Sacred Design Now, Design Philosophy Papers

Current problems of architecture and urban planning, 2020

Bloomsbury Academic, 2020

This edited volume, Modern Architecture and the Sacred, presents a timely reappraisal of the manifold engagements that modern architecture has had with ‘the sacred’. It comprises fourteen individual chapters arranged in three thematic sections – Beginnings and Transformations of the Modern Sacred; Buildings for Modern Worship; and Semi-Sacred Settings in the Cultural Topography of Modernity. The first interprets the intellectual and artistic roots of modern ideas of the sacred in the post-Enlightenment period and tracks the transformation of these in architecture over time. The second studies the ways in which organized religion responded to the challenges of the new modern self-understanding, and then the third investigates the ways that abstract modern notions of the sacred have been embodied in the ersatz sacred contexts of theatres, galleries, memorials and museums. While centring on Western architecture during the decisive period of the first half of the 20th century – a time that takes in the early musings on spirituality by some of the avant-garde in defiance of Sachlichkeit and the machine aesthetic – the volume also considers the many-varied appropriations of sacrality that architects have made up to the present day, and also in social and cultural contexts beyond the West.

TRANSCENDING ARCHITECTURE. Contemporary Views of Sacred Space, 2015

Transcending Architecture considers the mysterious, profound, and real power of designed environments to address the spiritual dimension of our humanity. By bringing in perspectives from within and without architecture, the book offers a wide, critical and nuanced understanding of the lived relationship between the built and the numinous worlds. Far from avoiding the charged issues of subjectivity, culture and intangibility, the book examines phenomenological, symbolic and designerly ways in which the holy gets fixed and experienced through buildings, landscapes, and urban forms, and not just in institutionally defined “religious” or “sacred” places. Acknowledging that no individual voice can exhaust the topic, Transcending Architecture brings together a stellar group of scholars and practitioners to share their insights: architect Juhani Pallasmaa and philosopher Karsten Harries, comparative religion scholar Lindsay Jones and architectural theoretician Karla Britton, sacred architecture researcher Thomas Barrie and theologian Kevin Seasoltz, landscape architect Rebecca Krinke and Faith & Form magazine editor Michael Crosbie, are among the illustrious contributors. The result is the most direct, clear, and subtle scholarly text solely focused on the transcendental dimension of architecture available. This book thus provides, on one hand, understanding, relief, and growth to an architectural discipline that usually avoids its ineffable dimension and, on the other hand, a necessary dose of detail and reality to fields such as theological aesthetics, material anthropology, or philosophical phenomenology that too often fall trapped into unproductive generalizations and over-intellectualizations.

De Gruyter, 2024

Edited by: Aaron French and Katharina Waldner Volume 15 in the series SpatioTemporality / RaumZeitlichkeit This volume focuses on the connection between modern design and architectural practices and the construction of "sacred spaces." Not only language and ritual but space, place, and architecture play a significant role in constructing "special" or "religious" spaces. However, this concept of a constructed "sacred space" remains undertheorized in religious studies and the history of art and architecture in general. This volume therefore revisits the question of a "modern sacred space" from an interdisciplinary perspective, focusing on religion, space, and architecture during the emergence of the modern period and up until contemporary times. Revisiting the ways in which modern architects and artists have endeavored to create sacred spaces and buildings for the modern world will address the underlying questions of how religious ideas—especially those related to esotericism and to alternative religiosities—have transformed the way sacred spaces are conceptualized today.

2015

The paper raises the question of the role of sacred art and architecture in the work of culture creation; which revolves around the problem of relationship and interplay between culture tendency and course of sacral architecture development. The emphasis is put on contemporary art, architecture and culture.

Symmetry: Culture and Science, 2019

Can the history of sacred architecture be summarized in universal principles? They would need to be ones to which the builders of early Christian basilicas, Gothic cathedrals, and baroque chapels could accede. In previous ages, these principles were tacitly understood and did not need to be articulated. In this paper, I propose five universal principles that apply to sacred architecture of all times, all places, and all styles, with examples from the great buildings of history and my own creative work. I also propose that while fundamental to the revival of sacred architecture, they are not a formula, and must still be applied by a talented architect.

