(now
BUILT
ENVIRONMENT AND BIBLICAL THEOLOGY
MAKING
CONNECTIONS: DISCERNING RELATIONSHIPS
MICHAEL POWELL
Doctor of Philosophy February 2003
10 - TRAVERSING PLACES AND TIMES:
PSALMS
In a city, the street must be supreme, It is the first institution of the
city. The street is a room by agreement.... Today.., you have roads but no streets...
(Louis Kahn)
10.1 Purpose
The purpose of this Section is to consider a variety of
texts and other materials whose intent is sometimes to guide the observer
around a particular locality or route and sometimes to , lead the observer
into a particular experience of place.
Such
experience is draw centripetally into searching theological reflections and
questions, and the texts of the Psalms.
10.2 Nature of the theme
Much
human interaction with built environments is one of traverse, whether the
traverse of a daily journey repeated many times or of a once-in-a-lifetime
visit. Such traversing can be in the present time or in the past and can be
facilitated by texts or personal experience. Locations traversed are
physically encountered, intellectually understood and emotionally appreciated.
As
well as language, texts relating to locations in
10.3
Strachan
(1998) is concerned with the archaeology and history of
Aerial
photography enables one to take in major features outside Chelmsford Borough.
Looking down onto reconstructions of the Palladian Thorndon Hall or the
twenty-five arch railway viaduct across the Colne flood plain on the
Murphy
and Brown (1999)
consider the archaeology of the coastal landscape. In relation to a
picture
entitled 'early morning at the Neolithic site at The Stumble in the Blackwater
Estuary",
they say:
There
is an equivocation about the
(Murphy
and Brown 1999:11)
Alongside
this sense of timelessness is the acute awareness of change. The Saxon St
Peter's Chapel is now isolated at the edge of the marshes but it was built
within the remains of the Roman shore fort of Othona, located in a pivotal
position on the
A
systematic exploration of
These
compilers are not inviting explorers to appreciate the finer points of
architectural history. They comment little on building styles and materials.
They say nothing about the evidence of Dutch influence on detailing of
brickwork or the stories of water supply and sewage. Their main concern is to
reveal the human story that is exemplified by, and embodied in, this built
environment of central
It is
a story extending over approaching two thousand years of who lived where; of
who carried out what kind of business where; of where people worshipped as
Catholics, Anglicans, Nonconformists and Quakers; of where the law has made
its judgements and incarcerated its prisoners; of where children and adults
have been educated; of hospitals; of local government offices; of the public
houses in which life has been turned into words and words have been turned
into life; of the institutions in which history has been enshrined. Here, in a
very small geographical area, almost completely built up, time too builds up
on itself. In layered form, so much is here. While it can be disentangled in a
historically linear way, it is not really like that. The tangle and the
inter-relatedness are the reality.
What
is revealed in this walk cannot be assimilated all at once. The complete
stranger, from say Tasmania, even given a good general knowledge of English
history, would need time to absorb the particularities of the Mildmay family
who at the Reformation succeeded the Bishops of London as Lords of the Manor
and had to obtain an Ad of Parliament in the nineteenth century in order to
untie themselves from Tudor entailments, or of the industrial families of
Marconi, Hoffman, Crompton and others who had homes and workplaces here. The
present writer leamt for the first time of once a quite major rope making
industry in Moulsham, and of The Chelmsford Company, a group of five
nineteenth century nonconformists - a solicitor, a banker, two brewers and the
architect and engineer James Fenton - who acquired property sufficient to
develop New London Road, the first planned development in the town.
Marriage
(1992,1997) shows his readers the town in which he has
lived the whole of his life from the perspective of the Chelmer and Blackwater
Navigation. The Chelmer Navigation Bill received the Royal assent in 1793. It
contained powers for the compulsory purchase of land and for transportation to
A
major feature of the canal-side was the mills; Moulsham Mill on the edge of
...the
land around was quickly laid out with sawmills, lime kilns, iron foundries,
stone masonry and coal yards. Quays were constructed alongside the basin and
at its head was a large open wharf and yard area... Adjacent to this large
yard a gas works was built in 1819, becoming the first to be built on an
inland site in
(Marriage
1997:15)
Industrial
usage continued until 1972. After twenty years of uncertainty and the
possibility of the basin being filled in, to mark the bi-centenary in 1992,
dredging and partial restoration was carried out, ensuring a future as an
environmental and recreation facility. `The authorities... have now recognized
the heritage value of this fragment of 18th century England and declared the
entire canal from Chelmsford to Heybridge Basin and its valley a linear
Conservation Area, one of the first in the country.' (Marriage 1997:38). The
successor to one of the original timber companies retains a major base at the
site but new developments of flats are now replacing the old waterside
buildings.
