The crypt of Lund Cathedral as architectural space

Suppose that I face the task of acquainting a group of people with apiece of architecture such as the interior of an ancient church building—asituation familiar enough for most art historians who teach at universitylevel. The standard procedure is to speak of the architecture in termsof ground plans, elevations, sections, and in the case of exteriors, thedesign of façades. By this, the building is treated in terms of its material components, the visual representations of which are flattened intotwo-dimensional patterns, i.e. the just-mentioned ground plans, elevations and sections. Descriptions likewise focus on the material and visualqualities of a built structure and its diverse parts, all of which can becharacterized by means of a well-developed repertoire of precise terms.Such academic abstractions work to purpose in that they are well-suitedto characterize and classify buildings as manifestations of the structuraland stylistic developments that it is the discipline’s task to uncover. Theyhave, however, less to do with how buildings actually are experienced bythose who are inside them; namely, as space. 

År 2023 firades Lunds domkyrkas 900-årsjubileum. Då installerades ett nytt konstglasfönster av Erika Lagerbielke, kallat Hopp, i domkyrkans krypta. Ingen permanent konstnärlig installation hade gjorts i kryptan sedan 1500-talet. Händelsens unika karaktär och rummets dignitet väckte idén att dokumentera och analysera verket och kontexten. Fönstret blev fokuspunkt för en undersökning av den konstnärliga processen, av glasmåleriets historia och sammanhang, av ljusets teologi och rummets fenomenologi.