EXPRESSING TECHNOLOGY IN THE CONTEMPRORARY CULTURAL CATHEDRAL; CASE STUDIES IN BILBAO AND CANBERRA.

John Paul Swift

School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005 - john.swift@adelaide.edu.au

ABSTRACT

Some architecture tries to define the spirit of an age in its most technologically advanced

incarnation. This definitive architecture can be seen as mediating the relationship between

advances in architectural technologies and cultural paradigms in which they were created.

Over many years this mediation therefore has produced many subtle parallels. In an

increasingly secular age the competition for the most audacious architectural forms has

moved to the area of the museum, a contemporary cathedral. Today the definition of the

cathedral is equally true for the museum, the contemporary place of pilgrimage.

This paper views this relationship through the lens of the design and construction of the

place of pilgrimage. It also explores the change in the forum of technological advances in

architecture from the cathedral to the museum. It explores the wider meaning of the

techniques used by Ashton Raggatt & McDougall in association with Robert Peck von Hartel

Trethowan, at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra (2001) and Gehry Associates at

the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, (1997) and the environment in which they were conceived

and constructed. This paper draws comparisons between the Gothic Cathedral and the

contemporary museum in the way architectural science is used in high-profile cultural

buildings.

INTRODUCTION

“The cathedral is both an architectural marvel and a shrine to human experience, in both its

lowliest and its most exalted. Indeed, it seems that the greatness of the cathedral is that it is a

vast metaphor for humanity: diverse but striving toward harmony, grand but imperfect, and

always a work in progress.” (Matteson, 2002 p.294)

Historically, innovative public architecture signifies society’s view of its aspirations for its

future embodiment in the built form. As such, many incarnations of civic pride have been

overtly expressed in the cathedral. One interpretation of the embodiment of this civic pride is

the museum which can be seen as the ‘contemporary’ cathedral.

The bold and innovative architectural statements made by the cathedral builders relied on a

higher purpose for their societal legitimacy and to justify the vast resources essential for their

construction. Since the change in societal and religious patterns the traditional unquestioned

application of social and political capital has responded accordingly. Social and political

capital traditionally has only been invested in works of high social and political value.

Therefore “the cathedral” has become an architectural bell-weather for society’s belief

system. Whilst high profile museums are not a new phenomena, the amount of new, and

extensions to, museums in the last few decades has risen sharply. Consequently the prestige

for museum commissions has increased proportionally.

The most obvious application of tehnology in the Gothic Cathedral was in the area of

structural engineering advances. This means that the most appropriate area of comparison is

in the use of structure to express an idea. Because cathedral architecture evolved over time,

the iteration cycle of a given technical innovation was measured over generations rather than

years. Hence, the rate of change in technological advances used from the Gothic to the

present is not a linear relationship. Also the technology used in the Gothic period did not

address the need for heating and cooling, a large part of what today’s technology is tasked

with.

This paper considers two examples of contemporary architecture and the similarity in the

expression of cultural significance through the technology that made them possible. It also

considers the shift of the forum of architectural technological advances from the cathedral to

the museum.

THE CATHEDRAL

The cathedral was the highest expression of architecture in the Gothic age: an age which

considered architecture as the highest manifestation of art. However, this high art was only

possible because of technical advances including the pointed arch, the flying buttress, and the

ribbed vault. These construction devices were direct responses to engineering and formal

obstacles that restrained the physical heights and hence the religious message that Gothic

Cathedrals aimed to express. In the Gothic Cathedral the most observable expression of the

power of technology was height. Hence, the direction of technological endeavour was to

support or invent methods that allowed greater heights to be achieved with a similar pattern

of building materials. However, competition with neighbouring cities drove the community

to invest its energies into extending the known limits of these materials as status symbols. At

the Guggenheim this symbolism has lead to an increase in the level of people making a trip to

the city of Bilbao to experience a work of architecture.

The Guggenheim, this most fêted of the new sites of pilgrimage by Frank Gehry and

Associates (1991-97) has rapidly become an architectural icon. A wider frame of reference

has manifested itself as a significant improvement in tourist levels of the City of Bilbao over

1.4 million in the first year (Stephens, 1999).

Other works of museum architecture have also embraced unorthodox design and have

reframed the debate surrounding the wider implications of the museum as a cultural

establishment. The National Museum of Australia (NMA) designed by Melbourne architects

Ashton Raggatt and McDougall (ARM) in association with Robert Peck von Hartel

Trethowan is one such high profile work of architecture.