In an
earlier text, Marriage (1992) explores change in
Marriage
evokes the variety of the Built Environment with photographic views of the
former racecourse at Galleywood, of the sweeping 1930's Broomfield Sanatorium
building, schools dating from the turn of the century and the 1930's, and the
ornamented Essex Police Headquarters at Springfield.
The Parish of Writtle (2000) chose to mark the
Millennium by producing a parish map with commentary and beautiful watercolour
paintings. The commentary in particular is a review of notable buildings,
revealing just how varied the functions of buildings in a single parish can
be.
One
accompanies the compilers as they make their way around the village, noting
the most significant sites and buildings:
·
All Saints' Church originating in 1143, the
·
The United Reformed Church, founded in
1672, with the present site first used in 1815 and the present building
constructed in 1885.
·
King John's Palace which reached the
height of its significance in the 14th century; site now within the grounds of
·
The Great Barn at Lordships built around
1500, also now part of
·
Writtle Workhouse - in Bridge Street
adjoining the River 1Nid, in use from the early nineteenth century to 1844,
when all residents were transferred to Chelmsford.
·
Writtle Brewery - in
·
Schools - at various sites in the
churchyard area, on the Green and, since the 1960's, in
·
Writtle Mills - the watermill on the Wid
and the windmill on
·
Public houses - the cellars of the
·
Longmeads, built in 1880 as a private
house for a
·
Marconi's wooden hut 2MT - the place
from which, in the 1920's, broadcasts were made.The foundations of national
broadcasting were laid in Writtle.
·
So much of life is here. Part of it is revealed by the buildings. Part of
it is either hidden in private property or happens behind anonymous walls.
It is important to bear in mind that Writtle, like
10.4
Material chosen for this Section relates to the Rubicon Estuary and Port
Sorrell, the town of
The
After the removal of the police office to
A State school was established in 1937:
An obsolete building, which had previously housed the
(Port Sorrell Sesquicentenary Committee 1994:37)
A further rich insight into vernacular and basic building is derived from
(Port Sorrell Sesquicentenary Committee 1994:35)
In 1998 when the writer visited the
estuary, an area of Shearwater was marked out in building plots for sale -
reminiscent of pictures of
Latrobe
is a small town attractive to visitors. The approach
road from Devonport follows the line of the
The
atmosphere of the town is well encapsulated by - and in part created by - Badcock's
Latrobe's Heritage (1999). She
notes that the town was laid out in 1856 and that building commenced in 1858.
Within twenty years it was to become the most popular and prosperous town in
the area, `the Capital of the
Badcock
commences her survey 1.5km back from Latrobe on the Devonport road. Here is
the residence Frogmore built in the 1880's for one of the pioneer businessmen
of the town, George Atkinson. The National Register explains that it is a
large [relatively, for the area] two-storey brick Victorian Italianate Villa,
with a three-storey tower and two-storey return verandah. To the visitor from
Now
located in the vicinity of the bridge is Sherwood Hall, originally built in
1850 in
When
Sherwood Hall was re-erected on site in
(Sherwood
Hall Newsletter 162)
In
discussion with the writer, the housekeeper added that the 10 000 roof
shingles for the restoration were made single-handedly by an octogenarian
tradesman. She also brought out the significance of the fad that the people
for whom (or by whom) the house was originally built, Thomas Johnson and Dolly
Dalrymple Johnson, were, respectively, a discharged convict and a true
Aborigine. The house symbolises a marriage of which there was disapproval but
which united two strands in the Tasmanian people.
Badcock
continues to work her way up
The
town has a complement of at least four churches. The
The
architect and builder of the church was William Gadsby of Formby (Devonport),
and Mr Michael Woods was Clerk-of-Works. The building was completed within
eighteen months at a cost of Ł888...
[It]
consists of a rectangular nave (1 5.5x8 metres), a chancel (4x5 metres), and a
vestry to the south of the chancel. The style of the church is 'Victorian Free
Gothic' with early English influences. The external walls are face brickwork,
with deep coloured clay bricks in English bond.
(www.ahc.gov.au/cgi-bin/heritage/28/08/01)
Badcock
also illustrates the Anglican, Baptist and Roman Catholic churches. The first
two have Gothic nuances but the third is the most authentically Tasmanian, the
main part of it being a simple
weather-boarded structure immaculately maintained.
