Art: A Satisfactory Cathedral?

Nowadays, architects have almost as few calls for cathedrals as for pyramids or royal palaces. When Coventry decided to build a new cathedral to replace the one destroyed by the Luftwaffe in 1940, the city was hard-pressed to find designers with previous experience, finally invited British Commonwealth architects to submit plans in a £4,500 competition.

Last week the prizewinning design and four runners-up were on display in London. They were the pick of 219 entries ranging from grandiose synthetic Gothic to slick, engine-room modern and including one plan for a completely underground job. Most of the designs brought groans and boos from experts and laymen alike. Said one British architectural journal, The Builder: “In an age when some power stations are uncommonly like cathedrals, it is not surprising that some cathedrals should look like power stations.” Said the London Times: “Modern architecture must be given its chance, but. . . it is doubtful whether a culture such as ours, which is not based as was the medieval culture on religious faith, is capable of producing a satisfactory cathedral.”

Coventrians, who had first look at the entries, expressed their contempt in a colorful string of nicknames: “the grand piano,” “the Kremlin,” “the pork pie,” “the egg-in-a-cup,” “the beehive.” Even the winning entry, a conservatively modern stone, glass, concrete and steel structure by Scottish Architect Basil Spence, was compared unenthusiastically to a cinema, a factory and a block of flats.

Architect Spence, 44, “nearly passed out” when he heard his design had been chosen. He had worked on it after hours, for relaxation from his chores as designer of the Festival of Britain’s Sea & Ships Building and Glasgow University’s new atomic-research laboratory. In his design he conscientiously followed all the requirements set down by the Bishop of Coventry and his advisers, incorporated the spire of the old cathedral as an important part. He also added a few ideas of his own, e.g., a chapel in the form of a crusader’s tent, zigzagging walls, electrically operated doors, and an enormous modern tapestry (yet to be designed) to hang behind the altar.

Although Spence’s design already has the approval of the bishop and the competition judges, no one could say last week when Coventry will begin building. Before a start can be made, the plans have to run the gauntlet of three Coventry Cathedral committees, the Royal Fine Art Commission and the Coventry planning board. When all these hurdles are cleared, a further problem will remain: wangling material and labor allocations.