnishings of St. Mary’s Oratory, one begins to realize that one is facing a true example of a misbegotten and malformed Bauhaus offspring (their unremembering hearts and heads, base born products of base beds ). The “explosion” of colour surrounding the tabernacle, for example, dwarfs into sham insignificance when one beholds the exquisite kaleidescope of colours of the glass in the lancet windows above and at either side of Kim En Joong’s magnum horrendum, especially when seen in the declining light of a summer’s afternoon. Clearly, neither the form or content of the tabernacle surround has any Christian significance whatsoever and could pass equally well, indeed better, in the departure lounge of a suburban bus depot. Was the provision of panelling along the northand south walls of the chapel a conscious effort to emulate the panelling in the College Chapel? If so, I am afraid that all it serves to illustrate is the sad decline in Irish architecture and craftsmanship over the past century for it is but a shodow of JJ McCarthy and the magnificent wood carving of the Monan Brothers from Dundalk to say nothing of the almost total intellectual demise of the Catholic Church in Ireland – even in those sciences which one would consider essential for the adequate execution of its mission. Truly, St. Mary’s Oratory is a symbol but not, I am afraid, of what is officially propagandized.
We remember how difficult it was years ago to get a seat in the College Chapel at Maynooth for Sunday Mass or Evening Devotions. Could it be true, as we have heard, that Saint Mary’s Oratory now adequately accommodates the worshipping remnant and the College Chapel is used only for concerts and conferrings and the like? This too is symbolic perhaps.
@sangallo wrote:
After our little trip abroad, perhaps it’s time to take a look at some of the home-grown variety. A particularly eloquent example is the “Eucharistic room” in Carlow’s Institute of Pastoral Liturgy, designed by the architect Richard Hurley and theologically justified by the notorious Sean Swayne.
The architect tells us that that “The uncompromising character of the all-white space is softened by the intimacy of the assembly. The space comes alive during the celebration. The complete flexibility of the timber furnishings, designed by the architects, respond to similar flexibility required by the liturgical celebrations from time to time. “
Sounds like musical chairs!
Have you ever seen such a miserably uncomfortable group? 🙁 ” The space comes alive..” :rolleyes: 😡
This space does not conform to the liturgical norms of the Institutio Generalis Romani Missalis and is consequently unsitable for the celebration of the Mass. Indeed, it is no more than room which has no specifically religious, let alone Christian or Catholic , articulation. It is a prime example of what sacred architecture is not and at total variance with the tradition of Christian architecture accumulated since the Edict of Milam of 312. Its only interesting architectural features are the sash windows.
In his preface to Richard Hurley’s book Irish Architecture in the age of Vatican II (Dominican Publications,2001), Arthur Gibney traces the roots of ecclesiastical architecture in Ireland during the last half of the 20th. century to a number of sources. Among them, he mentions a symposium on church design organized by the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland held in 1955 and to the establishment of the Church Exhibition Committe in 1956. This committee organized two important exhibitions: Eglises de France Reconstruites and Modern Churches in Germany, respectively held in 1957 and 1962. Not surprisingly, both France and Germany had seen much rebuilding work after the war. Two further sources for modern church architecture in Ireland identified by Gibney are the Irish Episcopal Commission for Liturgy and the National Advisory Commitee on Sacred Art and Architecture. Among the first members of the latter were: J.G. McGarry, Professor of Homoletics in Maynooth, Austin Flannery, OP, and prominent architects such as Wilfrid Cantwell, Andrew Devane, Liam McCormack and Richard Hurley -examples of whose reordering work have already been seen above. In the same preface, Gibney writes: “…Richard Hurley has been closely involved with the promotion of avant-guard ideas on church design since the 1960s and has an established reputaton as a lecturer and writer on sacred art and architecture”. Gibney further writes: “His [Richard Hurley’s] work in older monumental churches in the 1990s reveals a sensitivity to historic spaces which has been sadly lacking in the modern liturgical interventions of the past”. As an exemplification of this last assertion, Gibney suggests that “the refurbishment of the Honan Chapel in U.C.C. complements its architectural qualities”. Again he claims: “The complex task of refurbishment of Cork Cathedral (of St. Mary and St. Anne) in 1995 combines a sensitive re-ordering of liturgical functions with a dramatic recovery of the spacial and architectural language of an important monument”.
Behind the modernist movement in Ireland lay the figures of French and German architects such as Auguste Perret, Otto Bartning, Rudlf Schwartz and Dominikus Boehm. Investigation of these may well throw light on the devastation practised on Ireland’s non too extensive heritag of ecclesiastical buildings and explain why much of the work carried out on Irish churches in the past forth years could easily leave the impression that during the Second World War Ireland was as heavily bombed as Dresden.As an example of the work of the Lutheran architect Otto Bartning, a close collaborator of Gropius, I enclose images of Bartning’s work in Dresden-Loebtau and links for further biographical and professional information:
Before:
After:
Interior:
Further information on Otto Bartning:
http://www.das-neue-dresden.de/friedenskirche_otto-bartning_1949.html
http://www.ev-gescher.de/ueberuns/022ae3961a079ea18/022ae3961b114510b/
WIth regard to Rudolf Schwarz (1897-1961), the following entry in the Kirchenlexikon is interesting for what it has to say about Schwarz’s ideas about the transition from Crowd to People to People of God and the joining of Community and Altar; the relationship of architecture and liturgy; and the articulation of ecclesiastical architecture:
http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/s/s1/schwarz_r.shtml
An example of his work: the Corpus Christi Church in Aachen:
The Corpus Christi interior:
I think that posting # 251 should be seen in conjunction with posting # 255 (interior view of Corpus Christi, Aachen). We begin to see influences and prototypes behind all those spartan white walls.
Another example of Rudolf Sacrwrz’s work: Heilige Familie built in 1960:
Dueren, St. Anna
Essen, St. Antonius
Frankfurt, St Michael
Linz, St Teresia
Some examples of the work of Dominikus Boehm, who is seen as a large influence on the Irish modernist movement:
Dettingen, St. Peter und Paul (1922)
Mainz, Christkoenigkirche (1926)
Interior
@Praxiteles wrote:
Gibney further writes: “His [Richard Hurley’s] work in older monumental churches in the 1990s reveals a sensitivity to historic spaces which has been sadly lacking in the modern liturgical interventions of the past”. As an exemplification of this last assertion, Gibney suggests that “the refurbishment of the Honan Chapel in U.C.C. complements its architectural qualities”. Again he claims: “The complex task of refurbishment of Cork Cathedral (of St. Mary and St. Anne) in 1995 combines a sensitive re-ordering of liturgical functions with a dramatic recovery of the spacial and architectural language of an important monument”.
Regarding Cork Cathedral, one can see the sensitivity of the reordering in the combination of a Gothic Revival style throne for the bishop with something akin to a stage set for “Madame Butterfly” or “The Mikado”. One only awaits the entry of the geisha girls from behind the wooden screens!
The claims of Gibney re Hurley remind one of similar claims about enhancing Pugin in Killarney! :rolleyes:
Liam McCormick (1916-1996) is regarded by many as the father of modern Irish Church architecture. He is perhaps best known for having designed St Aengus’s Church in Burt, Co. Donegal. His stated influences are Le Corbusier, Gropius and Alvar Aalto.
For info on Burt Church, see:
http://www.irish-architecture.com/buildings_ireland/donegal/burt/st_aengus.html
For a brief biographical sketch, see:
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