Joanna Chen - ARCH 1390: PDF

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The Vitra Design Museum designed by architect Frank Gehry is made for furniture exhibitions. To echo this purpose, the modern expressionist wisely adopted his usual habit in creating a sculptural essence within his building, highlighting the strangest shapes/geometry which uniquely represent the creative mind. Though Gehry did not use his favourite metal materials for roofing/ the body of the building, the white walls in exterior view had enabled the building to seem closer to the sky - expressing how much he values art himself.

At this point, I had gathered my other observations for the building both interiorly and exteriorly. For exmaple, the huge cross-shaped window in the near center of the ceiling, the continuous use of arched walls, the three doors on ground floor that are linearly aligned etc. - these features appears to be in deep connection with Christian concepts. After a long contemplation and various researches, I have finally came to a decision to redesign the Vitra Design Museum into a Christian Church, where I will use the original crossed-shape window to be the base for my design.

The concept behind this Church is focused on truth. The cross-shaped window gave me the idea that we are all looking up at the Heaven above, and there is nothing we can conceal from God. However, ‘truth’ in architecture means something more than a feeling. According to Adrian Forty in his book Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture, there are three key concepts in architectural truth - ‘structural truth’, ‘expressive truth’ and ‘historical truth’.

According to Pugin: ‘the severity of Christian architecture is opposed to all deception.’ Thus Gothic cathedrals are the best representations of architectural truth. Structurally they satisfy the building requirements, expressively they use symbolism to convey ideas of religion, and historically they represent a certain period of time in history.

To me, a Christian church represents a more solemn image than a museum as it is a place for worship, yet not as glamourous as a Catholic cathedral. So in the progress of re-envisioning this new building, I tried to follow the rules for truth whilst considering more about the atmosphere inside the church rather than outside.

* The rib structure of the building elegantly brings up the church atmosphere in to the building, however, unlike Gehry’s use of unusual shapes, this is not improvisational. The ribs act as the supporting force for the whole building. The ribs’ formation makes arched door frames all the way through the hall - commonly seen in churches and cathedrals as the arches are seen as a gateway pointing to Heaven.

* The cross-shaped window is now located in the center of the rooftop, where all the ribs meet. I made this to emphasise the union of Brothers and Sisters in the name of God.

* During my research period, I came across Alva Aalto’s Church of the Three Crosses, where he has cleverly merged the activities area with the main hall with the use of sliding doors, so that when there are too many people coming to the hall, the activities area can be opened to serve for them; when the area is not used for this purpose, it can be closed for other uses. In my design I also included this function, so the size of the church space is flexibly controlled at any time.

* The concept of the three doors aligned in the original Vitra Design Museum are still kept, since this formation is closely related to the Christian concept of Father, Son and Spirit.

* White is a colour representing purity, suitable for church designs.

* Wood is also a common material to be used in churches and cathedrals. They contain a classical elegant sense. Most importantly - it is not a fancy material to be used, satifying the requirement of material truth.

I have looked at a number of Christian architectural designs in specific, including Alva Aalto’s Church of the Three Crosses, Carlo Scarpa’s Brion Cemetery chapel, Tadao Ando’s Church of Light, and a number of other cathedrals. However my ideas for design also come from other sources such as drawings, paintings, various living things in nature etc... Examining the creations by God usually give me a better understanding of the connection between human and God. Usually a complex struction is formed by a lot of simple ideas, and truth can only be found by breaking up things little by little.