Our university is today having an architect (non-Orthodox of course) come to give a lecture. I will not be attending this lecture.
The reason is this: This architect designed an Orthodox Church in his home state. The design he had for this Church (which is now built) is completely of modern/post-modern design. It is clear that he had no desire to reflect traditional Orthodox Church design. From the outside, the church looks just like thousands of Protestant Churches out there, without the sign designating it as Orthodox, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. (until you walk inside)
A week ago in a class I'm taking (or forced to take), called History of Modern Architecture. We had to watch a video on Le Corbusier's La Tourette monastery in France. (a Dominican monastery)
This building is clearly a travesty and it's appalling that the Roman Catholic Church would allow such an ugly thing to be built. After watching the video, it was clear that Corbusier (an athiest) clearly designed the monastery with the architecture being the subject, and not God. He didn't believe in God, but said he believed in architecture. (that is in place of religion)
Website on Le Corbusier's La Tourette monastery:
http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/latourette/index.htmIt got me to thinking... With all the guides on how to design Orthodox Churches, and with our historical knowledge of the Church in various regions, should we codify traditional Orthodox architecture so as to stop the modernists/post-modernists from designing Orthodox Churches? (at least, if they designed them, they'd be forced to do it in traditional style)
So should we codify traditional Orthodox architecture to force the non-Orthodox to have to design our churches according to traditional styles or should we leave it alone and allow the non-Orthodox to design our churches as they see fit?
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As an aside, I'm not meaning to sound harsh, or even militant. However, I've seen too many examples of Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches (even some Orthodox Churches) which have been designed according to modernist/post-modernist principals and they are completely disgusting, I just don't want to see the same mistakes occur in the Orthodox Church.