Forms, Voids, and Buildings

Of the Church of Senhora de Boa Nova, in Estoril, Portugal, the architects (Filipa Roseta & Francisco Vaz Monteiro) said:

We were guided by the desire to achieve the paradoxical formal supremacy of the void over the object.

I look at these pictures and think, This is what happens when you privilege the void over the object instead of trying to design a nice building. I cannot imagine anything less spiritual than those blank white walls.

The architects went on to explain:

We believe designing sacred space should revolve around the ability to state the supremacy of the Void. Throughout the project’s development, the key conceptual elements were two empty spaces: the courtyard, a place where the community could meet; and the nave, a sacred space presenting that which could not be presented. We wished the nave to be an introspective, infinite, and irrepresentable space. In order to achieve this, we followed creative paths suggested by the works of Bernini, Piranesi and Rachel Whiteread.

Looking at the blank space of this courtyard, I see no meeting place, just another sterile void -- hey, it's their word -- like the empty plazas that surround so many buildings in Washington, used only by the skateboarders the owners try in vain to keep out with NO SKATING signs.

Now Portugal is full of wonderful churches, like the Cathedrals in Porto:

And Braga:

Leaving me to wonder once again why nobody designs churches any more that I like.

Actually there are a few modern churches I admire. I am ok with Corbusier's famous Notre Dame du Haut, and I especially like the way the light flows through the irregular windows:

And my favorite piece of American evangelical art, the Thorncrown Chapel:

So it's not like I hate everything. Just voids that have supremacy over people.