The heightened profile of the museum as a taxonomy of type and its role in shaping societal

views of itself is not a new proposition as asserted by Hooper-Greenhill (1992). However,

museum architecture as an expression of its time, rather than what artefacts it contains is

increasingly considered in aesthetic rather than technical terms.

“….goes far beyond any evolutionary notion of architectural economies or aesthetics. It is a

quantum break and , consequently, unlikely to find its fullest expression in commercial

buildings. If, like medieval cathedrals, museums understand and accept their full

responsibility to the art of their time” (Hooper-Greenhill, 1992 p9)

The notion of museum architecture being reverential to the artefacts in the manner cathedrals

were reverential to God was most notably reassessed by Frank Loyd Wright with his design

for the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum New York (1959). This seminal building is widely

considered more historically significant than the art it houses and hence started a debate

about the nature and purpose of museum architecture. The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao has

reignited this debate which the east wing of the National Museum of America by I.M. Pei

Cobb Freed & Partners (1971-80) and Pompidou Centre, Paris by Piano and Rogers (1971-

77) have all fueled during the post modern era.

The prominence of the museum as a landmark has also added to the public perception of the

museum as a civil icon. The non-Euclidean forms Gehry uses at the Guggenheim, Bilbao

and the Grand Loop of the NMA, contrasts with the adjacent buildings in a similar manner to

the towering Gothic or Renaissance cathedrals. In this way the Gothic cathedrals and

contemproary museums act as geographic markers. These extraordinary forms show the

building as a visual embodiment of the city’s self-image; this elevated visibility is an integral

element of the cathedral’s place in the collective consciousness.

"Ever since the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Solomon R Guggenheim Museum opened in

1959, architects have looked upon art museum commissions as their chance to ascend the

architectural Everest." (Schwartzman, 1997 p.55)

Gehry’s Weisman Museum Minneapolis (1990-3) and Guggenheim Museum, Berlin (1993-

7), Daniel Liebskind’s Jewish Museum, Berlin (1993-7) and the boilerhouse extension to the

Victoria and Albert Museum, London (1996- ) and I.M. Pei’s extensions to the Louvre Paris

(1988), all express the prestige of the museum as a commission. A museum commission can

propel formerly unknown architects into the vanguard of their profession as was the case of

Piano and Rogers at the Pompidou Centre, Paris, or elevate an established architect to

stardom as in James Stirling’s and Michael Wilford’s, Neue Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart (1977-

84). Hence, the competition between architects for a career-making commission creates a

positive environment for innovation in both form and the technology that underpins it.

Museums rely in varying degrees on the patronage of wealthy individuals or corporate giants

more than ticket sales for their survival. This means that the higher the profile the greater the

ability to attract sponsors Hence, the more conspicuous museums appeal to potential patrons.

A conspicuous building in today’s environment needs a design which was previously

unconstructable within the normal economics and aesthetic norms of architectural practices.

For, as Truelove asserts “[t]hese progressive museum buildings have become the

manifestation of contemporary architectural discourse” (Trulove, 2000 p.55). This is a

discourse driven by an increasingly global view of architecture as a corporate signature. As

the signature of God was/is universal there was no need to redundantly reinvent the forms of

the Gothic Cathedral whereas in a global marketplace a difference from competitors is a

sought after commodity.

FROM RELIGIOUS TO SECULAR

The continuing need for a higher purpose in the built form has created an environment which

allowed the museum to partially displace the religious space as architecture’s most

presitgious commission, and society’s most valued public space.

However, if the relationship between God and humanity is becoming more ambiguous, hence

the architecture must mirror this ambiguity if it is to remain relevant. Since Nietschze’s

assertion of the death of God in The Joyful Science, the incontestable position of the

cathedral as the embodiment of an entire society’s highest aspirations is becoming less

tenable. This evolving question of God and humanity has promoted an environment of

confusion about what society’s most valued space may be. The zeitgeist is more elusive

today than in any contemporary period because the void left by religion has not been filled by

a system with a similar level of surety. Consequently this leads to some societal unease

about the most appropriate use of collective resources and architectural language.

