1996.04.23
regarding St. Pierre at Firminy-Vert
Firminy church turned out to be a real surprise in scale, mainly due to its height and great volumetric presence. When viewed in plan, the building seems very small. This calls for a scale comparison with other square plans (Hurva, Tower of Shadows, and the pavilion [of the Museum for Nordrhein-Westfalen] at Düsseldorf), and a series of drawings where the Firminy church is put into the same comparative contexts, e.g., in place of the pavilion at Düsseldorf, inside the prayer cells at Hurva, and poking out of the center of the Altes Museum. The last composite drawing will make reference to Colin Rowe's connection between the Altes Museum and the Assembly Building at Chandigarh. The point of this exercise is to demonstrate that the best way to appreciate the size of this building is to see it within some kind of context. (The initial ambiguity of scale is due, I think, to the smooth edges and pure form of the church itself, along with its general lack of surface articulation and fenestration.)
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St. Pierre as the pavilion the Museum for Nordrhein-Westfalen
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