Monday, June 28, 2010

A Mies Too Far

As you know, I love Miesian architecture, but I think there are perhaps limits to the utility of Miesianism. Most famously, of course, Mies' Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin has been criticized as being an inappropriate venue for the display of art. I've never been so I can't offer an opinion, but it seems like a plausible critique.

But as cheap Miesian knockoffs go, the Chapel of Apparitions at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima (pictured) seems somewhat lacking to me. I mean, contrast the Chapel of Apparitions with the main Basilica. Now, even the main basilica is a little gaudy in my opinion, especially those enormous renderings of the peasant children who received the apparition. But at least there's some attempt to make the structure other-worldly. But to actually enclose the place where they received the apparition in a Miesian structure strikes me as somewhat less than reverent. am I wrong?

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