Abstract:
This Thesis is an exercise of examining religious imagery found within churches, particularly that of
crafted objects or artworks that hold symbolic significance. In response to this examination I will be
exploring the possibilities of how structural language can be imbued with this religious symbolism
through the design of architectural details. I will be taking an approach of cross-denominational
examination through interviews with staff and church from case study examples. The history of
Christian church design and liturgical spaces has predominantly had a rich culture of crafted objects.
It is these objects of all array of materials and crafts that more often than not make significant
contributions to the symbolic arrangement of religious spaces. It is because of this significance of
craft in the Christian churches’ history that a material-craftsman relationship will be significant to
this study. By using the conceptual frameworks “double articulation”1 and “The Rhizome”2, and with
the ideas surrounding “Vibrant materiality”3, I hope to bring the interrogation of church symbolism
and the practice of material Crafts together to develop a language of structural church architecture
expressive of religious symbolism.
Much of the analysis and examination that I endeavor on will be presented through an
autoethnographic form, drawing on personal experience and observation throughout the project and
from previous experiences. I will, on occasion bring in my own familiarity with material crafts that I
gained through past studies and my own woodcarving practice, along with any instances of personal
material production that I have engaged in during my recent years. Also, toward the element of this
study focused on religious symbolism, I will from time to time call on my own experiences from
having a background in the church.
The primary focus of the material production in this design thesis will be model making through
analogue means. I intend for this to be a way of experimenting and interacting with raw material in a
pursuit of how this can be applied to the designing of structural details used in the context of church
buildings.