Why is architecture so difficult to talk about? What makes some buildings mockable or forgettable, and others memorable? Why do we close off to some thinking and open ourselves to other? Through a constructive way of looking at the timing of architecture, the author explores the myths of a critical history. These ideas are made more concrete and specific by focussing the enquiry on a forgotten building outside Helsinki, Espoonlahti Church (1980), by the architects Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen. To stimulate reflection on these issues, exploring the circumstances of this ignored building, this virtually ignored pair of architects, Grace and Architecture sketches out new points of contact between the ordinary and the exuberant, between history and criticism, between reason and faith, between dis-encouragement and propaganda, between grace and architecture.

Author: Connah, Roger