Sacred is light !: Antonin Hautefort

Sacred is light !

Antonin Hautefort History and theory studies Second year Zaynab Dena Ziari January - March 2014

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An “ineffable” or “inexpressible” feeling appears to be the immediate common denominator to all sacred spaces: the sacred as the construction of a sensation, a feeling, the expression of the inexpressible - a “vertigo” - that drives its designation of sacred space. It invariably appears as a protective envelope, a spiritual space disconnected from the rational world. It is as much a physical as a psychological shelter. While some spaces are carefully articulated around clear architectural intentions, others feature the most elementary structure or absence of structure.

Yet, a mystery remains about the actual reason why such spaces have been called sacred in the first place. If all it takes is to proclaim a space as sacred, does the sacred need an architecture at all? Does Religion informs the sacred space to be as such ? Are there any places on earth that are intrinsically sacred ?

We will pursuit the fundamentals of sacred space in order to question the possibility of whether there is a universal value to assign to all sacred spaces or not. It is by breaking apart the question of the spatial manifestation of the sacred being intrinsically tied to the religious that we will question whether or not we can have a sacred space that is not religious. * * * The place of worship 2in Ancient Egypte appears to be a model for the evolution of the western sacred space. Considering the sacred space as a specifically designed structure or consecrated space where individuals come to perform acts of devotion and veneration, Richard Kieckhefer has suggested that the normative sacred space can be analyzed by three factors affecting the spiritual process. A longitudinal space emphasizes the procession and return of sacramental acts, an auditorium space is suggestive of a proclamation, and finally new forms of communal spaces are designed for gathering.

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Le

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Corbusier

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The function of gathering, however, is much more recent and has only appeared with the arrival of monotheistic beliefs. There seem to be clear distinctions between the sacred space for polytheistic and monotheistic beliefs. While the polytheist worship spaces are presented as forbidden, the metaphor of the house of a god, the monothe-

The sacred spaces of Ancient Egypt, presented as Temples of gods, appear to have set up the spatial definition of the sacred space for both polytheistic and monotheistic religions. These houses of gods are exclusively constructed on a linear spatial organisation that explains the processional, ritual function of their sacred spaces (Figure 2). result, in order to preserve the holy character of consecrated spaces, places of worship have been characterized by a strong impenetrable envelope. The Egyptians often set massive columns side by side, creating a dense, forest-like effect. This was not only a safer way to build, but it also reflected the monumentality of their world view. That is, the imposing, close-packed pillars of an Egyptian temple appropriately represent the sense of eternity and otherworldliness that feature so strongly in the rest of their civi4 lisation, as if the sacred space were certain to stand forever.

An Egyptian temple such as Abu Simbel (Figure 1) for instance, carved into the mountains, clearly features as a linear procession that holds at its end the most precious space, the very sacred. The mountain is a limitless protective envelope. Its skin is here as the threshold between the secular and the sacred. It is by entering the mountain, the sacred space, that we enter an other world: a space cut off from the world, a spiritual space that disconnects us from the rational world.

Sacred is a notion that is always connected with the religious and celestial. It strongly differentiates the secular from the sacred. David Emile Durkheim has claimed that all religions divide objects or phenomena into the sacred on the one hand and the pro-

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Figure 1

Figure 2

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fane on the other. This dichotomy between sacred and secular, in and out, reveals a paradox in the actual wish to construct the sacred space. Architecture, as well as being material, is also by nature and expectation rational – structure must have logic or it just cannot stand. The sacred is otherwise, not only does it not demand logic, it defies it.

Logic is utterly essential in the creation of any structure, although it is quite beside the point when it comes to the construction of a sacred space. There is a clear contradiction between the means and the end: the means must be rational (an architecture), while the end cannot be (the sacred). capable of being analyzed in its entirety. Yet, it has the power to evoke feelings that go beyond the rational. The structure exists to bring us to a place that, for all intents and purposes, defies the very essence of structure. The sacred space can therefore be defined as the use of material forms to evoke feelings that go beyond the material, and which cannot be measured.

tion simply requires the definition of a sacred area Temenos (τo τέµενος marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, a sanctuary. The temple was built once the sanctification ceremony of the chosen land took place. goods - essentially offerings. Most of the time, rituals would take place outside the columns (

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«Religion is a unified -

translated

from

latin

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ral stable framework. Columns set up a visual landmark, which clearly define the sacred space on the Temenos.

ancestors or of particular divinities, Christianity is based on a dialogue within a community in the adoration of a supreme power that dictates a moral (a ). For this reason, the Christian space of worship, the derives from the greek ekklesia (e κκλησία) meaning , which itself come from ekkaleô . The Christian place of worship is therefore a much more functional space Christians need a space for gathering, communion, proclamation. It is precisely for proclaimed and the Christian cult decriminalized, Christians adopted the spatial organisation of the Roman civil basilica as a model for their place of worship, rather than sacred space took the form of what previously was a covered market space (Figure 5), the most secular type of building. A Roman civil basilica accomodated shops in the external portico, gathering spaces for debate or trade in the lateral naves, a promenade in the superior galleries. Finally, the central apse were usually displayed a bust of the reigning emperor.

