One and Many: Parish Church Planning in Late Medieval England

摘要

The example of the medieval parish church demonstrates that, contra the dramatic spire-building project conjured by Golding, large-scale premodern architectural undertakings could be both top-down and bottom-up. Indeed, in the case of the open-plan parish churches of late medieval England, collective and collaborative processes led to the creation of a distinctive building configuration that allowed an unprecedented number of patrons to pursue both individual and communal agendas. The implications of this scenario are several. First, it expands traditional accounts of the history of architecture, which tend to focus on the patronage of elite individuals or institutions. Second, it lends credence to the idea, increasingly endorsed by historians, that the parish was a critical forum for association, collaboration, and social mobilization in late medieval and early modern Europe. Third, and perhaps most interesting, medieval parish church-building initiatives resonate with recent calls-propelled by crises in late capitalist culture-to forge new modes of architectural production that promote broader forms of community participation. Relevant examples range from "open building," an inclusive method of multifamily housing design pioneered in the 1970s, to contemporary discourses on digital architecture, open-source architecture, and social architecture.111 What all of these movements share-along with their rejection of the architect-as-author, their anxiety over socioeconomic inequality, and their enthusiasm for the transformative capacity of collaborative digital technology-is a vision of building that incorporates a wider assemblage of designers, makers, and users.