Introduction The rise of minimalism initially began as a phenomenon during the twentieth and twenty-first century, however traits of minimalism have been present for centuries (Classen, 1990: 101). Minimalism at first, arose as a rebuke and response against the consumption of material possessions, which soon developed into a lifestyle where living as a ‘minimalist’ became desirable (Vasilski & Nikolic, 2017: 343). The notion of living with less soon developed within sacred interiors as a product of this phenomenon as an attempt for humans to bring themselves closer to a higher ethereal presence (Humphrey & Vitebsky, 1997: 08). This dissertation will discuss how the evolution of minimalism within sacred interiors can be attributed to historical and contemporary influences, which have ultimately shaped this development.
The first chapter of this dissertation will establish a contextual framework of how historical influences have informed the evolution of minimalism within sacred interiors. The chapter begins by providing a brief overview of monasticism to highlight how characteristics of minimalism can be seen to have parallels with living a monastic life, which emphasises that the development of minimalism can be interpreted as a manifestation of living a monastic life and denies the rise of minimalism as a contemporary art movement. This is explored further through influential monks who were amongst the first to renounce wealth and daily life to live an ascetic life, highlighting similarities between minimalism traits. The discussion will then shift to iconoclasm to demonstrate how the rebuke of religious symbols can also be synthesised to have parallels to minimalism. This will be further substantiated as the discussion is then directed to exploring aspects of aestheticism and asceticism to demonstrate how the shift from extreme ornamentation to a rejection of this decoration can be seen as an interpretation of the development of minimalism. The first chapter ultimately aims to explore how historical influences seen within the Christian church can be observed to have parallels with minimalism. This is particularly notable as these influences acted as a catalyst that steered contemporary sacred interiors into the realm of minimalism, which will be substantiated in the following chapter, and further reinforced through a series of contemporary case studies in the final chapter of this dissertation.
The second chapter will provide a framework of the contemporary influences which serves to prove that these contemporary influences, when merged with historical influences outlined in chapter one, have shaped the evolution of minimalism within sacred interiors. This chapter also analyses a series of case studies which aim to support the framework provided earlier in this chapter. Firstly, this chapter explores minimalism and analyses the trajectory it has taken within sacred interiors. Minimalism, within the architectural realm, can be defined as perfection that is achieved when it is no longer possible to improve the outcome through subtraction (Pawson, 1996: 07). The impact of post-war modernism 7