The Australian Bureau Statistics in its most recent survey of religious trends (The Australian

Bureau Statistics, 1994) shows those who described themselves as having no religion in 1933

totalling 0.2% of the total population as compared to 12.9% in 1991. This decline in

religious affiliation underscores the decline of social, physical and intellectual resources the

cathedral can now command. As Charles Jencks asserts,

“With the decline of the Christian and Modern belief systems, with the rise of consumer

society and a celebrity system, architects are caught in a vicious trap. They have little

credible public conventions and ideologies to build for, they lack any iconography beyond a

debased machine aesthetic (or High-Tech) and an ecological imperative that has yet to

produce accepted symbols, By contrast.……. you must design an extraordinary landmark, but

it must not look like anything seen before and refer to no known religion, ideology or set of

conventions.“ (Jencks, 2003 p.72)

Since existentialism, humanity has reassessed its relationship to its aspirational architecture.

The necessity to construct a personal view of man, God, and the built form has promoted an

alternative view of existence as a search for meaning conducted by the individual on his/her

own terms. The resulting personal rather than institutional view allows a more diverse

interpretation of what is inspirational architecture.

The NMA was predicated upon multiple concepts (Reed 2001), some of which are expressly

pluralist. This pluralist underpinning has led some to speculate on what the NMA signifies to

the museum-going public. Gibson (2001) alluded to a “nugget of neuroses” which he argues

is evident in the complex design of the NMA. The parti that drove Gehry’s design for Bilbao

is also still a matter for debate. This was not a concern that Gothic and Renaissance

cathedral builders needed to address; there was no ambiguity in their task, no existential

condemnation of freedom. In this environment new and novel forms act as indicators of the

prevailing images of existence.

COMPUTATIONAL vs TRIAL AND ERROR DESIGN

The metaphor of tangled destinies that ARM used at the NMA and the highly iterative and

idiosyncratic methods of Frank Gehry can be seen as the antithesis of the clear and precise

intention of the Gothic Cathedral builders. The early versions of the NMA explored the

multi-layered methods applied by ARM. The many versions ARM were able to model was

because of the computer’s ability to retain many previous versions of the same project. This

allowed ARM to model “what ifs”.

Gehry’s use of computer modelling makes extensive use of reverse engineering, that is,

taking a hand sculpted artefact and translating the physical artefact into electronic data. Both

Gehry and ARM are thus given the facility of rapid form generation and structural engineers

who are conversant with electronic data (CAD models) that allow their highly individual

forms to be proofed before the building has begun.

The traditional method of advancing architectural technologies in cathedral construction was

trial and error. The collapse of Beauvais cathedral in 1284 was the most famous example of

the error side of the equation in construction. Until this time most engineers considered that

Beauvais had exceeded the capabilities of the materials. The main reason for the collapse of

Beauvais as asserted by Murray (1997, p.162) was “a lack of axial alignment” coupled with

“the idiosyncratic bay system” which led to the buckling of the walls. Whilst Hayman

(1997) disagrees with Murray as to the most likely cause of the collapse both agree that it

was not a simple case of building materials being used exceeding their capacity. As Hayman

asserts “the stress level in most of the fabric of a Gothic Cathedral is so low the strength of

the material is of only secondary importance” (p.171). Therefore the experience of Beauvais

shows that the materials were adequate for the task but the understanding of the limitations of

structural design was lacking.

The forum of experimental design in architecture has now shifted to a method of

computational analysis. The built form of the museum is now tested in the virtual, rather

than the physical environment. This transition allows a far greater development in form and

structure. It is similar in nature to physical trial and error insofar as it is a realisation of

constant iteration. However, the Gothic cathedral builders conducted their iterations over the

span of generations in comparison to the hours a computer performs the iteration. The speed,

accuracy and inexperience of trial and error in a virtual world allows the contemporary

cathedral builder a capricious view of what can be achieved. The unorthodox structures at

Bilbao and Canberra were computationally designed which supported a greater degree of

lateral thought in the design process and allowed the realisation of idiosyncratic design.

Idiosyncratic design was given by Murray (1997) as a major factor in the collapse of

Beauvais.

Figure 1

Plan and part section of the NMA main hall (from ARM) (left), Plan and part section of

Chartres Cathedral (from Janson) (centre), and Plan and CATIA wireframe of the

Guggenheim (from Van Bruggen) (right).