In addition to Frogmore and The Uniting Church, buildings included on the
National Estate Register are the
This traverse now moves to the Upper River Areas. Central to this
consideration is Haygarth's text,
Tourism would inevitably follow. Gustav Weindorfer, an immigrant from
And Wakiheim is a pleasure in itself! Its charming, unexpected nooks, its
clean, beautiful, natural materials, the fanciful yet practical design, the
fitness (perfect!) to its surroundings, the bath house, the lovely tent room,
and last the marvellous little garden. - And then we have not mentioned its
own special spirit or feeling which really is there. All are to be enjoyed
freely.
(Haygarth: 1996:131)
In a rich mix of text and colour photography, Harding and Dale (2000)
recall Weindorfer's words of
There must be a National Park for the people for all time. It [the area]
is magnificent, and people must know about it and enjoy it.
(Harding and Dale 2000:5)
In
1989 the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair area and the adjoining Walls of
Jerusalem area became one World Heritage Area.
Walls
of
There is a haunting power in the thought that names of
built places in
The hydro electricity works of this area are fundamental. Lupton (1999)
is the chronicler of hydro electricity in
By the
1950's the consumption of electricity in developing countries was doubling
every eight years. In
Street
lighting was an increasingly incidental and relatively unprofitable source of
the HEC's revenues, but remained one of the most highly visible features of
its public profile.
(Lupton
1999185)
Another
aspect of public visibility was the impact of the structures
themselves:
Clark
Dam was, by the standards of the times [1950's], a massive structure, taller
by half than the tallest building in
(Lupton
1999:196)
The Tasmanian Anglican (September 2001) tells how the present
The Tree of Life
To inspire us in spirit
To share in strength and energy
To allow us to see the growth of history in the Central
Highlands of
To recognise the legacy of that development.
(Diocese of Tasmania 2001:8)
10.5 General Built Environment texts
A text
by Shepheard (1997) is to be considered first; it provides an important
insight into the experience of traverse and the associated experience of
seeing.
He explains, `This book is about seeing things that are
too big to see.' (Shepheard 1997:vii). It is about the relationship between
the wilderness - the world before humans appeared in it-, cultivation -
everything we have done to it-, and landscape - another name for the
strategies that have governed what we've done. What we've done includes
architecture: `Architecture is not just
buildings ... It is not everything but it is more than buildings. No
narrative can encompass it, no revelation can solve it. Action is required:
architecture is the art of the solid, uncompromising, conclusive material
worid.' (Shepheand 1997-.viii).
Shepheard
does not work with a theoretically argued text but with a series of studies.
In one, he goes to Ely, the cathedral city of
As
Shepheand and his companion pursue their web-like journey, they become aware
that there is 'a thing called heritage' going on. `It's why old things have to
be restored to an authentic narrative - so they can be made new. Restoration is a theme in a strategy, and the strategy is to cling
to the past with all the strength that modem methods can muster. Authenticity
is the science lurking in the nostalgia.' (Shepheard 1997:14).
Shepheard's
final piece is entitled Vision. He
takes a party of architectural students to Harrow Hill to see the view
across
There
is no knowledge without experience - that's why you've brought us up here
isn't it? You couldn't just tell us about the
She's
right.
`You have to eat the apple, don't you?'
(Shepheard 1997:190)
Coincidentally,
Eve's boyfriend and fellow student is called Adam. He and a fellow student,
Alex,
are remembered thus:
The
`In
that case,' says Alex, '
`Or
build a higher one still and destroy
(Shepheard 1997:192)
The
myths of Genesis live, recognised or not, in the conversations of
architectural students whose homes are in the
Brand (1994) sheds interesting light on traverse through time in relation to
particular buildings. He argues that buildings are thought of too statically
and are not perceived to flow through time. While 'architecture' may sometimes
set out to make a permanent mark, buildings are always being built and
rebuilt. Technology, money and fashion are irresistible forces stimulating
change. Brand argues for a considered rather than a chaotic approach to the
management of flow and change. He suggests that different time frames apply to
different facets of buildings:
SITE
is [relatively] eternal
STRUCTURE
persists and dominates over time
SKIN
is mutable
SERVICES
become obsolescent
SPACES
layouts are changed
`STUFF'
just keeps moving ie Contents
Brand suggests that too often Site dominates Structure, which dominates
Skin, which dominates the Services, which dominate the Space plan, which
dominates the Stuff. And all too often the Stuff dominates the SOUL of the
user, making us Servants to our Stuff.
In other circumstances, the slow moving of buildings over time is what is
desirable. Slow can be healthy. The steadfast persistence of a site and a
structure can give beneficial security.
The management of growth and change need to be in the direction of
getting better and becoming good.
10.6 General Biblical Theology
texts
Traversing built environments is
about engaging with particular locations. Some Australian theologians are
asking whether they need to engage more explicitly with their own country and
its circumstances.
