The future of religious spaces (V)

The challenges faced by religious institutions in today's West are highlighted even when celebrating the year's best artistic and architectural achievements. Editor Michael J. Crosbie noted increasing numbers of nominations in recent years discussed their projects at least in part in terms of the "need [to] forge connections between the faith community and the context" (Crosbie 2018).

Here on Holy Mountain, we're all about the context i.e. the work of the religious body in the world, and how the group acts out its relationship to the world. Often that starts with the building. So while something like this is eye-catching and would probably be even more impressive if I knew all of the design and engineering that had to go into it...

Snyder Chapel, Lynn University, Boca Raton FL (Source: faithandform)

...an urbanist would rather know [a] how does this work with the street [hypothetically, as in this actual case it's a college campus building], and [b] how does this building's design contribute to the communal act of worship?

Other trends: a lot of renovation-related nominations, but only two entries in the adaptive re-use/re-purpose categories. Also, "The absence of megachurches submitted might indicate a decline in their construction." I am not sorry if this is true. Marc Auge (Non-Places: An Introduction to Supermodernity [Verso, 2nd ed, 2008]) considers all houses of worship to be "anthropological places" because the people who gather there have specific identity, rituals, stories and such. The standardizing of the megachurch form, however, verges on making it a non-place, with the individual worshiper in the role of spectator-consumer, sort of like at a religious mall.

Churches, synagogues and other houses of worship surely have a lot on their plates:

• They provide both welcome to the stranger and a haven for their members, which must be hard to balance in practice; 
• The best of them maintain a presence in their neighborhood, while accommodating the vast majority of their attendees who arrive by single-family auto; and 
• Their worship spaces are at once functional (this is where the act of worshiping gets done) and political (their design speaks volumes to group dynamics like community and hierarchy).

All this must be accomplished in the context in which many public and quasi-public institutions find themselves today: declining resources and increasing demands/needs.

With that said, and with every disclaimer you can possibly imagine, three award winners struck me as particular examples of successful religious urbanism.

1. All Saints Episcopal Church, Chicago, Illinois (Religious Architecture--Restoration).

(Source: faithandform)

All Saints Chicago, initially constructed in 1884, sits on a busy street corner in the Ravenswood neighborhood near the Damen L stop. According to their website, they nearly closed in 1992 after losing most of their membership base to the suburbs. Their resurgence stressed celebration of diversity, engagement with the real world, and "commitment to our neighbors"--as well as a lot of fundraising. They don't say a lot about the restoration of the worship area, but the altar is notably in the center, a feature commended by Professor James F. White (Protestant Worship and Church Architecture, Oxford University Press, 1964) to reinforce the communal nature of worship.

(Source: Google street view screen capture)

2. Phap Vu Buddhist Cultural Center of Florida, Orlando, Florida (Religious Architecture--New Facilities)

(Source: faithandform)

The Buddhist Cultural Center is located on a busy stroad just north of the East-West Expressway. The entrance, however, is welcoming and accessible to the sidewalk. According to their contractor, Rowland Construction, the entire project built four buildings and a parking lot on six acres, taking nearly a year and costing "multi" millions of dollars. Not every congregation has access to those kinds of resources, or would spend that much on a campus. The availability of land and/or access to the highway probably account for the decidedly un-urban choice of location, but they've done a lot to create human scale.  (Compare the Jehovah's Witnesses more remote structure down the street.)

3. Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, Deepdene, Victoria, Australia (Religious Architecture--Renovation).

(Source: faithandform)

Deepdene is a suburb of Melbourne, recently carved out of another suburb, Balwyn. The church is located on Whitehorse Road, a major east-west stroad through metropolitan Melbourne. So both the municipal and the street situation raise red flags.  On the plus side, I love the worship space with its somewhat cured seating area and plenteous natural light. And the church is built close to the street, so if people walk there, they can walk here. The original church, from 1922, is still part of the campus; the current church was built in 1955.

(Source: Google street view screen capture)

The interior picture may be misleading; it's hard to see how far back the seats go. The sanctuary is described as distinctively narrow because of the constraints of the property. So someone seated in the far back of the row of seats could feel quite remote from the worship activities--better get there early!

Religious organizations have a lot to offer America in the 21st century--a sense of the sacred and permanent, experience acting in common, a place to be quiet--and design has a lot to contribute to that. Design needs to emphasize neighborliness, though, without which the house of worship is merely an isolated island. A structure like this clearly received a lot of expert attention and boasts some striking design features.

Christ Cathedral Arboretum and Tower of Hope, Garden Grove CA (Source: faithandform) 

I see rows and rows of seats all facing forward, and huge windows overlooking a huge parking lot. We owe it to our neighbors, and to ourselves, to do better.

Primary Source: Michael J. Crosbie (ed), "2018 International Awards Program for Religious Art and Architecture," Faith and Form 51:4 (2018)

Last Year's Model: "The Future of Religious Spaces (IV)," 1 January 2018

The Fall 2018 issue of The Wheel includes a review of an intriguing book analyzing worship spaces from an Eastern Orthodox perspective: Nicholas Denysenko, Theology and Form: Contemporary Orthodox Architecture in America (Notre Dame Press, 2017). Hat tip to F. John Herbert for this item.