Another View of a Hypothetical Cathedral

Matthew Alderman. Perspective Study of a Hypothetical Proposal for Saskatoon Cathedral. July 2008. Click to enlarge.

I had a little time last night and refined my hypothetical design for Holy Family Cathedral in Saskatoon, based on yesterday's responses. Perspective also always appears to be better understood by the public at large than elevations and plans. The same basic parti is present, though the outlying dependencies along the front elevation have been simplified considerably, and the dome's heavy buttresses pared down somewhat. There are always editorial changes, big or small, that can be done to such a project, but this seems a good place to leave it for the moment.

I hope sometime in the next few days to post a third hypothetical proposal (in addition to the first and second designs posted here, which were counter-proposals in response to this), quite pared-down in scope, to illustrate that when good architecture and good liturgical design embrace simplicity, it must be a well-thought-out and subtle simplicity. It is not enough to simply reduce it to unornamented geometrical diagrams, as those masters of simplicity, the Greeks, so aptly show with their subtle entases and perspectival corrections.