Form Body Technique Space
Bagsvaerd Church
Jorn Utzon
BODY
Anthony Vidler states in ‘The Building in Pain’, that in contemporary discourse there are different stages of bodily
projection in architecture, the first being the building as body, and the second; building epitomizing bodily states,
specifically states of the mind based on bodily sensation.
Historically, in Vitruvian theory, the body has been
used as referent for architectural symmetry and
proportion. Some of the formal aspects that relate
to human proportion of Bagsvaerd Church are
Utzon’s use of the square in plan and, in elevation,
circles in the undulating ceiling, both these basic
geometries referring to Da Vinci’s Vitruvian man. In
terms of layout, the church’s nave, apse, and
transcepts references the cross, which throughout
religious history has referenced the body of Christ.
(fig.1)
fig.1 – architectural symmetry & proportion
Evidence of the body is also apparent in Bagsvaerd Church’s experiential qualities. The breathtaking qualities of the
ceiling immediately emulate a feeling of transcendance to heaven. Vidler stated that the building was seen as objectifying
the various states of the body, physical and mental (4). The program of the church as a place of worship is linked to
aspects of belief which link to the psyche. The play of light on the recessive white surfaces of the undulating ceiling
suggestive of clouds in Utzon’s early sketches, and the repeated circular vaults extend towards infinity. (fig.2)
This provides for an experience of being both spatially and spiritually
moved, and overrides the sense of being bound to the specific site.
Emulating an out-of-body experience, ‘one can see an “imago mundi”, the
image of man between earth and heaven and on the way to God” (Stegers,
77). (fig.3) The psychology of sensation and movement becomes evident in
Bagsvaerd Church and “there seems to be no fear that the body is entirely
lost, rather the question is one of representing a higher order of truth to
perception of movement, forces and repose” (Vidler, 6).
fig.2 – Utzon’s preliminary sketch + photo of
cloud-like undulating ceiling
fig.3 – the path of imago mundi – on the way to God
What is present in Bagsvaerd Church is the juxtaposition of the interior and the exterior and it’s relationship to
the female and male. Nicknamed the ‘chicken shed’, Bagsvaerd Church is a building which clearly both is and isn’t
an industrial shed at the same time. At first glance the church suggests solid, dominant, industrial appearance
with the exterior of prefabricated concrete and sharp angles. It exudes masculinity. However, the interior sharply
contrasts what one might expect. The poetic, cloud-like undulating ceiling and sacred space appeals to
emotions and gives the sensation of the feminine on the interior.(fig 4) “Sharp angled male architecture in
contrast to the sensuous” (Colomina, 236). D.Agrest states that “the conditions are here for possible
combinations in the body considered as interior and/or exterior that allow for the permutation of the
genders(180). Utzon’s Bagsvaerd Church contrasts the exterior and interior in a way that it speaks to the genders
of the qualities presented in materials, construction, and experience.
Fig.4 Exterior vs. Interior
Works Cited:
Agrest, D. (1993). “Architecture from Without: Body, Logic and Sex” , in Architecture from Without, 173-195.
Colomina, B. (1997). “The Medical Body in Modern Architecture,” in Anybody, MIT Press, 228-239
Vidler, A. “The Building in Pain: The Body and Architecture in Post-Modern Culture, “ in AA Files 19, Architectural Association, 3-10.
Stegers, S. (2008) , “A Design Manual, Sacred Buildings,” Berlin. Birkhauser.