Wow that google street view image is unspeakably grim. Looks better flipping through photos on google maps. Looks like the other side has some big windows.
Our family used to attend Newman Hall Church in Berkeley, California back in the '90s -- a very brutalist building of a church. Although religion never took for me, I had fond memories of the after-church donut feasts in the community space.
I don't know if the intention of the architecture was to get me to focus on the mass, but young me just spent the entire time taking in the strange geometries of the place.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/3TtT716k3bUkdAVh6
I've been there once and personally, quite like that aesthetic. But the thing that sticks with me was the priest proclaimed the Gospel passage from the bible word-for-word from memory rather than reading it.
If you're ever in Reykjavík, check out the Hallgrímskirkja. Completed in 1986, located visibly, on a hill. From outside it's very impressive, with the soaring spire shaped (IMHO) like a supersonic aircraft ascending vertically. A stone angel.
Ah yes, the church of The Binomial Distribution. Quite a sight. And if you're in Reyjkavík anyways, you should go visit my favourite brutalist church, Áskirkja. Straight out of the Lord of the Rings.
https://live.staticflickr.com/5743/22683689714_cff8ae8af1_b....
Also, don't miss out on the botanical garden and its café, it's right around the corner!
Shouldn't churches evoke feelings of divinity instead of oppression? (I know it's popular to hate on brutalist architecture, but really isn't a place of worship the last place you'd want it?)
I don't really see what's oppressive about any of these buildings. Many of the qualities of the divine are recognizable in these churches. Simplicity, transcending of the natural world, and so on.
When people talk about the divine, especially in the Abrahamic traditions, it's common to talk about what God isn't. (negative theology). You shouldn't make an image of God. To approach the divine is to remove everything that isn't divine and experiencing what is left over.
And I think that's fantastically realized in the austerity of these churches. I've visited some of them, my favorite one isn't actually mentioned here, it's a pretty small church outside of Osaka, the Church of Light by Tadao Ando. (https://youtu.be/7ZtfYOD5I8M)
Many of the brutalist churches I’ve seen do not, IMO, “evoke feelings of oppression” (aside from any one might have as a result of personal conflict with the religious institution behind them, which is a separate issue.)
Including, I should mention, most of those in TFA.
I suppose we just have to chalk it up to different tastes in art. To me, my first thought on seeing most of those pictures is how they look like settings for some implausibly dystopian sci-fi movie.
Brutalism IMO relies on imposing designs. In outdoor spaces, this can lead to feelings of oppression, as anyone who has traversed a high-rise complex at night can attest.
When there is enough space, such as in a church, library, public transport infra etc, the concrete monoliths suddenly become more distant and less threatening and you can really appreciate the effect of being in some kind of ancient future ruin.
They tend to look like something someone who didn’t give a shit made. “I just need a box for people to be in, who cares what it looks like?”
The example brutalist churches in another post here look like someone doing a horrible experiment in the Sims made buildings without bothering to use anything but some default wall texture they found buried in the dev tools that doesn’t even tile very well, because they just needed a place to torture Sims in and don’t care what it looks like.
Depends on who you ask. It's a somewhat common belief that churches should be plain and unadorned and that religious art can lead to idolatry. Ideas like that were particularly popular among early Protestants.
Depends on your scale. On one hand, all institutions are oppressive at some level. On the other, Christianity is the foundation of the free society you (most likely) live in.
These all look like churches that I would encounter with blood everywhere in the middle of a first-person shooter. They also look like total acoustical nightmares. All that echo-ey concrete, yikes.
Brutalist architecture can be done with good acoustics in mind, it just takes the same sort of planning & design that a non-brutalist building also needs.
The Barbican Centre in the UK is a very famous example of a music (and arts) venue with brutalist architecture, and while its acoustics are considered good but not amazing (or "serviceable", to use the description of conductor Sir Simon Raffle), it could have been much better but its problems weren't caused by being brutalist.
Although it actually fits quite right in the neighbourhood, which was wholly ruined by brutalist architects.
Some parts were built over beautiful Gründerzeit (industrial revolution more or less) tenement houses, which were demolished for this new "futuristic" district.
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They are called "defense bunkers against devil"
Some pictures:
https://twitter.com/sorjonen_fi/status/916606080154767361
https://twitter.com/ArtoNatkynmaki/status/168386825764259020...
https://fi.wiktionary.org/wiki/piruntorjuntabunkkeri#/media/...
However there's also the church in the rock which is absolutely stunning and worth a visit. https://www.temppeliaukionkirkko.fi/en/index/nimi.html#
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.7109737,-87.849723,3a,75y,35...
Their domain is pretty funny too: https://www.spaceshipchurch.org/ :')
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=newman+hall+holy+spirit+parish+ber...
I've been there once and personally, quite like that aesthetic. But the thing that sticks with me was the priest proclaimed the Gospel passage from the bible word-for-word from memory rather than reading it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallgr%C3%ADmskirkja
https://www.re.is/is/blog/guide-to-hallgrimskirkja-church-re...
https://yourfriendinreykjavik.com/hallgrimskirkja-a-tribute-...
Also, don't miss out on the botanical garden and its café, it's right around the corner!
When people talk about the divine, especially in the Abrahamic traditions, it's common to talk about what God isn't. (negative theology). You shouldn't make an image of God. To approach the divine is to remove everything that isn't divine and experiencing what is left over.
And I think that's fantastically realized in the austerity of these churches. I've visited some of them, my favorite one isn't actually mentioned here, it's a pretty small church outside of Osaka, the Church of Light by Tadao Ando. (https://youtu.be/7ZtfYOD5I8M)
Including, I should mention, most of those in TFA.
When there is enough space, such as in a church, library, public transport infra etc, the concrete monoliths suddenly become more distant and less threatening and you can really appreciate the effect of being in some kind of ancient future ruin.
But I am happy to know that brutalist churches in Germany will be destruct at first than older churches.
The example brutalist churches in another post here look like someone doing a horrible experiment in the Sims made buildings without bothering to use anything but some default wall texture they found buried in the dev tools that doesn’t even tile very well, because they just needed a place to torture Sims in and don’t care what it looks like.
Yeah, that comes off as oppressive.
These church spaces eschews color and decoration and instead shape the light and the space itself to give you a feeling of the divine.
Dead Comment
The Barbican Centre in the UK is a very famous example of a music (and arts) venue with brutalist architecture, and while its acoustics are considered good but not amazing (or "serviceable", to use the description of conductor Sir Simon Raffle), it could have been much better but its problems weren't caused by being brutalist.
This person's blog is worth a quick read (ctrl+F for the section about the Barbican): http://trevorcox.me/what-is-wrong-with-londons-concert-halls
And I really love the Barbican, including how it looks from outside and including how it feels to sing on its biggest stage. An exterior photo: https://www.ansador.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Barbica... And interior example: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/93/1f/52/931f52e58c9b1a2f9330d050a...
It feels very pleasant once you get to know it.
Others are so badly designed you need literally millions in audio equipment to have a simple choir.
Although it actually fits quite right in the neighbourhood, which was wholly ruined by brutalist architects.
Some parts were built over beautiful Gründerzeit (industrial revolution more or less) tenement houses, which were demolished for this new "futuristic" district.
https://modernmooch.com/2018/08/19/trinity-united-reform-chu...
Somewhat terrifying when they light up the front in red at night.
https://isthmus.com/arts/goodbye-st-pauls/