Analysis of the Church of Saint-Pierre de Firminy-Vert by Le Corbusier (1960-2006)
Analysis can be understood to mean to take apart, and architects often understand the world by taking it apart. Analysis can also be understood as a backwards creative process wherein the artifact or building is known at the start of the process and the outcome of the analysis offers new and unforeseen insights.
Axonometric X-Ray Drawing
This drawing is constructed using existing published documents from the office of the Le Corbusier. This series of two-dimensional orthographic drawings - plans and sections - were originally drawn by hand, adding nuance to the process of drawing the building from a new perspective in the twenty-first century.
By exploring the building in pieces - from the volume of the envelope down to the minutiae of the stairs, I developed a hierarchy of spatial components and tested spatial depths through line weight, tone and layering with graphite.
Pencil on paper.
Digital Model: Assemblage of Parts
In this phase of the project, I moved from drawing with graphite to modeling with software. I constructred a three-dimensional digital model of Firminy and generated digital drawings.
Operation: Celestial Anamorphosis
The Church of Saint-Pierre de Firminy-Vert is formed by a square base that projects upwards to a truncated conical dome. This upward projection marks a transition from an earthly realm to a spirtual realm, emphasized by formal geometries and the angle of the roof towards the sun. Openings in the roof symbolize the poles of the celestial universe - the cylinder embodies the sun and the rectangular prism embodies the moon. Light enters the church through small perforations in the dome that make reference to the constellation Orion.
In Greek mythology, Orion was a skilled hunter who threatened the livelihood of all of the animals roaming the earth. Seeking to protect her flock, the Earth goddess, Gaia, sent Scorpius, the giant scorpion, to kill Orion. Scorpius stung Orion on the heel and mortally wounded him. The gods placed the two hunters and enemies among the stars for eternity at opposite ends of the sky. As a result, one constellation sets as the other constellation rises. In the northern hemisphere, Orion appears in the winter sky while Scorpius appears in the summer sky. While the two constellations are never seen together in the sky, they notably form a couplet along the ecliptic equator at its highest and lowest points. Together, Orion and Scorpius are considered the two gateways to the Milky Way.
This analysis of Eglise Saint-Pierre de Firminy-Vert further explores the cosmological themes already woven through its fabric, both physically and thematically. The new presence of Scorpius juxtaposes Le Corbusier’s presence in Orion. The form of Orion remains dominant on the eastern wall of the dome, chased perpetually by Scorpius on the western wall. An expanded celestial sphere is brought into dialogue with the building through mirror anamorphosis. In this process, a cylindrical “mirror” is placed on a drawing to transform a flat image into a three-dimensional picture that can be viewed from many angles. The deformed image is then projected on a planar surface surrounding the mirror. By looking into the mirror, the images appear undeformed. On the planar surface, they are gradually diffused and skewed. Using this method, the equatorial sky chart is transferred to the dome of the church. At the poles along the ecliptic equator - in the locations of Orion and Scorpius - the projections remain most true to their original forms.
These renderings presents two views of the anamorphosis: 1. a top-down view of the shell of the church, and 2. a bottom-up view of the interior cavern created by the shell.
