Complexity via Simplicity

Last weekend Amanda, Sally, Nick, Michael, Eric and I all visited the Jubilee Church by famed architect Richard Meir. After visiting the church and reading about the design concept I was amazed at how simply the structure described the thorough concept. The church departs from the traditional image we have of a catholic church but does not abandon the ideas that comprise it.

“The nave is based around the idea of a boat, “Peter’s boat” to be specific. In the Christian tradition, the BOAT has always represented the church as “people of god guided by Peter”, the Pope. This church, wanted by the Pope Jhon Paul II to celebrate Jubilee 2000, had to represent, in the concept of the architect, the “boat of the Church” that ploughs the sea of the third millennium and, at the same time thanks to its position, the “boat of the local church” (the parish church) that ploughs the district."

The three massive sail like components of the church that tower over the nave and chapel symbolize The Holy Trinity and the highest sail represents God’s protection over the Christian Community. The amble amount of glass in the church is also a departure from tradition as well, but serves a purpose. Because of the immense glazing, the church requires little (if any) electric lighting during the day. In fact, even if the construction is widely covered by glass both vertically and horizontally, the sun never comes directly into the church except for a particular moment in the afternoon, especially during summer, when the light enters from the outside though a small window situated over the presbytery, lighting up the crucifix inside. This seems appropriate as the light of the sun in Christian symbolism represents Jesus and “the light of the world”.
Just by visually analyzing the church, one can tell that an extraordinary attention to detail has been given and successfully so, as the church is unlike any other in the world.