Design Study of Catholic Church Architectural Form and Material Costs

Abstract

The architecture of Catholic churches has an intrinsic connection with the liturgy, theology, and tradition of the Church. Creating sacred spaces to engage in the worship of God has been an essential part of Catholic life since the earliest days of Christendom, but sacred architecture has undergone many notable shifts over the last century. These design changes in modern sacred architecture have partly stemmed from liturgical reform within the Church, but also from societal turmoil from without. This has resulted in many churches built over the last 70 years that fail to live up to their potential, through a lack of architectural beauty, shoddy construction, and tawdry materials. The era of the beautiful Catholic church building had stopped. The questions this research seeks to address are as follows: How can the beauty of a contemporary church building signify the unchanging solemnity of Catholic worship and aid in the search for the Divine, and how can this beauty be returned to new churches in an economical way through modern construction methods? How can these ideals be applied to design a transcendent sacred space for a small parish with limited resources? This research project examined designs for a new Catholic church building through the lens of each of the following four categories: form, liturgy, structure, and cost. The goal of this research was to find the optimal combination of the above categories for a new church construction project, in order to create a sacred space appropriate for the Catholic liturgy in a cost-effective manner. Variations in form were explored in multiple ways, with the vesica piscis shape serving as the proportioning system for the floorplan shapes and changes in verticality throughout building elements. The progression of possible forms were digitally modeled and the material costs for each were estimated, with the focus being on how each iteration affects the estimated construction costs. The desired outcome will be a joint architectural form and structural method that provides a sanctuary that expresses the four transcendentals of Catholic theology: truth, goodness, beauty, and unity, and does so in an easily constructible way that is financially accessible for small parish communities.