CHURCH OF THE LIGHT

It turns out, there is more to this iconic piece of architecture than the cruciform end wall. It turns out that there are two walls in this building with a cruciform end wall. It also turns out that this building has a separate yet highly integrated form that functions as a school. There is an exterior staircase that moves up between freestanding exterior walls. There is a connector in the shape of an arc that connects the buildings. And that’s not all.

But you would not know any of this, if your flash card response to Church Of The Light (COTL) would be a mental image of the famous cruciform wall.

And I think that’s too bad. If Google Images is a reflection of our cultural mindset, and I believe that it is, then you have to dig really deep to see how this building really functions. There are all sorts of analytical CAD drawings on the web of COTL. And most every one focuses on just the sanctuary with the famous cruciform wall, as seen on the right. And nearly every one does not address all of the other functions and features, interior spaces and exterior spaces, of this building.

Many of the CAD images and model photographs on the web are student work. So it would seem that those who teach have condoned this mindset in which we focus solely on the sanctuary and the cruciform wall. Are we really content to only study one part of this building? Does the study of the whole building somehow lessen Ando’s brilliant cruciform wall?

An aerial photograph, shown at left, is the most revealing. This iconic building is on a corner lot. From what I can tell, the ground slopes. Otherwise, why would there be the staircase that I mention above between the walls. And there is an existing building, probably a dwelling, that COTL brackets;  see the blue form in the photo.

I drew the above drawing this morning while surfing for COTL images on my phone. And the more that I drew, I found myself getting angry. I was angry because it seems that we are content to simply take an iconic image, the cruciform wall, and let that suffice as our understanding of this building.  Yet as the aerial photo shows, there is much, much more to this building than simply the sanctuary.

Quite possibly a glossy monograph on this building would fill in all of these blanks. Quite possibly there would be a photo or two showing how the building fits into the site. Quite possibly there would be a photo showing the existing building on the site that is part of the complex.

Then again, quite possibly not. Whether all of these features are clearly visible in my transparent drawing is difficult to say. Yet despite the risk that my putting tones on all of the layers would turn things to mud, I kept going. And by keeping going, I really have a very clear knowledge of how this works.

Bottom line, COTL should be understood as a whole. Yet this holistic knowledge seems to be a secondary cultural concern.