Estrategias de proyecto en la arquitectura sacra contemporánea española

Abstract

The religious architecture of the second half of the twentieth century has experienced one of the greatest transformations throughout its history. The main factors that led to it were the eruption of the artistic avant-garde, modernism and renewal of architecture; the return to the original foundations of the liturgy under the auspices of the Liturgical Movement, embodied in the depositions of the II Vatican Council; and the final change from a rural society to an urban society. This work presents a reading of Spanish religious architecture through the aspects that are considered relevant in the transformation undergone in recent decades. They are established three general blocks, that analyze the new space of celebration, the insertion of the temple in the city and the passage of abstraction of space to reinterpretation of the type. The new liturgy has made to focus attention on the altar and the assembly will be around that center of gravity. But the modifications made at Vatican II, that due to the collaboration between architects and religious were already experienced in advance in some realisations, went further in changing the organization of space for celebration. The importance acquired by the liturgy of the Word, parallel to the Eucharistic liturgy, has made the traditional processional spaces became obsolete. The longitudinal dimension of space becomes less important compared to the transverse axis, which allows to point out the importance of each liturgical focus throughout the celebration. It is establishing a new architectural type which promotes the active participation of the faithful. The new liturgy focused attention on the altar and the assembly will be set around that center of gravity. But the changes made at Vatican II, that due to the collaboration between architects and religious were already experienced in advance in some realisations, went further in changing the organization of the space for celebration. The importance acquired by the liturgy of the Word, parallel to the Eucharistic liturgy, makes the traditional processional spaces become meaningless. The longitudinal dimension of space is less important compared to the transverse axis, which allows to point out the importance of each liturgical focus throughout the celebration. It establishes a new architectural type which promotes the active participation of the faithful. The fulfillment of the liturgical requirements are not manifested only in the inner structure but accompanies all the process operations. The change of the society made no longer treat only the temple and its celebratory function, but it is intended to create a new social center embedded in the life of the neighborhood, with spaces for catechesis and rooms with care vocation. With the search of essentiality spaces passed to shed, to appear almost empty, its symbolic elements reduced to the minimum. The items that appear in the temple are collaborating to create the right atmosphere for the celebration. Thus its symbolic value is seen with much more intensity and thus helps the development of the cult. All this came also accompanied by a new way of approaching architecture which, through a studied arrangement of the materials and the light, was getting an abstraction that favored the integration of the arts in the conception of architectural space, and thus return the meaning into space. But over time the forms of tradition has been regained. It has not been found a way to identify the faithful with the modern space. So there is another line of work in religious architecture that has chosen to update the traditional types through a contemporary interpretation of its elements. This analysis is intended to detect the various project strategies that establish the bases for the construction of a new temple model adapted to the society it serves.