Ad Maiorem Gloriam Concreti

April 26, 2024 7:52 PM

Brutalist Churches.

(this post is for pinkmoose. but also for all of us.)

posted by kaibutsu (47 comments total)

I keep on getting flashbacks to that one part of System Shock 2 where you wander through an upside-down church where horrible things happened. All of these look like first-person shooter levels.

And I can't help but wonder how many of them are horrible echo-pits. All that flat concrete would just take the preacher's voice and make a giant mess of it.
posted by egypturnash at 8:05 PM on April 26 [5 favorites]

Gorgeous
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:15 PM on April 26 [5 favorites]

Some of the interior shots look like something oppressive out of Gilliam's Brazil.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:30 PM on April 26 [5 favorites]

I've never been to one of the featured churches, but one of the most amazing churches I've been in was reminiscent of some of these spaces. It was in the Sahel, a modern building made of red brick, and very simple - but the way the light and shade filtered in from the clerestory windows made it feel like walking into a forest glade. There is something about the lack of adornment that makes it feel like the space itself is the temple, I guess?

I dunno, I have always liked a lot of brutalist architecture, so I might be biased.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 8:32 PM on April 26 [4 favorites]

Newman Hall, Berkeley, California
posted by ActingTheGoat at 8:43 PM on April 26 [2 favorites]

Those are some hard churches to love.

Bare concrete is a hard surface to love.

The ones with all straight lines and flat surfaces, especially - they feel like places that people are taken to have violence done to them, not places that people go for healing.

What denominations built these churches? Are they all Catholic? Who paid for them? Does anybody still attend them?
posted by clawsoon at 8:45 PM on April 26 [5 favorites]

Interesting that the photos are mostly of interiors, often strikingly beautiful and functional, and not of the despiriting, ugly, and often run down exteriors.

These buildings were absolute harbingers of atheism. Commissioned by people who may have been committed to a cerebral or theological notion of their faith, but who were embarrassed by its traditions, aesthetics, demands for obedience, and any notion of a piety more felt than intuited. Such people cannot transmit faith to their children in a way that is likely to stick, to say the least of make it another generation.
posted by MattD at 9:09 PM on April 26 [9 favorites]

Milwaukee has a large number of very pretty 19th century churches - I'm partial to Calvary Presbyterian on a purely architectural basis - but there's something charming about the brutalist Methodist church near where I work, certainly not as beautiful as some, but it feels like it fits into its block and its larger urban context in a way that many of the older churches don't.

And it has its share of interesting history.

This unusual modern building departs radically from traditional church architecture forms and materials. In the late 1970s, the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Companies (OPEC) oil embargo temporarily raised fuel oil costs, which prompted builders and architects to find more energy-efficient construction methods. This earth-sheltered building exemplifies the enlightened responses to the situation, short-lived as it was.

When two established Methodist congregations merged and decided to build a new church, they razed one of their buildings and built a new concrete church on the site. It is mounded with earth to resemble a landscaped hill. The dramatic angular concrete tower is in fact a solar shaft, which integrates solar collectors, mechanical systems, and the bell tower, and it brings daylight to the altar and the church auditorium beneath it. A low concrete wall supports prairie grass, flowers, and shrubs growing on the structure’s roof and walls. The nave or auditorium is simply finished with natural concrete walls and furnished with movable chairs and serves the congregation’s multiple social, educational, and liturgical needs.

posted by Jeanne at 9:17 PM on April 26 [5 favorites]

Such an awful period in architecture history. Give me the baroque and renaissance marvels of Europe...They have withstood the test of time.I need gargoyles people!
posted by Czjewel at 9:23 PM on April 26 [4 favorites]

Ah... reminds me of the Tower of History in Sault Ste. Marie, MI, USA...
posted by JoeXIII007 at 9:24 PM on April 26

Nope.


These very much remind me of this lovely place.
posted by BlueHorse at 9:28 PM on April 26 [1 favorite]

Brutalist Churches.

That, right there, is your band name of the day. Also, the cover art would be a snap.
posted by Relay at 9:36 PM on April 26 [3 favorites]

Paul Virilio, back when he was principally an architect, had a crack at the church form. Referencing the concrete bunkers and Atlantic Wall of WWII, the church at Sainte-Bernadette du Banlay may well be in this book somewhere.
posted by LemmySays at 10:33 PM on April 26 [1 favorite]

Some of these are wonderful. Catedral Metropolitana de São Sebastião in Rio de Janeiro is hideous, although the stained glass is stunning.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:53 PM on April 26

Newman Hall, Berkeley, California
If I walked by that thing, I might think, "Oh, finally. A public bathroom."

