This document discusses the evolution of daylight in church architecture from ancient times to the modern era. It covers major periods and styles such as ancient Roman, early Christian, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and modern. Key developments include the Pantheon's use of an oculus to bring in natural light, Gothic cathedrals using stained glass windows and flying buttresses, and modern churches by architects like Le Corbusier and Tadao Ando featuring innovative uses of natural light through windows, skylights, and concrete materials. The document emphasizes how different architects throughout history have designed churches to symbolize God as light and create spiritual atmospheres through the integration of daylight.

1. Daylight in Church
Architecture Evolution

2. Ancient
Rome
146 BC-
365
Early
Christian
313 - 800
Romansque
800 - 110
Gothic
1100 – 1600
Renaissance
1400 - 1830
Modern
1830 - Now

3. Phanteon Temple of Gods 39
BC

4. GOD is Light and in Him
there is no darkness at all
(1 John 1:5)
The sacred author doesn't
tell us that God first made
the sun and stars, objects
that give light.
"And God said, Let there
be light; and there was
light".
(Gen 1:3)
He first made light: as if of
all created things, light,
intellectual light, is the
closest to his being, who
alone has immortality,
who dwells in
unapproachable light
(1 Timothy 6:16))
God is Light

5. God is Light
Santa Sabina 422-432
Early Christian Architecture Church

6. Old Church St. Peter
Rome
Early Christian Architecture Church

7. All you who seek to honor these doors,
Marvel not at the gold and the cost but at the art.
The noble work is bright but being nobly bright, the work.
Should brighten minds, allowing them to travel through the lights.
To the true light, where Christ is the true door.
The golden door shows how it is immanent in these things.
The dull mind rises to the truth through material things,
And rises from its submersion when it sees the light
Abbot Suger
(1081-1155)
Basilica of Saint-Denis, France
First Gothic Architecture Church (1144)

8. Dionysus the
Areopagite
Patron of Abbey
The Celestial Hierarchy
and Ecclesiastical
Hierarchy
The universe, born of an
irradiance, was a downward-
spilling burst of luminosity,
and the light emanating from
the primal Being established
every created being in its
immutable place. But it united
all beings linking them with
love, irrigating the entire
world, establishing order and
coherence within it.

9. Transformation of Earthy Light to Heavenly Light
To show how Christ our Light is present in the world

10. Stone, Glass & Light

11. Notre Dame de Paris
20 years after St.
Dennis
External Flying
Buttress

12. Saint Peter Basilica 1506 -

13. Saint Peter Basilica 1506 -

14. Notre Dame du Haut Chapel
Ronchamp, France 1955
Le Corbusier
Notre Dame du Haut chapel the Gothic-revival 1859
The old chapel in 1944,
after being bombed
and damaged during
the World War Two

16. .
One of the most
interesting aspects of the
design is the sporadic
window placement on
the walls.
Corbusier implemented
small puncturing
apertures on the façade
that amplified the light
within the chapel by
tapering the window well
in the wall cavity.
The effect of the light
evokes expressive and
emotional qualities that
create heightened
sensations in tune with
the religious activities.
The curving roof appears to float
above the building as it is supported
by embedded columns in the walls,
which creates a 10 cm gap between
the roof and the walls, which allow
for a sliver of clerestory light.
Corbusier wanted the
space to be meditative
and reflective in purpose.
The stark white walls add
to this purist mentality
that when the light enters
into the chapel there
becomes this washed out,
ethereal atmosphere

17. The building also includes a
23-meter-high (76-foot-high)
tower (which contains the
main chapel), and two smaller
periscope-like towers
designed to bring daylight into
the two small chapels.

18. Église Saint-Pierre
1965 – 2006
Le Corbusier

19. Le Corbusier wanted to create a setting that
established a place for spiritual enrichment on a
modest scale. About this, he stated that the space
must be "vast so that the heart may feel at ease and
high, so that prayers may breathe in it."

20. Natural light floods in through light boxes and through a series
of organized openings that are a direct reference to the
constellation Orion.
The light boxes are designed in a way that will bring light to
the alter on specific religious holidays, like Good Friday and
Easter Sunday.

22. Church of Light
Ibaraki, Osaka 1989
Tadao AndoThe concrete construction is a
reinforcement of Ando’s
principal focus on simplicity
and minimalist aesthetic;
however, the way in which the
concrete is poured and formed
gives the concrete a luminous
quality when exposed to
natural light.
Ando’s decision to place the
cross on the east façade allows
for light to pour into the space
throughout the early morning
and into the day, which has a
dematerializing effect on the
interior concrete walls
transforming the dark volume
into an illuminated box. .

23. The Church of Light is
an architecture of
duality – the dual
nature of existence –
solid/void, light/dark,
stark/serene. The
coexisting differences
leave the church void
of any, and all,
ornament creating a
pure, unadorned
space. The
intersection of light
and solid raises the
occupants awareness
of the spiritual and
secular within
themselves.
The Church of the
Light embraces
Ando’s philosophical
framework between
nature and
architecture through
the way in which light
can define and create
new spatial
perceptions equally, if
not more so, as that
of his concrete
structures.