Transformative light and thresholds: exploring metaphor in brutalist church architecture

Abstract

In this paper I consider the interaction between architectural space and embodied spiritual experience. In an example of a South African Dutch Reformed Church building designed by architect Roelof Uytenbogaardt in the town of Welkom, and the church of the light in Osaka Japan, by Tadao Ando, these aspects are highlighted and read through the lens of metaphor, phenomenological architectural interpretation, and image studies. These differing lines of inquiry are brought together, if we accept architectural theorist Juhani Pallasmaa’s premise (1996, 2005) that architecture can direct our consciousness back to the world, to our own sense of self and embodied being; and we in turn base our analysis on art historian Ellen Esrock’s (2010) concepts concerning emphatic bodily projection; it may be argued that new insight into the way architecture underscores embodied spiritual experiences could be gained. The selected church building is analysed from a phenomenological point of view, emphasising architectural features, the interpretation of the metaphors of light and threshold, and how architectural space may contribute to congregants’ experience during a service.