As a result, the Christian basilica is the opposite of the Roman temple in its spatial organisation although the main principles of the sacred are maintained. For centuries, therefore civil pagan basilicas and religious sacred basilicas coexist. However, although the Roman sacred space and the religious basilica are opposed in form, their immediate visual distinction was not so clear, since the early Christian places of worship were taking over ornamental figurative techniques derived from Roman culture (Figure 4). Thus, Christian sacred space can be deemed to come from the Romans. The idea that the Christian space is intrisically sacred is a fallacy because it was created from a very pragmatic agenda out of Roman secular architecture.

romanesque

monastery

moulages at the Cité de

Figure 5

It gave rise to a need to justify the sacred space as such by creating a sense of the sacred, an articulation of interior spaces that support, promote and clarify Christian religious beliefs. *

to do. Virtually everything in a cathedral is designed to direct your eye, your heart, your soul upward, to heaven. The stained glass admits the light of the sun, tinted to focus your vision and your mind more clearly on the images. ( angels, the doves and covenants that reveal divine reality, that blinding, elusive, higher truth. More than that, the roof vaults upwards aspiring to the grandeur soaring over your head. It is hard to imagine a building that functions better at what it was built for.

Those who have any sensibility for religious beliefs will find it hard not to be filled with emotion in such a structure. Light, whether it is hypostasis or symbolic of the divine, natural, artificial, direct or indirect, reinforces the idea of the sacred in the space. Light deploys a religious message which pervades all surfaces, volumes and 10 worshippers. All religions, from Islam, Buddhism to Christianity, unite light with worship. Particular cults, such as the Protestant faith even believe that light is the one reason, Protestant places of worship have been stripped of any ornemental figures. By extension, Le Corbusier would eventually define architecture as the play of light, the 11 manipulation of volume under the light. Whoever enters the church of Saint Pierre de Firminy is instantly dazzled by the appearance of a luminous constellation of stars under the concrete dome. It is this fantastic alchemy between the material, the stable and solid with the evanescent and transcendent that has been the driving force of all sacred space from all religions.

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Zoroastrianism, considered as the most ancient monotheist religion, was the first to introduce the notion of ethics and morality. It was the first time a religion proclaimed to be about the universal struggle between good and bad, right and wrong, light and dark. It stated that humans have the ability to choose between the two, and the choices that they make affect their destiny. All monotheistic religions appears to stand as if delivering a truth, an enlightenment on the darkness of our time, society. It is an attempt to create a distinction between the light and the dark, the development of a morality. The presence of light is therefore a religious element in itself that is specifically manipulated by the space around it: the sacred space.

It leads us to question the actual presence of light in Religion. For Christians, light is the basis of all as it appears in the early texts (“And God said, let there be light, and there was light” / Bible, Genesis 1:3). Light separates the good from the darkness in the same way that the sacred is differentiated from the secular ( “God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.” / Bible, Genesis 1:3). Islam has a similar instructive character with light being the representation of Allah on earth ( “ Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth, (...) Allah guides to His light whom he wills.” / Qur’an).

Light therefore happens to have an intrinsic relationship with all monotheistic religions because light not only appears to represent the protection of a superior driving force but also to symbolize knowledge and intellectual superiority. (Figure 7) Polytheistic religions on the other hand never claimed to be the driving force of society.

Deities were considered in the same way kings were (and reciprocally), which imply that their main purpose was to give hope as well as justice to the human world.The original purpose of the Pantheon shows this clearly ( . It was built to house the images cial niche around the interior. The name of the temple itself alludes to this fact — Pan) gods (-theon at the Empire inclusively. All in all, if it was built for any single purpose, it calls for har12 mony in a realm where Emperor Augustus was happy just to have peace.

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A dome is an extension of the arch — when rotated about its highest point, an arch creates a hemisphere — and to highlight this aspect, the dome of the Pantheon is set on a cylinder of the same height as the superstructure itself so that a perfect globe would exactly fit inside, with its lowest point touching the floor. The english term related to Domos . .

English therefore began to use this word in the sense of ,a . By creating a scaled up globe, the pantheon features an attempt to 14represent the sacred space as a disconnected world in which you experience the sacred. Indeed, at the top of the dome is a circular opening, the oculus — oculus means in Latin — which lets in a round shaft of light that at different times of year illuminates different niches and was meant to function originally in at least two distinct ways. First, it acted as a spotlight which over the course of the year gave fair and measured visibility to the various deities, foreign and native, whose statues inhabited the niches around the dome's interior.

