Church architecture - Architettura della chiesa

The Catholic Churches of London
London churches are some of the finest examples of Catholic architecture built over the past 300 years. Their designs owe much to the genius of Gothic revivalists such as A.W.N. Pugin and William Wardell, and Classicists such as Anglican architects Sir Christopher Wren and Inigo Jones. more...

Did Vatican II Promote the Reform of Church Architecture?
'Sacrosanctum Concilium' was the only Vatican II document that addressed the question of art in Catholic churches. Interestingly, it did not employ the word 'architecture' even once. It did, however, strongly advocate the preservation of our sacred patrimony in no uncertain terms. more...

Church 'Re-Renovation' & the Third Millennium
A new trend is emerging: churches that were drastically altered decades ago are now being 're-renovated' to reflect their original designs. From rural churches to urban cathedrals, the sacred is being restored by a new generation of architects and patrons who realize that the archi-liturgical experiment of recent decades has been a failure. more...

The Three Natural Laws of Church Architecture
When we turn to the Church’s great architectural heritage we discover that from the early Christian basilicas in Rome to the Gothic Revival churches of early 20th-century America, three 'natural laws' of church architecture are observed faithfully in the design of successful Catholic churches. more...

Taking a Tour of the House of God
From portal sculptures to altarpieces, every detail of a traditional Catholic church building has a precise and rich significance, pointing to important aspects of Catholic faith and practice. Michael S. Rose takes you on a tour of a traditional church, explaining every aspect of the church building along the way. more...

A City Set on A Hill
One historic term for the church building is "city on a hill." This refers not only to the preferred location of our churches on high places, but also less literally as occupying a place of prominence in the community. Michael S. Rose points out the importance of the church establishing itself as a focal point of the community, whether urban or rural. more...

Face to Face With the Grand Summa
The facade is the "face" that the church presents to the world. It is often times the only part of the building that people will see, and thus it is the façade that has the greatest opportunity to evangelize, teach and catechize. It is at once a foreword to the Catholic liturgy and a prelude to the great truths of the faith. more...

Bring Back the Bells, and the Bell Tower, Too
During the course of the 20th century bell towers and then bells themselves disappeared. Some argued that bells were not affordable; others that they were inappropriately a sign of prideful triumphalism. Most, however, can recognize that the peal of bells and the visual profile of a bell tower add to the unique appeal of Catholic churches. more...

Ave Maria's Hothouse in Hurricane Alley
Ave Maria Univeristy recently unveiled plans for a campus oratory. The huge chapel's retro style of the 1960s is but another example of the persistent disregard for history that has characterized most church architecture of the past half-century: in other words, it's an outdated "novelty." more...

LA's New Cathedral Can't Get Out of the Box
It has been applauded as a "landmark of remarkable architectural intelligence." But most critics are evaluating the new Los Angeles cathedral according to the canons of modernist architecture - i.e., what the building says about itself. But how does it measure up as a Catholic cathedral? more...

The Future of Restoration and Renewal
With the wisdom of hindsight, many are waking up to the fact that the experimental church architecture designed and built in the latter half of the twentieth century has miserably failed the Catholic people. Michael S. Rose suggests that now is the time to correct the missteps of recent decades and presents the blueprint to do so. more...

Church renovator thrives on manipulation
Father Richard Vosko, a priest of the Diocese of Albany, has been making a comfortable living for the past three decades, travelling the United States and Canada—parish by parish—promoting his liturgical indoctrination program for the renovation of traditional Catholic churches as well as for the design of new Catholic churches. more...

In the Image and Likeness of God
Vitruvius, a Roman architect writing three decades before the Incarnation, reiterated the Greek understanding of the human body as the measure for all true architecture - in the image and likeness of God. It was this concept that informed the arrangement, scale, hierarchy, and proportion of new church architecture during the Renaissance. more...

Adapting the Roman Basilica
After Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, public worship of Christ was not only no longer forbidden, but was favored by the emperor over the pagan cults. Consequently, constantine made large financial contributions to the Church. His architect's adapted the general form of the Roman basilica for Christian worship - and with good reason. more...

A Giant Retractable Clamshell for Oakland
Did you hear the one about the giant clam in Oakland? I refer to the newest cathedral proposed for the San Francisco Bay area: It looks not like a church, bien sur, but like a giant clam, or perhaps a ribcage or the jaws of whale that open and close. That's right: It's also designed to be the first cathedral with a retractable roof. more...

'Environment & Art in Catholic Worship': A Critique
Michael S. Rose notes that a book authored by Lutheran architect Edward Sovik in 1973—five years before EACW was released— proposes many of the same architectural recommendations set forth in the bishops' document. However, Sovik’s work goes a bit further. He forthrightly discloses his motivation and his desired results. more...