Bulletin of Japanese Society for the Science of Design, 2011

L`Saered space" has always been a significant locatien fbr enhancing human spirituality. The purpose of this research is to define sacred space, clarify the relationship between the "sacred" and the "profane," and explore the nature, function, practice and types of sacred space to construct a preliminary conceptual model fbr designing sacred space. This research proposes several contributions in several dimensions: (1) There is a correspondence between "sacred" space and "spirituai" space, and a dual interactive relationship between "external" tangible space and "internal" spiritual space; (2) Sacred space is the "mcdium'i and "symbol" to communicate with god, deity, or personal spirituality; (3) there is a distinction between thc '`sacred" and the "profane." Three strategies: buffered space, rite, or sanctified activities could define sacred fields; (4) The field model must inspire thc sensation and perception with the sacrcd aura and visualization to eonstruct the sacred field. The centrality and sacred focus are significant to form the sacred axis. <5) The conceptual model should comprise perceptional selg sacred believed principle, sacred activities, sacred time, sacred space and sacred objects integrated to each other, (6) Designing sacred space should consider with three layersi the heaven, the human, and the earth. (7) Nature, the significant factor of sacred spaee, should be implicated as the first layer. (8) The methods of experiencing sacred space arc gradually moving from formalized religious faith to informal, daily, rnultifaceted personal spiritual experiences in Taiwan. Kbvwords: sacred.space, spiritual space, ritual ,!)Tmbolism, enhancing THE SCIENCE OFDESIGN BULLETIN OF JSSDVoL58 M.4 201131

Reflections on the Sacred , 2021

Reflections on the Sacred - a comparative phenomenological religious studies seminar, at Engelsberg November 2021. The subject of special interest to the seminar is the sacred and the meaning it carries in various cultures and settings for the individual. How is meaning and the purpose of life created and perceived from a comparative perspective in different cultures? What is perceived as sacred and holy in the sense Rudolf Otto conceived religion as das ganz andere in present day? How do different ontologies, basic assumptions about the human existence, compare and influence the perception of the sacred and give rise to meaning in different cultures and cultural settings? Max Weber claimed that with the entzauberung der Welt, the influence of religious ideas did not disappear. His thesis implies that religion is a kind of matrix that can transform itself in an explicitly secular, but quasi- religious fashion. To what extent can it be said that modern societies and ideologies carry with them essentially religious/spiritual forms and structures and therefore purport basic assumptions about reality? How do we distinguish between the truly secular and the sacred in today’s world? Capitalism, socialism, and the green ecological movements are in this sense obvious objects of study were remnants of thought-patterns from a Christian eschatology seems to echo from notions of paradise lost to apocalyptic ideas about the end of the world. The conference is organised in order to reappraise and revitalise the discipline of History of Religions and also make it more relevant for understanding our contemporary society.

2017

In a postmodern world which hosts a mix of cultural values, Sacred Art brings into focus the sublimation of the form of representation. This makes Sacred Art a core value in the cultural-artistic rethinking and in the visual practice. On the other hand, in its relationship to society, the moral component supported by Sacred Art in Christianity represents a core value which offers cultural and artistic rethinking and visual practice a chance for spiritual revigoration. For over two decades, the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” in Iaşi has shaped and developed artistic and heritage preservation skills to generations of students educated to protect the Chruch Heritage and revive Sacred Art. The study of art history involeved in this process brings in signs of the sacred from around the world which show a constancy in their choice of location, shape and their function of signalling the presence of the sacred, which relies on their aesthetic component. Sacred Art...

If in the present, now a half century after the Second Vatican Council, we must concede that it is impossible to identify an architectural model of a church capable of reflecting Catholic identity, perhaps it is due among other things to the fact that the post-conciliar liturgical reform is currently in a phase of prudent rethinking, self examination and adjustment, following the initial euphoria after the Council. This explains clearly the rise of the idea in the liturgical field of a “reform of the reform”, launched recently by various theologians and liturgists in response to the call of Benedict XVI.