I'm no believer, but as an outsider, I think I'd want my church to be something inviting and embracing to the common folk of the region. The style might differ everywhere, but the feel would be "come in for comfort, peace of mind, community, spiritual guidance." Exactly who would get feelings anything like that from these parking garages?
posted by pracowity at 11:19 PM on April 26 [2 favorites]

God damn, I loooooove "St Reinold Kirche in Düsseldorf, Germany, by Josef Lehmbrock (1957)" It is so beautiful. To the degree that given the photo I think I'd be moved to tears seeing it in person. Just wow
posted by Carillon at 12:37 AM on April 27 [2 favorites]

I like the interiors, the exteriors are not so hot IMHO.
Maybe they should have buried them like the Canberra parliament. A nice grassy knoll on the outside, nicely brutalist Dune set on the inside.
posted by phigmov at 12:44 AM on April 27

Very nice post!
posted by mumimor at 2:10 AM on April 27 [1 favorite]

So this post isn't about churches that worship brutalism but the buildings ... Darn.
posted by nofundy at 2:36 AM on April 27 [3 favorites]

Some of these look like prison assembly yards, but some are quite striking and beautiful in their own way, the ones that look almost organic in shape.

But the point of an auditorium is *audio*. I would love to know how these sound. Some of the ones with high textured ceilings might actually work, but my suspicion is that most of these are going to make it difficult to hear the speaker and muddy the music.
posted by JDHarper at 3:56 AM on April 27 [3 favorites]

These buildings were absolute harbingers of atheism. Commissioned by people who may have been committed to a cerebral or theological notion of their faith, but who were embarrassed by its traditions, aesthetics, demands for obedience, and any notion of a piety more felt than intuited. Such people cannot transmit faith to their children in a way that is likely to stick, to say the least of make it another generation.

I'm no believer, but as an outsider, I think I'd want my church to be something inviting and embracing to the common folk of the region. The style might differ everywhere, but the feel would be "come in for comfort, peace of mind, community, spiritual guidance." Exactly who would get feelings anything like that from these parking garages?

A college friend of mine did her doctoral work on the subject of why & how the American Catholic church embraced modern architecture in the mid-20th century. Check out her book on the subject if you want to learn more about these questions.
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:20 AM on April 27 [6 favorites]

And to those of you who wonder about the acoustics in such a space, I honestly can't imagine they're significantly worse than in a traditional 18th- or 19th-century church. I've played music in a few such spaces and things get muddy very quickly.
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:24 AM on April 27 [3 favorites]

Compare and contrast: Brutalist churches vs. the Crystal Cathedral. Both are based on modern building techniques, but they aim for very different expressions of capitalist dystopia.
posted by clawsoon at 4:49 AM on April 27 [2 favorites]

These are gorgeous, thank you!
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:26 AM on April 27 [5 favorites]

I don't believe in God, but She believes in raw, unadorned concrete.
posted by signal at 6:18 AM on April 27 [3 favorites]

Several of these are awesome.
posted by Mitheral at 7:11 AM on April 27 [4 favorites]

Thank you this gift which I am about to receive.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:53 AM on April 27 [4 favorites]

Yes please, awesome post, precisely what I didn't know I needed today. I have an extreme attraction/aversion conflict with Brutalist structures and these are outstanding, especially the interiors of which a couple simply scream to be location to reshoot the epic Apple 1984 Ridley Scott commercial.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 8:45 AM on April 27 [2 favorites]

Trona Ca. Saint Madeline
posted by hortense at 9:22 AM on April 27

Those are mostly spectacular and beautiful. I’m surprised so many people seem to dislike them. Thanks for posting this.

I was raised as an evangelical Christian but escaped to rational thought as an adult, so maybe I am not so in touch with the religious side of things, but I think I’d have found them magnificent even back in the day. In fact, some of the interiors remind me strongly of cathedrals.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 9:28 AM on April 27 [6 favorites]

Glorious. I find these settings no less conducive to religious experience than any other traditional church architecture, and they speak to elements of that experience in ways other, more "inviting" architecture does not.
posted by heteronym at 10:03 AM on April 27 [2 favorites]

Some of these are reminiscent of Montreal metro stations (or maybe it's the other way around), especially St Matthäus Kirche in Düsseldorf.
posted by mephisjo at 10:23 AM on April 27

The liturgical setting is Mike Tyson's entrance music against Michael Spinks.
posted by clawsoon at 10:32 AM on April 27

In the recent unwanted noise thread I complained about the dissonant choir at a church across the street. As long as I’m complaining about my neighbors on Metafilter, let me add that their church building is exactly one of those formerly Catholic 70s era brutalist monstrosities mentioned above, a pointy A-frame shape that looks like it should be one of a row of concrete teeth catching debris in the spillway of a dam.

