Wednesday, June 06, 2007

An award for ugliness?


Would you recognize this as a Catholic Church at first glance? It's actually St Malachy Catholic Church, an award winning architectural structure in Bedford, MA. It actually looks more like a place where people would gather for a good old fashioned country hoe down. It looks like a barn!


The concept is based on mathematical infinity, supposedly meant to represent eternity.


It's just plain confusing. And these holes represent what?


This black box houses the Holy of Holies. That's right, even though you would never recognize it as such, it is the Tabernacle. If God deigns to confine himself to a box for us and he is really and substantially present there, doesn't that box deserve to be of the best and most beautiful design? I find this tabernacle very strange and abstract in its design, incapable of eliciting reverence and devotion. It may be modern art, but it looks like a lump of coal! I find churches like this one downgrade everything beautiful and holy, and are actually rather poor attempts to bring the sacred to modern architecture.

6 comments:

Anita Moore said...

"We are the Borg...you will be assimilated...resistance is futile..."

Michael D. said...

My first thought was that it looked like a cornucopia more than infinity lol.

AquinaSavio said...

I'm tempted to send you pics of my local church...although it is a little better than this one.

Lynne said...

A slight fraternal correction, the church (I should scare quotes) is in Burlington, MA.

http://www.saint-malachy.org/

It is (do I need to say it?) liberal.

It looks like an airplane hangar.

Adoro said...

I don't think you should insult barns. Barns are homey and often more reverent and reflective places...and in fact, our Lord was born in one. Not in something with bowstring truss construction surrounded by flammable tent material.

I mean, really, God had standards!

I wouldn't house a chicken in that place.

Michael Leggett said...

Artists of Masterpieces-NOT:

As if someone on his/her 15th bottle of Jolt Cola # 3AM designed Both Church & Tabernacle