Where Iglesia Ni Cristo Chapel design comes from?

Where Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church of Christ) Chapel design comes from?

 

I heard my employer talking about the Church of Christ Chapel, they praise it for its beauty and designed, they didn’t know I was happy what was I heard from them, because it’s ours. Not only those, many people are amazed in the styled of the Church of Christ for its marvelous and elegant designed, especially, the tallest tower like spears pointing to the sky, they ask where this designed come from? critics say that the designed of it has a meaning, I heard some funny words about this, they say, its a tip of spaceship that when the rupture come it will fly, other say, they put the tower with light, so that the church will be visible from heaven by God, that is some joke I heard from others. There are so many story about the designed of the church, other are bad, other are good.

 

By the way, who really designed the Church of Christ Chapel?

 

According to the history it was designed by architect Carlos Antonio Santos-viola.

 

Carlos Antonio Santos-Viola (April 8, 1912 - July 31, 1994) was an architect in the Philippines. He is best known for designing and building Churches for the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) religious group.

 

Shortly after World War II, he decided to open his own office in partnership with Alfredo J. Luz. And His first exposure to the INC group was executed under Nakpil's company through the Bishop's Palace in San Juan, Manila.

 

INC gave the subsequent project directly to Santos-Viola. Although common elements may be visible, his designs were distinct from one another.

 

Where he got  the designed or style of Church of Christ?

He got this from 20th-century geometric forms garnished with Gothic revival and Baroque lines.

 

What is this Gothic revival and Baroque?

 

Gothic is an artistic style or movement of the 18th and 19th centuries inspired by and imitative of the Gothic style especially in architecture, it also referred to as "Victorian Gothic", "Neo-Gothic" or "Jigsaw Gothic", a style popularized in 1850-1880, whose characteristics include pointed arches, steeply pitched roofs, pinnacles, and battlements. Gothic Revival usually displays steep pointed gables, often with decorative bargeboards, octagonal towers or turrets, and verandahs or porches.

 

Sample of Gothics Design other than Church of Christ

The Baroque is a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, and music. The style began around 1600 in Rome, Italy and spread to most of Europe. In architecture, new emphasis was placed on bold massing, colonnades, domes, light-and-shade (chiaroscuro), 'painterly' color effects, and the bold play of volume and void.

 

Sample of Baroque Art

From this Carlos Antonio Santos-viola got the design of Church of Christ Temple or Chapel.

 

His first design was The Iglesia Ni Cristo in Cubao, Quezon City, and his largest chapel design was The Iglesia Ni Cristo Central Temple in Commonwealth Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City,   

 

Church of Christ Grand Temple

Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church of Christ) Central Temples employ exterior neo-Gothic vertical support columns with tall narrow windows between, interlocking trapezoids, and rosette motifs, as well as tower and spires." There are multiple entrances leading to the main sanctuary, where males and females sit on either side of the aisle facing a dais where sermons are made. The choir loft is located behind the dais, and in larger churches, baptistry pools for immersion baptism are located at the back of the Church.

INC Churches can be uniquely identified for "its exuberant use of fanciful forms and ornaments and a brilliant white facade whose silhouette is a cusped Gothic arch or a flattened Saracenic arch." The distinctive spires represent "the reaching out of the faithful to God." according to Fernando Nakpil-Zialcita, an anthropologist from Ateneo de Manila University,

The Central Temple features octagonal spires, "fine latticework" and ribbed windows. Recently, some changes made in the designed to accommodate a larger number of attendees.

 

When I wasn’t yet a member of this Church, I thought I was a palace and I always wanted to enter here every time I saw it, and when I become a member I saw it more beautiful than I ever thing, not made by man but by God inspire by His Glory and love for His people the Iglesia ni Cristo.

 

References:

http://i.word.com/idictionary/gothic%20revival, http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_revival, http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/gothicrev.html, http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque, http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=9242&term_type_id=3&term_type_text=things