Second, the oculus also served as a calendar marking time, uniting the Roman world under the aegis of the only absolutely equitable system of measurement they knew, the clock of heaven itself.

building from the Vth century, reveals itself as being extremely innovative by the treatment of the interior mosaic. The ambition was no longer about creating realistic scenes blue star-spangled sky covering the interior dome moves the observer towards a transtion with a golden background, as if the entire dome were filled with light, sacred 15light. oculus, as Roman artefact would eventually come back with the Baroque and Neo-classicism to push further the abstract representation of a celestial, sacred light as the essence of divinity. (

from any Roman pagan inspiration. What makes its experience so spiritual, so success-

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Mark Damen, History and civilisation, Utah State University press,

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2014

Firminy by Le Corbusier

fully moving ? The manipulation, articulation and use of light is essential. The altar is resolutely the focus point of the whole architectural promenade that seems to be composed 16 exclusively of light in order to point out the altar as the highest note of the experience. It reveals how the presence of light is intimately tied to the presence of darkness, exhibiting the essential presence of both. Disseminating its therapeutic benefits, refining its moods to construct an aura of enchantment, arranging it along routes of procession to activate and emotionally charge an architectural experience seems to be the key driving force in the construction of the sacred in Ronchamps (Figure 10). Le corbusier explained that the exterior was nothing more than the result of the interior.17 It is then about tying the interior to the course of the sun, shaping the sacred space to wax and wane with the hours and seasons, create a dynamic in the same way that the roman oculus performs.

ture, Le Corbusier innovates by looking at what could be consider to belong to the pagan realm, north african vernacular architecture (Figure 11) essarily by looking at shape and texture but rather at the way it performs with time. As the ic but rather emotional, expressive. Light is the langage that gives the building its meaning (Figure 12). The construction of a spiritual is based on the idea of abstraction: to free ourselves from rules and any figurative preconceptions. Five hundreds years ago, Hieronymus Bosch featured possibly the greatest example of the desire for abstraction in the representation of the sacred with the Ascent into heaven polyptych ( ) which tapers toward a distant circle of divine light. There tiny kneeling figures of the blessed, escorted by angels, dissolve in a heavenly entropy. The distinction between the good and the bad is immediate by the contrast between the lightness of heaven and the darkness of hell. In the drive to depict the sacred, Bosch dismissed a figurative approach to create a sense of heaven. An oculus of light stands as the one and only essential single element to create a sense of the sacred for Bosch.

If the architect can create the spiritual space by taking references from the pagan, we would argue that reciprocally the secular realm is free to manipulate the syntax of sacred space . This continuous hybridization of the world with the secular flowing into the sacred and the sacred into the secular has become the unobtrusive truth of contemporary architecture.

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Figure 10

Figure 11

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What we now designate as being a sacred space has become exclusively a space to think, to rest 5 away from our reality. James Turrell, with impressive dexterity, makes light the subject of the space, (Figure 14). Light suddenly becomes rell uses the oculus as a focus point in the space, as the only opening - point of connection between the interior and the exterior, the in and the out, the earth and the celestial. Through the colours in light on a specific geometry, light becomes the means and the end of the construction of the spiritual space. Turrell places light on the same hierarchical plane as the monotheistic, western, religion. The artist acknowledges the distinction between light and dark - the power of light on our senses, our mind. It is the manipulation of structures, shapes and forms in relation to light that provokes emotions. The bold and minimal approach to framing, coming back to the very essence of what is a spiritual space gives the space all its intensity. * * * If Karl Marx considered religion as the , it was not necessarily because he was against religion. For him, faith was something that conjured for themselves, a source of phoney happiness to which they turned to help numb the pain of their reality. It was . It is questionable whether it is religion itself, the truth it is meant to proclaime, or the spiritual experience within the sacred space that were providing analgesic. In contemporary time, the fall of western religious institutions and their political influence on society gave rise to the need for the spiritual in the secular realm. Living on the edge of dynamics of the city.

As a result, not only Turrell answers a need in contemporary times, he redefines the sacred spaces by revealing how the sacred is a simple construction of elements that creates a sense of the spiritual. The sacred is something almost distinct from, but deployed by religions. It is used as a visual tool by religions to make reference to the other world, the heavenly, the celestial. The sacred space transcends, moves and suggests the idea of religion implies some moral obligation and respect that belongs to the intellectual realm, in opposition to the sensory realm, the sacred space is therefore not intrinsically linked to religion. There is no such thing as an intrinsically sacred space because, not only is the sacred an 7 artificial construction, but it is an idea. And ideas are superficial notions created by man.

For this reason, it is possible to exploit the syntax of sacred space from the past to create spaces that can be perceived to have a spiritual, yet not religious, identity.

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From Greek “idea”:“ideal prototype”, literally “the look of a thing” (as opposed to the reality).

Figure 14