What are the values behind a chapel that makes it special compared to other places? I have been holding a doubt since the first time I stepped on the American continent. As a person possessing limited knowledge of Christianity, I decided to make a careful observation of the chapel of a church, called Lawrence Heights, in order to see whether I could detect the mysterious and powerful values behind the seemingly inconspicuous building
To better observe the chapel, I asked the pastor of the church for the permission to visit it on a free day, before I came. When I arrived to the church, nobody was there. A sense of mystery came alive, while I looked around. With uneasiness and excitement, I was ready to pushed open the door of the chapel. The scene, which was about to appear to me, left me an impression that I would never ever forget. While the door was slowly opening, a light coming from heaven alighted on my forehead and a huge cross suddenly appeared to me (See Fig.1).
Holy is the first value I felt from the objects inside the place. First of all, the huge cross was located in front of a long narrow rectangle-sized colorful window, which was made with hundreds of pieces of glass in different shapes and colors. Therefore, when white light goes through the window, the light becomes flamboyant with red, blue, purple, and so forth. Exposed under such a gorgeous light, people can easily catch an unreal and indescribable feeling. As for me, I felt I came to heaven on earth. Since my knowledge about church was limited and I was curious about why people created windows in multiple colors, I searched the answer online. The answer was, “Stained glass is the term people use to refer to the windows of churches, mosques and significant buildings. And people commonly use stained glass in churches for informative and decorative purposes”. Then I had a deeper understanding of the values of stained glass. The windows primarily extend Christian symbolism and secondly beautify the church.
Obviously, I sensed holy at the first sight of the huge cross as well. I realized that the cross symbolized that Jesus was crucified on it to save sinners. If a man would like to sacrifice his own life to save other people, this kind of quality, for me, at any rate, means holy. Even more, there was a long wide pure-white banner, hanging on the cross. Both ends of the banner were put across the arm of the cross, leaving a collar-shaped triangle in the front. Looking at the cross from far away, indeed, it looked as a giant respected elder wearing a white holy robe. Subconsciously, if I was a boy who made mistakes, I would feel nervous, standing in front of Father. What a magical power the cross had.
Hope is the second value I felt from the pendant lamps. While I was immersed in my little repentance, I turned the lights on. Meanwhile, my hope turned on as well. Four strong lights filtered in wherever they could, driving out darkness and choking the shadows. The pendant lamps hanging above my head were really well-designed, with a transparent hexagon column case. Inside the case, there were 4 candle-like bulbs positioning on a delicate base (See Fig.2.) As you stared at the lamp, you could sense the flame was at times strong and at other times weak, as if a moth were using its last energy to pursue its goal persistently, sometimes achieving, sometimes not, but hope was always there. The more you looked at it, the stronger you felt your faith. Even if you were suffering from persecution, you did not give in but kept going, and you would see the light at the end.
Moreover, I wanted to think a step further. How can a candle deliver hope to me? I recalled that in my primary school, I studied an article which explained that a candle burned itself to light other people’s hope. All at once, I seemed to discover a theory that values of objects turns out to be values from our previous perceptions of the world. Does it imply that some well-recognized values may change in the future if society’s perceptions change？
Compliance is the third value I viewed from the layout of the chapel. Multiple long pews were positioned in front of the stage row by row, forming a very unified environment, which told people to behave well. Furthermore, pews on each side angled towards the center of the stage, highlighting the importance of the podium. Plus the stage was three steps higher than the main floor. When speakers talked to people, people had to look up to speakers. Looking up to something in the center, in my dictionary, symbolizes an authority that you should not challenge. Audiences should comply with the rules written in the Bible. And, coincidently, in front every person, there was a Bible orderly placed in the shelf on the back of the pew (See Fig.3.) Therefore, it reminded me that if you wanted to be a devout Christian, please obeyed the rules in the Bible. Also, as a Christian, you should totally be submissive to God, and comply with his instructions. Since I believe everything is design, builders who construct a chapel in this style must have their own design ideas, which, I guess, can make people be more religious. Admittedly, very likely, I only assume a wrong intention based on my own narrow perspectives.
Comprehension is the fourth value. When I walked on the stage, I found something very fascinating to me - musical instruments. There were guitars, piano, drum and microphones (See Fig.4). And the following scene popped up in my head automatically. When lights dim and music turns on, a band has fun playing music on the stage. Audiences in front of the stage also enjoy singing together and dance with the rhythm of music, as a pop concert. The value I can tell from the situation is comprehension. A traditional religion is warmly open to modern elements. Church, as a place for people to get together, I would say, has to be comprehensive to people with varied backgrounds. Otherwise, there must be conflicts generated by two incompatible ideas. Maybe exactly under the influence of comprehensive culture, Christianity can move with time and always keeps its impact.
Redemption is the last value I want to mention in this essay. When I stood right beneath the cross, I saw a transparent tank half filled with water below the bottom of the cross (See Fig.5.)The color of the water looked as the color of the sea. Naturally, I was wondering what was the meaning behind the water? I did not obtain the idea until I went back to the entrance and looked back at the cross for the last time. The cross seemed as the sun, after it went through the endless night, it finally rose from the calm sea, gaining a new birth. Everyone definitely had experienced a harsh period of time that you thought you could not overcome, however, under your efforts and other people’s help, many finally conquered the old imperfect self to acquire a new life. Hypothetically, the builder wanted to take Jesus as an example to illuminate the meaning of redemption.
Boom! Now five values I listed above are strung together into an integrated story. When a man confessed his sins to the holy God, God gave him hope and asked him to comply with his instructions. Obeying the rules, the man became increasingly comprehensive until he acquired redemption. From my observation of the material in the chapel, I summarized the following three opinions about materials and values.
First, values without material are intangible. After putting values to material, material changes from a mere decoration to a living object. Think about it, how do we study or acquire values? At the very beginning, we study values from books. After we accumulate enough knowledge, we can get values by observing material surrounding us. Therefore, values have to be put into material to be deliverable and material plays the role of medium. Moreover, before we put values into a material, it is lifeless, such as a window. But after we paint meaningful images on the window, it turns to be an object which can deliver the meaning to countless other people.
Second, material has to be well-designed to deliver expected values. When we want to express our values to the public through material, how could we insert expected values into material? Take the chapel of Lawrence Heights church as an example, after values are defined (holy, hope, compliance, comprehension and redemption), we can explore different ways to achieve each value. Which color of the window should we choose? Which layout of the room should we construct? Which details of the place should we consider? Then, for each question, we come up with specific methods to achieve them one by one. Good design does take a long time and it is worthwhile. As a designer, it is our obligation to make our design self-explanatory and deliver exact values to the audience.
Third, values change in different contexts. Even if designers successfully design a material delivering the values they want to express to the public, the values may not reappear in the exact same way several years later. As the first sentence of the project description, material culture is the study through artifacts of the beliefs - values, ideas, attitudes and assumptions - of a particular community or society at a given time. As time passes, contexts do change. To avoid the blurring of traditional values, we have to preserve information at that time as much as possible so that people in the future can still understand the contexts. And then, it is less likely that future generations deduce false values from old material totally based on their new context.
In summary, the chapel of Lawrence Heights church contains a lot of values that are representative for Christians. Through the influence of the chapel, people gradually feel and understand these values. Then, with more and more people owning these values, they form a group, in which members keep influencing each other, with certain shared characteristics. And we call them - Christian.**
