Sacred Space: The Latest Architecture and News

The Diriyah Biennale Foundation has just unveiled the competition details for the AlMusalla Prize, along with the shortlisted architecture studios and the jury. An addition to the Islamic Arts Biennale, this international architecture competition focuses on designing a musalla, a flexible space for prayer and reflection accessible to people of all faiths. Situated in the Western Hajj Terminal of King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the musalla will be an integral part of the Biennale’s upcoming edition. The winner of the competition will be announced later this year, and the opening of the musalla will be held on January 25th, 2025.

Juha Ilmari Leiviskä, one of Finland´s foremost architects recognized for his design of light-filled poetic spaces, passed away on November 9, 2023, at the age of 87. Born in Helsinki and educated at Helsinki University of Technology, Leiviskä developed a personal style throughout his six decades-long career, working with his own family of forms to design buildings with unique identities, yet unified by their treatment of light and geometry. His architecture has been praised for its serene, hones, and timeless qualities, earning him numerous awards and international recognition.

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Cities need to prepare for a wave of declining houses of worship. While faith institutions, at least the Christian ones, have been asking WWJD (What would Jesus do?), municipalities need to get them to ask another question: WWJJD (What would Jane Jacobs do?). Doing so might lead to a new model for true community houses of worship.

Using only natural light to document English cathedrals can turn into a logistical and technical challenge. However, Peter Marlow's photography has resulted in a remarkable series of iconic spiritual sites whose contemplative atmosphere is rarely accessible to others. Looking east with the camera towards the nave as the dawn light streamed through the main window opens a purist and mystical perspective to the time when these sacred structures were erected. 

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

In a time of global unrest, rising intolerance, and, some might argue, increasing secularization, is the campus chapel relevant anymore? Might it disappear altogether? As it turns out, campus sacred space appears to be transforming to play a more important role as many universities focus on educating their students to be more globally aware.

In this episode of Design and the City - a podcast by reSITE on how to make cities more liveable – Trey Trahan, founder of Trahan Architects, discusses the importance of designing spaces that foster human connection and encourage self-reflection. With ecology and the poetics of space as core values, the work of Trahan Architects focuses on creating impactful cultural venues and in this podcast, Trahan argues for a design centred around elevating the human experience.

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It is easy to show cool images of adaptive reuse. The contrast of living history and control over it makes for dynamic visuals. But there is a deeper meaning to adaptive reuse.  Architecture embodies humanity and humanity changes, so our buildings change.

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Islamic architecture has been perhaps one of the most culturally significant typologies throughout history. Not only do the buildings themselves serve as centers for community and social services, but their designs reflect Muslim beliefs and morals, and reveal the rich history of nations in the Middle East.

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We are in an unholy mess. It is a pandemic, with insane politics, and centuries of hideous racial injustice screaming out humanity’s worst realities.  Each day reveals more disease, more anger, more flaws in our culture than anyone could have anticipated.

This season’s inscrutable fears are uniquely human. The natural world flourishes amid our disasters. But architecture is uniquely human, too.  Architecture’s Prime Directive is to offer up safety. So in this time of danger, it is a good idea to think about the flip side of so much profane injustice and cruelty, Sacred Space? Architecture can go beyond playing it safe and aspire to evoke the best of us, making places that touch what can only be defined as Sacred.

What is Sacred Space? Whether human-made or springing from the natural world, Sacred Space connects us to a reality that transcends our fears. The ocean, the forest, the rising or setting sun may all define “Sacred”. But humans can make places that hold and extend the best in us beyond the world that inevitably threatens and saddens us. Architecture can create places where we feel part of a Sacred reality.

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American artist Michael Velliquette has produced his latest series of paper-based artwork, creating intricate paper models of sacred architecture. His hand-cut paper shapes are assembled into complex forms “akin to sacred architecture and three-dimensional mandalas.”

Prioritizing formal symmetry, balance, and order, the models aim to evoke “a sense of visual equanimity” through a restrained palette of neutral or monochromatic tones.

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Berlin is city in which the past and the present often collide – a phenomenon particularly acute when it comes to the built environment. In this project by Japanese architect and artist Riku Ikegaya, the interior of St. Elisabeth-Kirche (Church of St. Elizabeth)—designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel—is transformed by means of a structural installation. Consisting of a scale model of Schinkel’s plans for the Rosentaler Vorstadt Church, the artist has composed a "three-dimensional architectural sketch."