Gardens of the righteous: sacred space in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Cross Currents, Fall, 2002 by Akel Ismail Kahera

The Lamp of Beauty: Metaphors of Light

One of the defining elements in what we have described thus far as "religious aesthetics" may well be the simulation of two modes of aesthetic reasoning: one universal and the other particular. (26) First, the aesthetic image of the universal embraces convention and origin; it expresses its own mimetic essence by asserting meaning and truth. It is self-evident in its relationship to the world and therefore, it maintains the right to exist. (27) Secondly, the particular mode of expression seeks to find its own identity in the face of obvious social and cultural realities; it is an innovative gesture, which represents innovation and change. (28)

The second mode of expression is akin to the design of the Jesuit school, Chapel of St. Ignatius, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington completed in 1997. The architect Steven Holl and associate architect Olson/Sundberg designed the edifice. The chapel is conceived as "a box containing seven bottles of light." (29)

The "bottles" are expressed on the exterior as figural light scoops. Different qualities of light are found throughout the cavernous chapel interior: natural sunlight at the procession and narthex; yellow light in combination with a blue window (and vice versa) in the nave; orange light combined with a purple window at the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament; green light combined with a red window at the choir stall. On the exterior projecting and reflected light are found in the forecourt and pool. The highly polished dark tinted concrete floor reflects light...Holl also designed the wall scones of bubbled glass. The artificial lights can be preset at different intensities for different types of liturgical events. (30)

The opposition between the trajectories of light and that of a manmade box results from the knowledge of the physical world and the technology of architecture, as well as from a conception of nature. "Conceived as a series of distinct episodic events, the program creates a gradually unfolding progression from the secular realm to the spiritual one." (31) Trajectories of light intervene in the building and it is the presence of light that provides the symbolic realm of the chapel. It is this sense of manmade and the natural that provides a formidable concept of beauty and an interpretation of nature.

The Chapel of St. Ignatius is a confrontation between the worlds of trajectories and processes, between being and becoming; between the repeated experience of light on the one hand and the cavernous character of the box on the other. "Although Roman Catholic, the chapel was designed to be open to people of all faiths--or no faith...one of St. Ignatius main principles was finding the good in all things." (32) Holl describes the concept of his architecture in the following words

The passage of time; light, shadow and transparency; color phenomenon, texture, material and detail all participate in the complete experience of architecture....Only architecture can simultaneously awaken all the senses--all the complexities of perception? (33)