THE TEMPLE OF THE HARMONY MESSAGE IN AUSTRIA

In the search for overcoming materialism and reconnecting with God, Art is for me a bridge. A Bridge to God, a bridge to Heaven. To design and shape a temple is for an architect one of the greatest challenges, because the design of a temple is first and foremost an act of faith and not an act of architecture or an intellectual conception. A temple is a house of God and this seeks other scales, a sensitive aesthetic, which should not only please people, but should also please God. And this again requires an inner attitude, a lot of concentration and a strict ascetic life. The requirements were clearly described and in fact the architect must gather all his art to fulfill this beautiful work and responsibility towards people. Many conversations with evangelical Christians accompanied this work, with the aim of expressing the commonalities and artistically depicting them, because I do not see in the church only a building project but a project above all of the community of many people, as many as possible. Of course, the design seeks humility, but that did not prevent me from gracefully designing and finding ideas that are harmonious, classical but also modern. I happily work with symbols that everyone understands and are anchored in the evangelical Christian tradition. The construction of an evangelical church did not pose any problem for me as an Orthodox Greek. On the one hand, I had knowledge of the evangelical faith from my childhood, from my own hometown of Veria in Northern Greece, known from ancient times from the visit of the Apostle Paul to Veroia. On the other hand, it is self-evident for me to pay attention to and understand the spirit of evangelical theology. At the same time, I also contribute to this temple the spirituality of Orthodoxy. My personal experiences of the Mysteries, which I had already as a child. This ecumenical view seems very important to me. I am a very religious person and I do not distinguish between religions. Christ is indivisible, God is indivisible. To support this ecumenical view, I used ancient foundation rites for the consecration of buildings. As symbols of tolerance and ecumenism, three components were built into the foundations, which show the full power of the Christian faith. A piece of St. Stephen, from my personal collection that accompanied me since my student years in Vienna, an authentic stone from Jerusalem, comes from the Austrian asylum in the Holy Family in Jerusalem and was transferred by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the diplomatic bag, and a glass loaf of bread, a gift from the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I. It was particularly important for me to design the church in such a way that it would appeal to children and invite them to visit it, to occupy it. I tried to introduce the childish into the building, the simple, the complex, the full of secrets. In a more natural way, architects want to show their power with a building. Such buildings leave no vital space for play. I tried to show my “weakness”, in the sense of “no power”, to be humble, to be a child. In the turn towards children, I also see a connection between all Christian churches. It could be a common problem (issue), forms and solutions for the whole of society to be found. The most beautiful architecture means nothing if it does not pay attention to life and does not take care of it, that a child grows up in a careful environment. Spaces for children should not ultimately be technologically (in style) intellectual (imagined). So, I designed the tower in the temple, where the children's church found its place, like a calyx of a flower, to use an organic form from the kingdom of nature. Adults are also children of God and for them it is equally important that the spaces are pleasant and comfortable. We live in a very tense situation in general in today's era. In order to meet God, we need peace and tranquility. In the design of the spaces, I kept the simple spirituality of simpler temples. Like the small churches in the villages of the Greek islands that with fewer means mediate God's closeness and greatness. My studies in the cave churches of Santorini led me to representations (ideas) of spaces that are filled with the mystery of metaphysics. Also, the idea of the infinite, for which I am grateful to my spiritual teacher Frederick Kiesler, I sought in the overall design. My spaces are endless, open to the kinetic rhythm of life and open to a new dramaturgy of the service. This temple is simple and at the same time complex. It does not hide its message, the message of humility. This makes it a unique building. This temple is a vision of the future, in which the word has taken shape. The word remains the most powerful content of faith: “In the beginning was the word, and the word was of God, and the word was God” (Gospel of John, chap. 1). The word needs images. And precisely in our time when man can no longer live without images, I see in this “image-made faith” an interesting future idea, with the aim of mobilizing Christianity and experiencing our Faith more consciously. Prof. Mag. Arch. Efthimios Warlamis, Architect and artist.