Hong Kong Skyscraper
If you travel to almost any major American city, one thing will dominate the skyline: large glass or concrete boxes. We have more capability than ever before to build beautiful buildings and yet we seem only to create ugly ones. Why do we do this? And why should we care?
We need beauty as a society to help guide us towards Goodness and God. Pope Saint John Paul II says, “In a certain sense, beauty is the visible form of the good, just as the good is the metaphysical condition of beauty.” (Letter to Artists, 3) Pope John Paul reminds us of the inseparability of goodness and beauty. We intuitively understand this in our bodies when we like beautiful things and dislike ugly things. We feel this because goodness expresses itself physically in beauty and beauty cannot exist without some goodness. It follows, that a society which fails to appreciate beauty will also fail to appreciate goodness. This shows itself in the buildings we surround ourselves with.
Modern and Postmodern architecture dehumanizes not only those who occupy it, but also those who have to look at it. Brutalism, one of the many forms of modernist architecture, seeks to emphasize the functionality of raw materials, to de-emphasize beauty, and to make buildings more cost-effective. This style, which often appears in low-income housing or concrete office buildings, seems to draw us down, towards Earth and away from heaven. These buildings almost seem to say, “you are no different from the materials used to create me. You are not worth more than wood or concrete.” On the opposite end of the spectrum, Postmodern architecture seeks to defy all norms and rules. These buildings branch out in crazy directions and defy gravity in search of that ever elusive ‘uniqueness.’ Unfortunately, variety without rules means little more than chaos, and instead of creating beauty, they just create a different kind of ugly. With no rationale to guide them, postmodern buildings lack the goodness necessary for beauty. Postmodern buildings seem to tell us that we don’t need reason; that we can achieve anything of our own human power. Both of these styles seem to forget that God made man for relationship with him.
In contrast, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, often referred to as “the Duomo,” shows us how beauty can point us to God. This massive church dominates the skyline of Florence, Italy with its Gothic style. Pope John Paul describes Romanesque and Gothic architecture by saying, “These forms portray not only the genius of an artist but the soul of a people.” (Letter to Artists, 8) The Gothic form of the Duomo draws the eyes up toward Heaven, as if to call us higher, out of ourselves. Its design points us toward God, much like our own bodies. In this way, Gothic architecture has a more human element, reflected in its beauty. The society in which this form developed wanted its people to strive for virtue.
We don’t have to return to Gothic or Romanesque architecture to make our cities beautiful again. God did not tie beauty to any one style or aesthetic, he tied it to himself. If we prioritize our relationship with him, we make the world a little more beautiful through that. If we learn to appreciate the goodness of our own bodies, we change our culture just a little bit. If TOB becomes the lens through which our society views the world, it would not even occur to us to build such ugly buildings. We would celebrate beauty, and beauty would point us beyond itself.
Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore
Chris Tarantino is the Communications Director for TOBET. He studied History at The University at Texas A&M and has written for the Tennessee Register and Nashville Catholic.
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I’ve read that some become Catholic after they see the beautiful domes. I know I did. When I looked up to the dome in St. Peter’s, I think I became a Catholic I’ll never forget that moment. Thanks for the reminder!