And yes, inside it must be an absolute echo chamber that can’t be doing the choir any favors.
posted by mubba at 10:34 AM on April 27

I grew up having the run of a brutalist church. I wonder, did they all have the syncopated drip-drip of multiple buckets catching leaks and the joyful opportunity of splish-splashing through soggy carpet? I was back in it in 2022 for my Dad's memorial service, and it reminded me that the abiding memory I have of growing up religious was the musty smell.

Obligatory mention of St Peter’s Seminary — Scotland’s finest modern building — a brutalist building that couldn't even be a building for any useful amount of time.
posted by scruss at 10:45 AM on April 27 [1 favorite]

These are very beautiful! St Paulus Kirche in particular.

The thing I don't get about brutalist and lots of modernist architecture though is, do the architects not realize that there will be accumulations of dirt or mold or whatever streaking down every exposed vertical flat surface after a few years? Do they just assume people will clean it? Or is that just part of the aesthetic?
posted by ropeladder at 10:46 AM on April 27

Brutalist restrooms.
posted by y2karl at 12:50 PM on April 27 [1 favorite]

brutalist shopping malls/
posted by clavdivs at 1:41 PM on April 27

What all of these churches are missing is bare concrete seating.
posted by clawsoon at 2:49 PM on April 27

I find the interiors to be really visually stunning, beautiful, moving -- but I was also struck by the thought that maybe a church is the best use for brutalist architecture. It's not a space that's focused on usability or fleshly comfort; it's meant to inspire contemplation of the abstract, the purer and severer states of mind; and you only have to be in it for a couple of hours a week, maybe.
posted by Kat Allison at 3:23 PM on April 27 [2 favorites]

St. Mauritius Kirche in Munich looks less like a church and more like a courtroom.
Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche needs to be featured in the next Laibach music video.
This is an interesting collection of images, ranging from "cool!" to "okay..." to "aw hell naw."
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 4:53 PM on April 27

Breath-taking in various ways. Shared with my priestly wife.
posted by mdoar at 5:02 PM on April 27

What lovely buildings and interiors.
I adore brutalism, and my joy of it was only heightened when I learned what name my favourite architectural style had, and why.
I am a strict materialist, but Notre-Dame du Haut in Ronchamp is gorgeous – I have been fortunate enough to visit the place twice, and it stands for me as one of the crowning achievements of Le Corbusier.
posted by bouvin at 5:09 PM on April 27 [3 favorites]

Kat Allison: It's not a space that's focused on usability or fleshly comfort; it's meant to inspire contemplation of the abstract, the purer and severer states of mind

That sounds like something a Calvinist would subject themselves to, if the building to do it in wasn't so expensive.
posted by clawsoon at 5:21 PM on April 27

In past threads, I'd been quite critical of brutalist structures, which probably gave the impression that I dislike brutalism. In fact, I was critical of the specific structures, and to some extent, the ideological justification and advocacy behind the style, not the style itself. These particular churches appear to be quite breathtaking to me, and appeal to the vestiges of religiosity I can recall from my younger days.

It's funny to see again how polarizing the subject could be here on the blue.

A college friend of mine did her doctoral work on the subject of why & how the American Catholic church embraced modern architecture in the mid-20th century. Check out her book on the subject if you want to learn more about these questions.

This sounds fascinating. I grew up in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, where many churches are not even a century old, and some from the post WWII era are decidedly modern. My take is that the Church is a weird lot from which to be asking architecture to be a reflection or influence. In its own weird way, it was a progressive period that I'm not sure was widely appreciated. I've thought the only thing keeping newer constructions modern is the need for decent acoustics and other practical considerations.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:15 AM on April 28

Thank you for sharing. These are beautiful and amazing. Like bouvin, I think that the chapel at Ronchamp should not be missed. It is an incredible religious experience.
posted by ajayb at 1:50 PM on April 28

Mod note: [btw, this post has been added to the sidebar and Best Of blog]
posted by taz (staff) at 3:37 AM on April 30 [1 favorite]