Modern Architecture and the Sacred: Religious Legacies and Spiritual Renewal

Modern Architecture and the Sacred provides a timely reappraisal of the many ways in which architecture and the sacred have overlapped in the 20th century. A wide range of case studies are presented through 16 contributed chapters - including the work of iconic modernist architects such as Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto and Mies van der Rohe - which together demonstrate how sacred and semi-sacred buildings are central phenomena in modernism. Such works have much to reveal to us about the deeper motivations and complexities at the core of the modernist project. The case material is not limited simply to discussions of explicitly religious buildings (churches, synagogues, etc), but looks outwards to invocations of the 'semi-sacred' within secular buildings too - museums, exhibition pavilions, and memorials - which can all make claims at times to a form of sacred space. This expansion of the notion of sacred space sets this collection apart, providing a deeper insight into the role that spirituality plays in modern architecture's philosophical foundations, whether explicitly religious or otherwise.

Table of Contents:
List of figures Notes on contributors Acknowledgements Introduction, Ross Anderson (University of Sydney, Australia) and Maximilian Sternberg (University of Cambridge, UK) Part One Beginnings and transformations of the modern sacred 1. Architecture and the question of ‘the’ sacred, Peter Carl (University of Cambridge, UK) 2 Romantic Kunstreligion and the search for the sacred in modern architecture: From Schinkel’s Altes Museum as ‘aesthetic church’ to Zumthor’s Bruder Klaus Field Chapel as Gesamtkunstwerk and ‘heavenly cave’, Gabriele Bryant (Independent Scholar) 3. The Ordinary as the extraordinary: Modern sacred architecture in Germany, the United States and Japan, Kathleen James-Chakraborty (University College Dublin, Ireland) 4. Città dei Morti: Alvar Aalto’s funerary architecture, Sofia Singler (University of Cambridge, UK) Part Two Buildings for modern worship 5. Light, form and formación: Daylighting, church building and the work of the Valparaíso School, Mary Ann Steane (University of Cambridge, UK) 6. Reading, storing and parading the book: Between tradition and modernity in the synagogue, Gerald Adler (University of Kent, UK) 7. Compacting civic and sacred: Goodhue’s University of Chicago Chapeland the modern metropolis, Stephen Gage (University of Reading, UK) 8. A diaspora of modern sacred form: Auguste Perret, Le Corbusier and Paul Valéry, Karla Cavarra Britton (Diné College, Navajo Nation) 9. Structure for spirit in The Architectural Review and The Architects’ Journal, 1945–70, Sam Samarghandi (Independent Scholar, Australia) Part Three Semi-sacred settings in the cultural topography of modernity 10. Revelatory earth: Adolphe Appia and the prospect of a modern sacred, Ross Anderson (University of Sydney, Australia) 11. Anagogical themes in Schwitters’ Kathedrale des erotischen Elends, Matthew Mindrup (University of Sydney, Australia) 12. Modern medievalisms: Curating the sacred at the Schnütgen Museum in Cologne (1932–9), Maximilian Sternberg (University of Cambridge, UK) 13. Architecture, politics and the sacred in military monuments of Fascist Italy, Hannah Malone (Max Planck Institute, Germany) 14. Atmosphere of the sacred: The awry in music, cinema, architecture, Michael Tawa (University of Sydney, Australia) Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Ross Anderson is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Sydney, Australia. Maximilian Sternberg is a University Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Fellow of Pembroke College at Cambridge University, UK.

Review :
As religiosity declined in the West, architecture became the bearer of a powerful secular spirituality, widely ignored in the standard histories. In its broad and inclusive approach, this volume argues persuasively that the pursuit of the sacred was a key constituent of 20th-century architectural design and theory: a revision long overdue.