Both the Guggenheim, Bilbao and the NMA have used the latest in technologies to generate

and to document these forms. The non-Euclidean form used by Gehry at the Guggenheim

was only available to Gehry because of the CAD system used. This system, CATIA, was

developed by the aerospace industry to handle aerodynamic surfaces and life cycle

management for the aerospace and automotive industry. Gehry’s use of CATIA at Bilbao

benefited greatly from the subcontractors’ understanding of that system and the presence of

aerospace engineers in his office, whilst ARM used a variety of proprietary systems to

acquire the NMA’s final form

The axial alignment of the external walls of the NMA’s main hall and many of the

Guggenheim walls could be seen as a descendant of the cathedral at Beauvais. The external

walls are angled towards the exterior of the wall whilst Gehry’s work seems to dispel any

sense of structural rationality. The two most important factors in the structural analysis of

any building are the gravity and wind. These factors increase as the scale of the building

increases. Hence, in the Gothic era, before the advent of structural engineers as a discipline

the knowledge of what had been successfully used before formed the body of knowledge,

this rudimentary understanding of downward and lateral forces gave rise to the pinnacle and

the flying buttress. The structural rationality of the Gothic Cathedral and its simple load

paths repeated the accumulisation of knowledge by the masters of the day. The computation

of the complex load paths of a typical section of the NMA’s main hall is far from the most

structurally rational forms. The structural engineers (Arup) used data supplied by ARM

modelled in Rhino, a 3D solid modelling package, to analyse the structure whilst Gehry used

the same model to ensure structural integrity. Figure 1 shows the comparison of composition

and structural innovations seen as floor plans, wall sections and 3D CATIA wireframes of the

NMA, Chartres and the Guggenheim respectively. They highlight the shift from structural

rationality driving form to form driving structural innovation..

Other factors have influenced the form of both the Cathedral and the museum. The

clerestory of the Gothic cathedrals was designed to allow light to penetrate the space. The

fine tracery of Gothic stone ribs and the large expanses of light were driven by this simple

precept to illuminate the space with light from above. In comparison the NMA computer

model allowed ARM to test solar penetration with the aim of allowing light to penetrate the

space only in very tightly defined levels and locations.

The façades of the NMA (permanent gallery) were unfolded from the virtual model to allow

cutting lists to be generated for the cladding contractors. There is a parallel with the way the

tracery was laid out on the ground before installation to the cathedral bay windows (Harvey,

1997) (Figure 2). Gehry’s computer model for Bilbao allowed a detailed structural analysis

of the steel work in addition to a database to generate a bill of materials with outstanding

accuracy.

Figure 2

Unfolded façade (standing area) with overlaid calligraphy (from ARM) (left) and tracery

floor York cathedral (from Harvey) (right)

The marks taken from the tracery floor of York Cathedral highlight the similarity of intent

and how computers have enabled a more significant use of geometric modelling. The

increase in computer power and the desire to build unorthodox designs has generated some

unfamilar spaces.

CONCLUSION

The tradition of building for a higher purpose is a well established human preoccupation.

Such service to a higher purpose historically carried a greater importance and status than

other architectural endeavours: consequently the resources available gives these commissions

a high profile. However, the vehicle of the self-vision for a community in the current

environment is no longer the sole domain of the Cathedral.

There are similarities in the way the two case study buildings were conceived, less so in

construction, but the most consistent comparison is in the correlation between society’s view

of itself and the significance of the artefacts it leaves as its legacy.

Whilst the technologies used to realise cathedrals has changed, the desire to build the most

daring architecture has remained a constant and this drive is apparent at the NMA, Canberra

and the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao. The Gothic cathedral expressed its significance

through scale and ingenuity. Both the NMA and the Guggenheim overtly express their

ingenuity and complexity. Both buildings were only conceived due to generative design

tools available to the architects, and only constructable because of their computer generated

documentation system.

The coincidence between the ascent of computer science and the decline of organised

religion has created an environment in which the architectural paradigm most closely related

to advances in architectural technology is not in praise of God but in trying to understand

ourselves and our place in the world. This collective endeavour is mirrored in architecture

that has moved beyond structural rationality and single purpose to an architecture of

seemingly structural irrationality and ambiguous meaning. This consequently has allowed

architectural science to become more diverse.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author acknowledges the assistance of ARM in providing access and information. Also

the author would like to thank Dr. Susan Shannon and Professor Antony Radford of The

University of Adelaide, School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design,

for their guidance in the preparation of this paper. This research forms part of a project

supported by an Australian Postgraduate Research Scholarship.

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