Modern church architects go about things somewhat differently than our Christian ancestors who lived in the tenth century. Nowadays, the same companies who build these holy buildings often partake in a great deal of other projects including school, residential home and assisted living design.

A church is defined being a place for public worship, reception of the sacraments and prayer. Back in the tenth century, it was decided that these places for worship would be built with a few things in common. Churches were built with naves pointing east, so that the rising sun shines directly on the altar.

Since that time architecture has evolved quite a bit. The somewhat confused nature of contemporary design has left room for quite a few urban legends and myths. Detractors of many modern affairs wonder why no one is erecting beautiful houses of worship anymore, spurning rumors that it has all become low budget projects. It does not seem to be the case that denominations are greatly lacking cash flow even if many of them have taken on the modern brick-and-glass look and have done away with the sprawling spires of past Gothic efforts.

The modern look was first bestowed on these buildings in the last century. Buildings for religious worship in the nineteenth century look much like those built in the twentieth century. But the need for multi-purpose space, technology which allowed for fewer windows and more electrical lighting and modern budget constraints combined to create a new class of worship for the twenty-first century.

For example, in the early twentieth-first century Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Unity Temple in Chicago’s Oak Park without attributing any traditional Christian symbolism to it. The clean lines of this building inspired similar places of worship, such as the First Congregational Church of Austin.

Houses of worship in the mid-twentieth century began to be built as community centers and not as divine holy centers. This meant that pastors began requesting assembly halls arranged in circles so that clergy and community could face each other. These new buildings did away with statues and steeples and instead, neighborhoods began seeing flat-roofed structures pop up. Pulpits were either completely annihilated or put in the center of the congregation.

But these boxy structures so often erected in the fifties have not managed to win over the population. So many people in recent years have been vouching for traditional architecture with groups like OUCH, or Outcry against Ugly Churches.

In 1997, St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston drew up plans for a new building based on the gothic cathedral of St. Elizabeth’s in Marburg, Germany. The interior of the structure was modeled after a cathedral in Chartres, France built in 1260.

The debate over whether a house of worship should be built for function or aesthetics is likely to continue after so many places of worship have departed so greatly from the past; it seems unlikely that they will all be able to revert to traditional-style buildings. It does seem that there is something to a beautiful place of worship, however, and the value of architectural aesthetics should not go unnoticed.

Author Bio: Stewart Wrighter recently helped his church find a group of knowledgeable church architects to help revitalize the facade of an old church. He recently hired a local assisted living design firm to help revitalize his ailing mother’s home.

Category: Business
Keywords: church architects,assisted living design