Look at the Birdie

dzuyencecilenguyen:

There are so many photos out there that give a glimpse of the beauty of Corbusier’s Eglise Saint Pierre in Firminy. Many of which finally lured me into taking the short day’s trip. But when I say “glimpse,” boy do I mean it. It was honestly the most breathtaking hour of my entire Corbusian tour which no photo could do justice. Heck, of my entire European stay. Yes, it even beats that hour I spent at the reopening of Mies’ Tugendhat. Well for one, there isn’t a mandatory tour guide telling you exactly where you can and can’t go, what you can and can’t do. To be honest, most of the Corbusian edifices came with that freedom, especially Villa Savoye, but it was also the fact that during my visit, the concrete chapel was entirely mine for roughly half an hour. It being a Monday at 17h, just an hour before its closing, I was able to take it all in without having to be completely self-conscious; I can’t ask for anything more within a spiritual piece of architecture. Let’s just say, from the moment I opened the doors into a beautiful dark, cold silence to the moment I sang Hallelujah before the altar in order to enjoy the echoes, I fell in love with concrete and Corbusier all over again. 

(Because I don’t have a working digital camera, these are the “glimpse” photos from the Internet that have lured me. Sources in captions.)