3/2021 Sacred Space

How do secularization and diversifying culture affect sacral architecture? The issue presents different viewpoints to the topic. One pressing subject is the situation with Lutheran Church in Finland: declining tax revenues make it hard for the parishes to take care of the ageing building stock, which demands decisions on which buildings should be kept in use.

On a broader scale, the issue delves into the relationship between spatial features and the experience of sacredness. Marianna Wahslten visits the new silent space at Berlin’s new Brandenburg Airport, and Tuomas Uusheimo raises the question of relationship between everyday life and sacredness in his photo column.

The issue presents four new ecclesiastical buildings. Ylivieska Church has been built as a local community effort, replacing the wooden church destroyed in an arson attack. In Tikkurila, the indoor air problems in the 1950s church building led to the demolition of all the buildings in the city block and the transformation of the area owned by the parish into a much more condensed residential block. In Myllykoski, the parish has centralized its activities by extending the 1930s church, and in Lempäälä, a chapel for summer use has been built by volunteers in connection with a church camp centre.

There are also parts of sacral architecture history left uncovered, on which the issue sheds at least a little light. Sofia Singler charts Alvar Aalto’s relationship with Lutheran Bishops of his time. Kristo Vesikansa focusses on architectural trajectories which the Lutheran Church has left in its shadow while holding centre stage in the history of Finnish ecclesiastical architecture.

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