Now, I realise the United Reformed Church is not that interested in the architecture of its churches, and that it hasn't really contributed much to the history of sacred buildings. But this is ridiculous.
I suppose you could say that this is the plain style - a shit developer house, scaled up with a cross stuck on the gable. It's not meant to look any different from the places you live. But surely, surely there could have been a little more love taken here without compromising the Calvinist roots of the church? Some pleasure to the entrance sequence instead of an acre of tarmac, for instance?
From the outside, it looks as though the internal volume could be ok, an airy space with exposed glu-lam rafters. But no. Instead, they did this:
I'm sorry, but I'd rather burn than spend my Sunday mornings in this place...
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Frank Lloyd Wright [when asked] said that walking into St Patrick's cathedral in New York gave him a feeling of regret - presumably because it summed up the way religious architecture relied on being an enormous volume of space decorated with excessive Gothic ornament, all designed to overwhelm the little person entering the building.
ReplyDeleteWell this is the opposite! It gives me a feeling of regret to see a house of worship so mediocre! Boring, magnolia, low ceilings, no sense of form or ornament on the exterior (I assume the inside isn't finished yet.)My 1906 house is more Godly in character than this, and it has higher ceilings too...
The building not soooo bad, but the wonderful wall to wall carpark makes it.
ReplyDeleteHere's one for you from the colonies.
http://theworstofperth.com/2007/09/30/discipline-and-punish/
http://theworstofperth.com/2007/11/08/purple-brain-drain/
Glad to find some more worstness to revel in.
The Lazy Aussie
The Worst of Perth
Last week the Times, this week BBA goes global!
ReplyDelete"A really lovely, grumpy English blog about bad architecture - I quite enjoy reading it: http://badbritisharchitectu...
about 2 hours ago from web^
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Name Francis Zera
Location Seattle, WA
Web http://www.zeraphoto.com
Bio Seattle-based commercial and architectural photographer.
http://twitter.com/zeraphoto
Is poverty of ambition part of the United Reform Church's credo ?
ReplyDeleteJesus really is crying right now.
ReplyDeleteI'm ROTFLing :-)))
ReplyDeleteWTF is that interior "lighting scheme" all about, dear Lord - like seriously, it gives you a fucking headache thinking about how on earth someone could design such shit, or maybe they told the electrical contractors to throw in whatever they had spare in the stockroom. At fucking random. I would happily bet it turns on (or off) in its entirety, via 16 amp tripswitch in one of those natty retro sliding door cupboards, handily placed above the doors. Note also the centrally-featured smoke detectors, least the emergency exits are well marked. Im an atheist (or an aesthete..), get me outta here. And Quick.
ReplyDelete