As the saying goes, de gustibus, non disputandum. There’s no disputing taste. Simple, yet everlastingly true: what one person finds beautiful, another may not. No style is perfect, but meaning can still be found in all art humanity creates, especially when it aims to inspire thoughts of the divine. We when look at modern design, our own tastes inform our opinions. If you prefer Gothic or classical styles, modern designs tend to be less appealing. Similarly, if you enjoy modern styles and minimalism, the ornate carvings and colors of older designs can be overpowering. Nonetheless, both sides offer a view into the fundamental principles of architectural design, especially as it relates to liturgy. The unbroken thread has been and will remain: a desire for expression of the divine and art which draws us out of ourselves towards something greater. Incorporating this philosophy into every design, Canning Liturgical arts strives to bring an artistic vision to every style of architecture that we encounter.
The Two Fundamentals: Order and Material
Ornamental architectural styles all vary greatly, but they carry key shared features. First, a sense of order. Whether it was based in simplicity of color and line, as we see in classical works, or symmetry and perfect ratios, as in Gothic and Islamic architecture, all good architecture had a clear structure that varied from stately Doric columns to swirling arabesques and undulating facades.
Second, the materials used communicated something about the location, wealth, and durability of the building. Marble was often the most expensive and hardy, offering a long-lasting reputation and acclaim. Wood was more malleable, more geographically common, and less durable over time, but provided an element of warmth and richness. Any native material used offered local artisans the ability to showcase their skills for generations to come, making a building project both a spiritual and local effort as it brought whole towns together in its construction.
Modern design has its roots in tangentially related fundamentals. Modernism was at first a reaction against the flamboyancy of design and perceived lack of necessity for costly Victorian splendor, since it was often unavailable to the very craftsmen that created it. Eventually, architecture attracted the innovators and engineers of the 20th century, where more scientific progress had been made than any century before. According to Nikolaus Pevsner in The Sources of Modern Architecture:
“The most ruthlessly creative minds did not choose the profession of architect. This explains to a certain extent the phenomenon of the collapse of aesthetic values in so much of the century.” [1]
The new sense of order in post-modern design allowed for asymmetry and heavy emphasis on lines, whether organic or geometric. The materials preferred by modern designers after the 1950’s were mass-manufactured and durable: concrete, steel, glass, and brick. All of these openly revealed the building’s construction as the central feature and focused on lessened cost and labor of construction, allowing the working man more free time to enjoy the fruits of his labor.
The resulting style was often a humble and straightforward structure, placing more emphasis on the beauty of its human construction rather than the artwork and decorations that cladded them. This still prioritizes order and material value, but in a new way from the preexisting styles. Since simple designs were easily produced by machinery and they were more appealing than their ornate predecessors, which had to be hand-crafted and were therefore fabulously expensive. Modern designers would rather focus on the basic units of artistic forms rather than their resulting compositions, citing these new creations and simple materials as honest and accessible to all strata of society.
While modernism seems to be directly at odds with older styles, it doesn’t have to be wholly “out with the old” when considering beautification of a modern building. Instead, thinking about how a community can uplift their existent space by working with intentional, timeless design motifs will result in a more meaningful gift for generations beyond. If a community wishes to transform itself and uplift its faith, what better way to do so than transforming their spiritual home?
The Case of St. Mary’s
An example of what could be is St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Bethel, CT. What was a dark, looming nave with blue trusses and a lack of focus was very simply transformed into an undoubtedly sacred space via color, lighting, and materials, all converging into an ordered design.
The sanctuary pre-beautification
The numerous colors, materials, and strong lines of the church did not follow even the tenets of modern design. The eye had nowhere to rest, nor any clear line and order to follow, and the materials were not celebrated but competed for the spotlight. The assortment of painted and natural wood, brick, drywall, stained glass and carpet not only affected the church acoustically, but visually as it coalesced into a confused space.
Unifying the Old and New
When faced with a post-modern design like this, a good artist cannot simply cover the walls with some other style of art and hope to hide the architectural structure. Beautiful art relies heavily on placement in a larger context, whether it be a painting in a gallery or a mural on the wall. Company principal David Riccio often stresses that, with churches built in the modern era, we must work with what already exists and uplift the architecture via art and basic elements. By working with the building’s original design, Canning Liturgical Arts was able to show what modern architecture and classical principles can accomplish.
The sanctuary after beautification
We began with the most significant area: the sanctuary. Using the stained glass as a recurring motif and a highlight allowed the church to retain blue in their design, but make it far more distinct and striking. Faux blue marble is bordered by yellow and orange to complement the stained-glass panels. The faux cream marble panels below allow for visual rest, balancing the more complex upper segment, and perfectly frame the crucifix at center. The faux marbled arch covers the structural brick and offers a simplified rendition of a triumphal arch, both symbolizing the triumph of faith and delineating a space for the holy of holies within the church. The mural of the Holy Spirit above the arch completes this motif as it bursts into life before the congregation.
Decorative paint of the Holy Spirit above the apse
The ceiling was another top priority. The once-blue trusses returned to wood-grain and were lit with strip LEDs, visually lifting them and maintaining the modern appeal of strong lines, only now guiding the eye toward the sanctuary. Rather than a multitude of can lights, the church opted for a few, effective, diffused lanterns, improving the light and visual clutter, as well as the electric bill.
Next, the pews were redone to allow more seating with available kneelers, rather than the previous angled design wasting significant space. The carpet was replaced with durable real marble and porcelain, complementing the sanctuary and brightening the space further.
Finally, Canning relocated the sanctuary side statues to their own niches which mirror the sanctuary arch. Not only does this improve the sense of order in the sanctuary, it places special reverence on the sculptures and reintroduces the classic liturgical feature of votive niches. Leaving the brick and original windows on the sides creates a cloister-like feeling as one walks along the side aisles and encounters the niches, until turning and allowing the modern structure to open the main area in a lofty, rather than looming, way.
Back and side views of the completed church
Looking to the Future
This church is one of many modern spaces needing organization. Whether a religious space is 50 years old or 250 years old, the guiding principles for timeless decoration remain the same, yet they still manage to create a unique sense of place in every new project Canning completes. With new technological and structural capabilities, we should still feel optimistic about what humanity can achieve in architecture. So long as our goal remains lasting beauty for all generations to come, our liturgical spaces also will remain places of truth, goodness, and beauty.
Citations:
[1] Pevsner, Nikolaus. The Sources of Modern Architecture and Design. Thames and Hudson, London. 1968.