Look, dear people of
and behold this vast continent of yours.
It is your home! The place of your joys and pains,
your endeavours and your hopes.
And for all of you, Australians,
the way to the Father's house passes through
this land.
Jesus Christ is the way.
(Stockton 1999: 249-50)
Malone
(1999), the editor of the volume in which
Fletcher
(1999),
....
we non-Aboriginal Australians live in two worlds spiritually: we live in the religion we
inherited full-blown from our immigrant forbears, and we live in this land.
The inherited spirituality was formed in an ages long relationship with other
lands (for example,
(Fletcher
1999:276-77)
Sheldrake
(2001) is concerned with generic issues of Spaces for
the Sacred. He makes a traverse of his own subject area, touching as he goes
on various matters referred to in this thesis.
He
speaks of God as light, quoting Dionysius, `Light comes from the Good and
light is an image of this archetypal Good` (Shekirake 2001:56). Light was a
major feature of medieval cathedrals. Between 1150 and 1250, `In terms of
biblical theology there was a move from the book of Genesis to the book of
Revelation, from a Garden restored to a New Jerusalem`. (Sheldrake 2001:59).
The Gothic cathedral was as heaven on earth. As Gothic developed, there was a
`progressive de-materialization of walls with a sea of glass and a flood of
light....' (Sheldrake 2001:59). Moving from light to space and time, God finds
presence in space and time in the person of Jesus Christ. In Christ the whole
fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is
the head of every ruler and authority.' (
Places
can be identified with human sinfulness and alienation. This has usually been
based on the biblical story of Cain as the founder of the first city. The
first murderer becomes the first city builder.' (Sheldrake 2001:93). `Not an
auspicious basis' Sheldrake continues, `for the spiritual nature of built
environments. The city has been portrayed at best as a place of ambiguity and
at worst as a representation of humanity's rebellious heart and its rejection
of God'. (Shekirake 2001:93).
Speaking
of monasteries, Sheldrake says: `Hospitality is always a blending of inside
and outside. In other words, hospitality creates a `between' place". (Sheldrake
2001:114). Again, in relation to religious life the
Reflecting
on the role of the city and the need for renewal, Sheldrake poses the ethical
questions at the heart of all city and built environment work:
Whose
place is it?
Who
owns it?
Who
is kept out or marginalized?
Who
is not made to feel at home?
Why
cities, what are cities for?
What
is a humane or humanizing city?
(Sheldrake
2001:163-4)
He urges reflection on the civilising possibilities of
the city and suggests that `the aesthetic and moral potential of cities will
take over from the economic or other functional purposes'. (Sheldrake
2001:163). The human city would have room for individuality and collectivity,
In
practical terms, looking to the future of the city, Sheldrake writes:
There are serious theological questions which we must
reflect upon if our built environments are to support the kind of
relationships that will enable humans, individually and collectively, to
achieve their deepest identity.
There is another biblical image of the city apart from
the one in Genesis of Cain the murderer
becoming the first city dweller or the people of
(Sheldrake
2001:167)
10.7 Psalms
The
three psalms under consideration do resonate with a sense of traverse.
In
Psalm 8:3 'When I look at your heavens............' relates to a traverse of
the eye.
In
Psalm 19:4, `Their voice goes out' creates the notion of an auditory traverse.
Two verses . further on, the sun goes out on its circuit.
In
Psalm 48:12, readers can envisage the Walk about
All
the commentators whose work was studied in Section 5.3 convey a sense of
encounter with God in the outdoor environment. With a more urban slant, Cottar
asks of God that we ,may recognize you in streets and in squares'.
(Cottar 1989:102). From a biblical theology perspective, all traversing of
places and times carries expectation of recognizing God, sometimes Sheldrake's
`peace of God'. (Sheldrake 2001:167).
10.8 Synthesis and centripetal dynamic
There
was symmetry about our traverses of
The
With
Again,
there was symmetry in the general built environment texts. Shepheard explore
space and sight, first around Ely and then on the outskirts of
The
Australian theologians were traversing their own land and history, past and
future. The Pope saw that the way to the Father's house for Australians lay
through their country, both bush and city. Other writers showed that land has
its own story and its own sacredness, which those who would love it or work
for its good must traverse for themselves. Balancing the particular scenarios
of
Whose
place is it?
Who
owns it?
Who
is kept out or marginalized?
Who
is not made to feel at home?
The
Psalms create their ambiances of traverse, whether of limb, eye or ear, whether out
in the vicinity of the Tasmanian Walls of Jerusalem or in a
Ultimately,
as Sheldrake suggests, the inward, centripetal pull may be to an archetypal