Sacred Architecture in East and West. Edited by Cyril Hovorun, Los Angeles: Tsehai, 2019

This is a collection of papers on sacred architecture presented at the conference at Loyola Marymount University in 2015. The conference was organized and the book published by the Huffington Ecumenical Institute with the grant from Luce Foundation

2006

As a number of scholars recently realised, the most significant aspect of relics and miraculous icons was the role they played in the creation of particular sacred spaces. In many cases relics and venerated icons were established as a core, a kind of pivot in the forming of a concrete spatial environment. This milieu included permanently visible architectural forms and various pictures as well as changing liturgical clothes and vessels, lighting effects and fragrance, ritual gestures and prayers, which every time created a unique spatial complex. Sometimes the environment could form itself spontaneously, yet there are several examples when we are able to speak of deliberate concepts and elaborated projects, which should be considered among the most important historical documents. In our view, very few studies in this direction have appeared so far, because an adequate notion covering this field of creativity has been lacking. The widespread term &#39;sacred space&#39; did not functi...

2015

This book is a scholarly collection of essays on contemporary perspectives regarding the nature and significance of the sacred in the built environment. Recognized experts in the fields of architecture, urbanism, landscape architecture, and religious studies bring unique perspectives to a range of topics and examples. The book’s primary argument is that even though the post-modern condition has transgressed, degraded or superseded shared belief systems and symbolic languages, the experience, significance and meaning of the built environment retains a certain kind of veracity, potency and latent receptivity. Even though the authors approach the subject from a range of disciplines and theoretical positions, all share interests in the need to rediscover, redefine or reclaim the sacred in everyday experience, scholarly analysis, and design.

Religions, 2022

By examining the relationship between sacred space and spiritual experience through practice-as-research, a methodology for reclaiming the wisdom embodied by transformative examples of classic Islamic sacred architecture in the design of a contemporary Sufi Centre in London, UK, is developed. The metaphysical and ontological roots of universal design principles and practices are explored in order to transcend mimetic processes and notions of typology, location, time, style and scale in the creation of context-sensitive meanings and manifestations. An ontological hermeneutic approach was followed that utilises mixed methods underpinned by direct engagement, collaboration and a willingness to examine personal transcendent experiences and spiritual practices. By conducting practice, the effects of prioritising unseen dimensions (bātin), which enfold visible dimensions (zāhir), on understanding and designing Islamic sacred space are examined. The role of the imaginal realm, the imagination (khayāl), the spiritual heart (qalb) and spiritual inter-pretation (ta’wīl) are explored. Through a contemplative process, forms are perceived as conduits between the physical and spiritual realms and space as a symbol of presence (wujūd). Seen and unseen (zāhir wa bātin) converge into one continuum, potentiating an experience of Oneness (Tawhīd). A transformative approach to practice emerges that integrates a designers’ creative and spiritual practices, cultivates the capacity for transformation and helps to mitigate some of the challenges faced when designing sacred spaces in conventional settings today. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

This paper start from two assumption: 1. the illuminist thought has represented a turning point in Western history, but its has “frozen” inside its “rational domain” part of our spirituality; 2. this cultural attitude is an intrinsic necessity that characterize the final time of culture, and we can read these aspect through the artistic, architectural, musical, etc. symbolism. The built environment, with its geometrical symbolism, talks about the culture that has generate it, and express the intimate values of a culture. So, if in the past the built environment was interconnected with their physical and spiritual surrounding, the contemporary has express the excessive power of mechanical culture determining the loss of human identity in favour of “artificial identity”. This artificial structure has transferred its cultural reductionism also to urbanism and architecture caused laceration of society and deformation of ethical and esthetical values. This new design represent and symbolize new values like hedonism and a devoid sense of nothing, and are sculptural expression of a society. I’ll demonstrate because this happen today, what we can learn from the past, and i propose a new approach, structured on holistic way and able to demonstrate that the science can and must married the beauty and spirituality.