ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the reasons behind this turn towards modernism, it explores in more detail the variety of ways in which modern architects approached church design. Modernism could bring to the Church the promise of an institution that was part of the modern world and relevant to the needs of its inhabitants, a different vision of the institution to that proposed by architects such as Velarde or Goodhart-Rendel. Modernism characterizes the ready acceptance and expression of modern conditions in architecture in relation to the contemporary technological, social and cultural world. Architects eagerly employed the latest building techniques and materials, from steel and reinforced concrete to industrial prefabrication. In adapting modern architecture from different sources to their practice of church design, modern architects contributed to the production of the spaces of the institutional Church in its local manifestations. Economic responsibility was one aspect of this engagement, good taste was another, and both could be supplied by modern architects.
