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.
No doubt. I find these churches amazingly beautiful.
I also think in the sense of how a church in 1500 was not a relic of the past the way we view a church from 1500 today. I would say a church from 1500 was much closer to what the churches in this article would have been in 1500.
Of course, there is a real issue that while I find these amazingly beautiful I would never go to one because I am not the least bit Christian or religious.
I don’t have a car, but I would love for the parking garage near me look like the churches in the article (putting aside the practical differences in requirements). Similarly, I would welcome one on these church buildings replacing one of my neighborhood churches just to give us something different to look at.
Probably the most famous Brutalist public art in Texas, the Fort Worth Water Gardens, was indeed used in filming of Logan's Run.
I've generally found the Brutalist buildings in Texas rather ugly on the exterior at least, but did find a sense of comfort in occupying them; perhaps there's something cave-like and solid about their atmosphere. I did enjoy visiting the Water Gardens; I think it's a good expression of the style.
However, many of the churches pictured here are on another level. Something about the austere concrete juxtaposed to the wooden pews (and speaking as someone raised Catholic, it's hard to imagine a pew brutal enough to satisfy god) works quite well for me. I'm really impressed by some of these.
Yeah, it's different tastes. I'm split on these in a different way than I've seen in the other comments, because I generally hate brutalist buildings from the outside, but think the interiors are fantastic (including most in TFA). When it comes to churches I think that's somehow symbolically appropriate.
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.
I disagree. Brutalism is based on dropping any pretense of the material used to construct the building. No shiny glass veneer or facade, just concrete buildings reveling their concreteness with no artifice. If large middle age cathedrals are supposed to inspire a sense of the devine, then IMO brutalist churches inspire a sense of guilelessness.
A point of brutalism is "form follows function and "showcase the bare building materials" (1) - in other words, that's how the material looks, naturally. Bare, unpainted concrete is in fact more natural and honest than painted concrete. And brutalism deliberately leans into that naturalism (of modern materials).
The impression of Unnatural comes from the fact, that brutalist forms don't exist in Nature. Concrete is everything but not a natural material. Showing it isnt natural.
I am still buffed they are people defending brutalism. It is one of the biggest mistake in Architecture and one day these buildings will vanish.
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.
I don't see it that way at all. A lot of care and thought went into these designs, and they evoke the kind of awe you would expect from a god's house. These aren't just hulking concrete bunkers like some of the institutional brutalism you see.
We were generally talking about brutalism and I searched shortly about sloppy designed example (besides many real life example I am unlucky forced to see)
Please think more next why people disagree with your opinion. Also see it as a hind to be more thoughtful why brutalism is so unpopular.
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.
I wouldn’t give so much credit to Christianity, or any religion. The modern west is built on enlightenment ideas, not least of which is the separation of church and state.
is it though like really? >6 billion people in the world actively identify with one religion or another but in terms of ratio there are more memes on social media about athesim than religions at least on my AI curated feed
There is plenty of hate speech towards non-believers if you look a little bit for it. In fact, I'd even say that as unfunny and overseen atheists memes are, they are the most tame of all religious critic online.
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.
People might need interested in this Irish documentary
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This film essay looks closely at a rupture, the demolition of a church in Dublin through a portrait of the building’s dismantling.
While the cultural meaning of the end of this building has been marked by its community through ritual events, this project comes from a new materialist perspective, drawing attention to the life of the fabric of the church. Produced in collaboration with architectural historian Ellen Rowley, and featuring oral interviews recorded in Finglas, the film points to questions of sustainability in architecture such as counting the embodied energy of this church. Tracing how materials were financed, grown and crafted, the project will provide scope for audiences to reflect on the life of the building itself, socially, culturally, and environmentally.
These remind me of styling in Raise by Wolves [0] of the Mithraic [1].
By the way, it's a great sci-fi show and I was very saddened when I heard HBO Max canceled it (during its transition to Max). I unsubscribed from them and I'm boycotting them due to this hostility.
Interesting reaction. What's your thoughts on why when you delve into it?
Could be too personal to share no worries! Ha :) But I'm guessing because the lack of decoration, could be linked with lack of friendly consideration to the people about. And the blocky forms could seem imposing and gigantic versus human scale. Combined it could give the impression of something authoritarian, like a penitentiary or Orwellian government ministry building. You might be feeling uneasy about its obvious display of power.
All this makes me think: maybe they should remake the Pentagon in brutalist design. To, just, like...be really unobvious about it. Hahaha! :)
The first church in the article (second after the banner picture), "Santa Maria Immacolata"[0] has an important historical meaning.
It is located in the village of Longarone, which was completely wiped out in 1963 due to the disaster of the Vajont dam[1]. Tl;dr the dam should not have been built there because of the geology of the area, but they did anyway; an enormous piece of the mountain fell into the lake, causing a huge wave. Nearly 2000 people died.
The church was built as part of the rebuilding of the whole village.
Montreal has some great brutalist buildings, and there are few brutalist churches in the east-end of the island. I grew up with many buildings of this style and I must say I've grown fond of them. I know they are seen as cold, but they bring me warmth.
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/...