From Austria to Australia. Three Lutheran Churches by Karl Langer.

In 1939, the young architect Karl Langer fled his native Vienna and installed himself in Brisbane, soon to become a central figure in the local architectural scene. Amongst his many architectural accomplishments, are several church buildings he designed for the Lutheran Church: St John’s in Bundaberg (1960), St John’s in Ipswich (1961) and St Peter’s College Chapel (1968) in Brisbane. These strikingly modern buildings supported the post-war ‘reinvention’ of the Lutheran Church in Queensland, where architecture played an instrumental role in fostering its self-image as a progressive and outward looking faith. This paper argues that a double interpretation of the notion of ‘distance’ gives insight in how Langer overcame the straightforwardness of most church architecture in post-war Queensland. In a chronological sense, he relied on personal experiences from the past, developing further the stripped classicism he inherited from working in Peter Behrens’ Viennese studio during the 1930s. Closely related to this, the expression of civic culture he admired in ancient Greek architecture and town planning lived on in the urban qualities of his church designs. In geographical terms, Langer was acutely aware of what was happening overseas, collecting (predominantly American) journals and tearing out pages which he classified for later reference. Relying on this extensive repertoire and adapting it to the particular climate of his adoptive homeland, Langer developed a highly personal architectural idiom. Thus, the modernity of the three churches discussed here derives from a transfer of ideas and forms, and their transformation across time and continents.

Jaar van publicatie:2020

Toegankelijkheid:Closed