How have we changed in designing to please God? Compare current religious building to past building.

Church architecture has evolved over the two thousand of the Christian religion, partly by innovation and imitating other architectural styles as responding to changing beliefs, practices and local traditions. Since the birth of Christ to the present, a harmony of great church becomes the most significant objects of transformation for Christian architecture. Majority of them were developed along simpler lines and demonstrating local art and decoration to show the great regional diversity.

In the past, the church building was designed very details and looked holy. Furthermore, during the era, the church building also built very tall with many craving ornament as its facades to show sacred and made people respect it all the time. They used their skills to crave all the ornaments by their own hands to rise the value of those ornaments that show their patient and devoting to the God. There also grew out some feature during the roman period, such as basilica, atrium, narthex, nave with double aisles and so on.

During the time, most of the churches were designed a cruciform ground plan, which is a cross-shape plan with a long nave crossed by transept, it symbolise the respect to the Christ.

Past Church Building: St. Vitus Cathedral

St. Vitus Cathedral is the most beautiful and spectacular cathedral in the Czech Republic. It took more than a thousand years to construct. Until the 1954, the Communists turned it into national property. We can see every details of the structure or sculpture obviously, it show the patient of the craftsmen and designers during the construction. Besides that, it still symbolize how they respect to the God. After their hard work, the expression when people go into the church, it is fully respect and quite during praying or listening to the bible.

In the present, the church architecture was going to be a modernist architecture. Architects or designers were trying to make their projects become simple and clean as possible. It is same as how they designed a church building, they reduced those craving sculptures or ornaments, and make it simple but still meaningful, peaceful and holy. They tend to design in the way of giving people feeling and expression compare to use those eye-catching ornaments and sculptures since there were not much of skilful craftsman. And, the highest cost of doing these sculpture doesn’t worth. Although their design is going become simple, but the feeling ‘God is here’ is become stronger.

Church of light designed by the Tadao Ando and built in 1989. For him, Church of the light expresses the duality of architecture – the coexistence of its dual nature – full/empty, easy/ difficult. Light or dark. Opacity or transparency. The interaction of light through the concrete walls become aware of the deep division of secular and spiritual feeling in the observer. ‘emptiness’ is the idea of him, it meant to transfer someone into the realm of spiritual and invade the occupant so there is room for the ‘spiritual’ to fill them. It is his way to please God in modern church architecture.

Overview the Church of the light

Luce Memorial Chapel designed by artist Chen Chi-Kwan and I.M. Pei, the famous Chinese-born architect of 20th century. It located in the campus of Tunghai University in Taichung. It is a tent-like reinforced concrete structure in the shape of a hyperbolic parabolic and 16m height. The skylight between the planes is covered by the glass which allow natural daylight in from the top and washing the wall in light. It looked like an impossible structure during the time when everyone knew there was not any beam inside for support it. But it did, and still provide anti-earthquake system. During the 921 biggest earthquake in Taiwan, Luce Memorial Chapel had no any effect on its structure. They also said that, it is built by God himself.

Overview the construction of Luce Memorial Chapel

At last, I will said that modernist church architecture is free from a constant design such as the past churches alway applied those ornaments and sculpture to get the expression, but in the current modernist era, every designers have their own way to present this kind of feeling. Like using the nature features to get the expression, by the way is also related to the nature and protect them.