"New Spiritual Architecture looks at ways in which contemporary architects are approaching religious or meditative space. The book focuses on churches, chapels, temples, synagogues and mosques that have been built in the last few years and that represent a late-twentieth/early-twenty-first century aesthetic. These buildings demonstrate how new ideas and developments in urban, domestic and public architecture are being used to inform design that is intended for inspiration, worship or meditation. The text discusses the ways in which architects manipulate light and space and considers the placement of these buildings in their surroundings. Following a brief introduction, the book explores the following five themes: New Traditions, Interventions, Retreats, Grand Icons, and Modest Magnificence. It includes 200 full-color illustrations and 100 line drawings."--BOOK JACKET.

This timely book reflects an awakening of interest in religious faiths and the emergence of a 'global exchange of architecture and culture. While Spain's Rafael Moneo has recently completed a cathedral in Los Angeles, Britain's Thomas Heatherwick is designing a Buddhist temple in Japan, John Pawson is working on a Cistercian monastery in the Czech Republic and Richard Meier has completed his Jubilee Church in Rome. It seems, as one Wallpaper registered] pundit commented, 'religion is getting a redesign' and the architect's faith is as unimportant as his or her nationality. I Looking at ways in which contemporary architects are approaching religious or meditative space, this book focuses on churches, chapels, temples, synagogues and mosques that have been built in the last few years and that represent a late-twentieth/ early-twenty-first century aesthetic.

How does spirituality enter the education of an architect? Should it? What do we mean by 'spirituality' in the first place? Isn't architectural education a training ground for professional practice and, therefore, technically and secularly oriented? Is there even room to add something as esoteric if not controversial as spirituality to an already packed university curriculum? The humanistic and artistic roots of architecture certainly invite us to consider dimensions well beyond the instrumental, including spirituality. But how would we teach such a thing? And why, if spirituality is indeed relevant to learning architecture, have we heard so little about it? Spirituality in Architectural Education addresses these and many other important philosophical, disciplinary, pedagogic, and practical questions. Grounded on the twelve-year-old Walton Critic Program at the Catholic University of America School of Architecture and Planning, this book offers solid arguments and insightful reflections on the role that "big questions" and spiritual sensibility ought to play in the architectural academy today. Using 11 design studios as stopping grounds, the volume takes the reader into a journey full of meaningful interrogations, pedagogic techniques, challenging realizations, and beautiful designs. Essays from renowned architects Craig W. Hartman, Juhani Pallasmaa, Alberto Campo Baeza, Claudio Silvestrin, Eliana Bórmida, Michael J. Crosbie, Prem Chandavarkar, Rick Joy, Susan Jones, and Daniel Libeskind open new vistas on the impact of spirituality in architectural education and practice. All this work is contextualized within the ongoing discussion of the role of spirituality and religion in higher education at large. The result is an unprecedented volume that starts a long-awaited conversation that will advance architectural schooling. ACSA Distinguished Professor Julio Bermudez, with recognized expertise on spirituality in architecture, will be the guide in this fascinating and contemplative journey.

Architecture has long been understood as a cultural discipline able to articulate the human condition and lift the human spirit, yet the spirituality of architecture is rarely directly addressed in academic scholarship. The seventeen chapters provide a diverse range of perspectives, grouped according to topical themes: Being in the World; Sacred, Secular, and the Contemporary Condition; Symbolic Engagements; Sacred Landscapes; and Spirituality and the Designed Environment. 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.

The sacred place was, and still is, an intermediate zone created in the belief that it has the ability to co-join the religious aspirants to their gods. An essential means of understanding this sacred architecture is through the recognition of its role as an ‘in-between’ place. Establishing the contexts, approaches and understandings of architecture through the lens of the mediating roles often performed by sacred architecture, this book offers the reader an extraordinary insight into the forces behind these extraordinary buildings. Written by a well-known expert in the field, the book draws on a unique range of cases, reflecting on these inspiring places, their continuing ontological significance and the lessons they can offer today. Fascinating reading for anyone interested in sacred architecture.

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