The façade was implemented by using exterior grade high-resolution digital printing on porcelain rain-screen panels to optically engage the viewer in a series of visual scales nested inside each other. The façade is covered with 1.5 million of them, each one representing one of the 1.5 unique individuals who perished in the genocide. The pixels you mentioned were derived from the infinitely varied circular emblems that reoccur throughout the Armenian artistic tradition. In its long history in a contested area of the South Caucasus between Russia/the USSR, Persia/Iran, the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, the Armenian people have endured centuries of upheaval, the most horrific of which was the Armenian genocide of 1915 as the Ottoman Empire was collapsing during World War 1. Nevertheless, in building a church for a modern Armenian community, standing on a slight hill overlooking the vast Texas horizon, remembering a space separated by 14 centuries and eight thousand miles, it was important that the building gestures to the present and the future as well as the past. The exterior form and interior space of Saint Sarkis reflect a deep respect for this ancient tradition. The church of Saint Hripsime was completed in 618AD and the cornerstone for the Saint Sarkis church was laid in 2018, exactly 1,400 years later. Armenia is the world’s oldest Christian nation, having adopted Christianity as a state religion in 301AD, 80 years before the Roman Empire converted to Christianity. We began with the model of the ancient Armenian church of Saint Hripsime in Yerevan, considered a masterpiece of Armenian architecture that is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Could you touch on this project’s design?ĭH: Yes, the project was restricted formally. The pattern serves as a monument to the 1.5 million victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide. Yet, it is resolutely innovative, particularly its west façade, which is printed with an Armenian cross that upon close inspection is revealed to be made up of 1.5 million unique pixels. This project is fundamentally a traditional building. VB: Let’s talk about Saint Sarkis Armenian Orthodox Church in Carrollton, Texas. Save this picture! The campus of the Saint Sarkis Armenian Church, Carrollton, Texas, Courtesy of David Hotson. That purity of volumetric delineation of that space has had a big impact on me. Together with the acoustics, the scent of incense, and the movement of light, the space provides an experience of being transported from the exterior world of the objective, material, figural objects to the interior realm of the experiential, subjective, immaterial figural void. In my view, Hagia Sophia is the greatest building ever built, a paradigm of the approach to architecture as interior space. Then there is Byzantine architecture, with complex immersive centralized plans and the purity of spatial volume that is not invaded by advancing sculptural ornament or scenographic perspectival effects, as predominate in the axial churches of the west. His work has been my inspiration since I first saw it. VB: Would you name any primary sources of your inspiration?ĭH: I think the architect whose approach to space as a primary medium of design comes closest to where I am trying to go is Alvaro Siza. Save this picture! The facade of the Saint Sarkis Armenian Church, Carrollton, Texas, Courtesy of David Hotson. Vladimir Belogolovsky: Could you touch on your design process? How do you typically start a project? In the following interview with David Hotson, we discussed the architect’s design process, focusing on making concave spatial voids legible and primary, being inspired by Byzantine architecture and his favorite building ever built, what structure he considers the most important work of contemporary architecture, what makes his award-winning Church of Saint Sarkis special, and the use of space and light as the essential tools in creating architecture as a figural void and ultimately an art form. Hotson obtained his Bachelor of Environmental Design from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and earned his Master of Architecture in 1987 at Yale. Earlier this year this appealing work won the US Building of the Year award by. His Church of Saint Sarkis in Carrollton, Texas is especially distinguished for the luminous and sculptural qualities of its interior space as well as the exterior grade high-resolution digital printing on its west façade. His projects – houses, loft residences, penthouse apartments, and galleries – are known for their remarkable spatial and visual complexity. 1959) founded his New York City-based practice David Hotson Architect in 1991.
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