I have said many times that architecture is defined by an experience that communicates an idea. This may be true, but I must admit that it is a shallow statement. It is eloquent in language to the world of architecture, but it serves no greater purpose than the idea itself. It cannot transcend the idea, and often it cannot even reach the ideal.
To the public eye, I may seem flippant. Even to those close, I may appear indifferent about architecture. But what many do not know is that this assumed flippant attitude is actually a calculated resolve. It is not that I don’t care or cannot achieve. It is not a potential not realized, but potential re-allocated. I understand the limits of architecture and trust in the extents of power.
To understand this most simply, it is best to use a logical analysis of architecture. As I have written before, architecture is about space that creates an experience which becomes the vehicle by which an idea is communicated. This is the deepest essence of philosophical architecture. The embodied idea could be about connection, metaphor, space, time, memory, or anything the philosophical mind can think of. And often this idea is rooted in the “spirit of the place.”
But can architecture embody the ideas of God? Most importantly, the gospel of Christ Jesus? Can man walk into a building, experience a space, and receive the gospel?
The answer must be an unequivocal no. (Unless, that is, the building includes the gospel engraved in a floor or written on a wall.) How could it ever be that man would receive the gospel by simply entering a place? The gospel has not been spoken and thus not communicated. In the temporal field, this question holds no weight. For in the temporal the philosophical nature of architecture is enough. The idea glorifies the architecture and points towards the architect, who may receive much glory. There is no more needed of architecture in light of the temporal. It exists. One day it will fade away, and that is enough and good. However, what man must concern himself with is not the temporal, but the eternal.
In light of eternity, of what good is experience? It is of little use if it does not point the patron towards the cross at Calvary. More than good architecture, the gospel should be of concern to the regenerated architect. Thus architecture must take the form of service. We serve Christ as we serve our patrons. How much more worth is an architect who can serve and share the gospel than the architect that only concerns himself with design and good architecture. I do not denounce good design and architecture, but I put it in its place. Bettering society through the good use of materials and informed design is worthless and of no use in the eternity if the cross is not at the heart. So I say, an architect that serves the needs of the patron with the heart of the gospel is more valuable than the best designer to walk the earth.
If the servant architect worries himself on design and cannot function as needed for daily interaction, accountability, and fellowship, then he is failing to see the most important things in eternity. How can we love our God with all our soul, heart, mind and strength if we are drained, tired, and weak? Does architecture, the most influential of all arts, demand more than most occupations? Yes. But we must guard ourselves, less architecture and design become idols in our daily pursuits.
Architecture must be service oriented, and informed by a desire to share and live the gospel. For a building that is created without service interaction between architect and patron has no eternal value. The absence of the purposeful and intentful architect results in the absence of the gospel. The building is reduced to merely a temporal shelter. But a building created where service interaction results in a saved soul, that building becomes architecture that stands as testimony to the grace and glory of God! So of what good is architecture without a mindful architect? And of what good an architect without a merciful God?
So to those who see me as indifferent and with potential unapplied. Understand that there is a sense of resolve in my actions and decisions. I invest my potential into the things concerning Christ.
Tyler Thayer
