Gothic Revival
Commentary
Referring to Pugin’s ‘philosophy’ of architectural style, Sutton observes that ‘For him Gothic was the only true Christian style and to adopt it – together with the values that went with it – was to remedy all the ills of the contemporary world, not just aesthetic but religious, social and moral as well’ (p. 274). How plausible do you find the claim that architecture can act in itself as a force for good within society?
The notion that architecture – or, more broadly, the built environment as a whole – can act as a factor in influencing individual and social behaviour is one which, came to achieve great prominence in the architectural theories of the twentieth century. In order to explore this idea, look at the following two images. The first is the Royal Courts of Justice, completed in 1866, and designed in typically robust ‘geometrical Gothic’ style by George Edmund Street. The second is the façade of the Bank of England, designed by one of the last of the neo-classical generation of architects, Sir John Soane, from 1788 onwards (although substantially remodelled during the 1920s).
