34 C O N T E X T 1 1 9 : M A Y 2 0 1 1 Architecturally speaking Obsessions and foibles: the final word of the architect Architects today will tell you that the design of a new building, or an extension to an existing one, is almost always a response to one of three objective factors: space and place, the client’s requirements and the essential function of the building. No doubt architects have been saying this in one form or another since the profession came into being formally at the end of the 17th century1. But there is a fourth factor and this is often where the interest lies in historic buildings. This factor, which could fall under the heading of ‘the foibles, obsessions and preferences of the architect himself’ often receives little or no attention in the interpretation of an historic building, although it can provide the key to why a building has been designed as it has. It is this category which can make the architectural history of a building so interesting. As will be shown in a few examples, understanding the nature of the architect can be just as important in interpreting the building St Andrew’s Church, Blunsdon St Andrew’s, byWilliam Butterfield, showing the reluctantly provided organ room. as the other more objective factors. Take Antonio Gaudi, for example. The Catalan architect extraordinaire of Barcelona was arguably at his creative peak between 1885 and 1910. Illness as a child meant that Gaudi spent a lot of time in isolation, where he contemplated the designs of nature. His own particularly stylised art nouveau buildings, consisting of curving, sweeping designs, have been attributed to his interest in natural forms developed during his lonely, feverish childhood. Gaudi openly asserted that the ‘straight line belonged to man but the curved one to God’. This belief is seen clearly in the structural plasticity of his designs. As he grew older, Gaudi became almost phobic in his detestation of straight or parallel lines. Knowing this contributes a great deal to understanding the impossible dreamlike quality of some of his completed structures. In 1926 Gaudi died at the age of 73, his masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona’s Cathedral, incomplete. Rather ironically, his horrible death was the result of an accident involving straight lines; it occurred three days after he was hit by a tram running on its parallel tracks. Closer to home, the well-loved gothic revivalist William Butterfield provides another example of how the likes, dislikes and prejudices of an architect can affect the final design scheme of a structure. One of the most inventive architects of the Victorian period, Butterfield had a particular affinity with churches and chapels. As a consequence he was involved in over 100 church buildings, either in restoration projects or new designs. Butterfield had a great dislike of the church organ as a musical instrument and an even greater dislike of organists themselves. He once stated that ‘organs are being much overdone in our church nowadays. The organist becomes too important a person… I need not enlarge.We are running into a great and growing danger’ (Butterfield to the Rev G Hales, 1892, Ardleigh Chest, Ardleigh Church, Essex). As a result of this bias, organ chambers in Butterfield’s churches (where he could be persuaded to build them) are nearly always small and often impossibly cramped. Even in his architectural drawings Butterfield would never refer to organ chambers as organ chambers, merely annotating each one as ‘room’. An example of one of Butterfield’s ‘rooms’ is at St Andrew’s Church, Blunsdon St Andrew’s,Wiltshire. Here the ‘room’ is located out of view of most of the congregation (to prevent the organist gaining any extra kudos). It has a small doorway leading directly into the vestry, as if to highlight the service nature of the organ. Butterfield also had a dislike of church porches being located half way along the nave. This was because he felt that any latecomers then interrupted the service. He preferred to locate his porches at the end of the nave, where processions could also be accommodated more easily and with less disruption to the service.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=