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OMA’s Audrey Irmas Pavilion nears completion, their first religious building

2021-09-01T16:01:00-04:00

OMA New York have released an update on their Audrey Irmas Pavilion taking shape in Los Angeles, California. The scheme, designed for the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, is OMA’s first cultural building in California, and the first religious institution building in the firm’s portfolio.

Image by Jason O'Rear, courtesy of OMA New York

Having been selected for the scheme’s design in 2015, OMA have progressed construction of the scheme through the COVID-19 pandemic. “The making of the Audrey Irmas Pavilion sustained forward momentum through the COVID-19 Pandemic, a period in which the act of human interaction was questioned and contemplated,” explains Shohei Shigematsu, the OMA Partner in charge of the project. “Its completion comes at a time where we hope to come together again, and this building can be a platform to reinstate the importance of gathering, exchange, and communal spirit.”

Image by Jason O'Rear, courtesy of OMA New York

The 55,000-square-foot pavilion sits adjacent to the cent...

Selldorf unveils plans for a remade Shaker Museum campus in Upstate New York

2021-06-29T14:11:00-04:00

Plans for the new home of Upstate New York’s Shaker Museum have been unveiled this week, offering the public a glimpse at the multimillion-dollar makeover that has given new life to a restored former Hudson Valley hotel.

Selldorf Architects is responsible for the effort which will add some much-needed shelf space allowing the museum’s 18,000 objects and artifact collection to be properly displayed. The collection had not been on view in over a decade and will now be hosted by a new modern building and remade Victorian-era hotel on Austerlitz Street in the artistically significant village of Chatham.

Renderings of Shaker Museum, Designed by Selldorf Architects

The plan was announced in August and will now join the firm’s list of recent high-profile museum restorations that has included projects for the Frick and LUMA Arles collections. The museum’s offices and permanent collection will be relocated from nearby Old Chatham and will showcase great American design. The museum also owns ...

New skyscraper church in Hong Kong seeks to "create a peaceful and solemn" place of worship

2019-10-31T13:57:00-04:00

The Rocco Design Architects-designed tower, which will hold the Wesleyan House Methodist International Church, sits on a teardrop-shaped site in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. With 800 square meters of plot and 11,000 square meters of program, the task proved challenging for the design team. The resulting solution manifests itself as a vertical church that integrates the sanctuary, chapels, activity halls, social service floors, and pastoral offices into the tower.

A pragmatic consideration was implemented in the adjacencies of the program. A large congregation hall sits above the main sanctuary, inviting worshippers to gather after the service. Offices and pastoral residences are situated on adjacent floors, providing a seamless connection for its residents, while still seeking to retain distinct identities.

The exterior language of the structure flexes a subtly curved facade with a solid core east facing wall sporting casement windows as opposed to a curtain wall. A sustainable effort inte...

Exploring the spiritual architecture of Swiss architect Mario Botta

2019-03-29T20:00:00-04:00

The spiritual architecture of Swiss architect Mario Botta is the subject of an exhibition at the Ringturm Exhibition Centre in Vienna. Building studies, drawings, and photography are brought side by side to reach an understanding of how Botta conceptualizes and designs religious experiences through the built environment.

Religious places of worship often prompt a sense of reverence and deep reflection. For some these sacred buildings provide peace, and for others perhaps a bit of anxiety. Nonetheless, Swiss architect Mario Botta has designed and completed 22 religious buildings during his 50-year career as an architect. His first religious architectural project was a chapel at the Bigorio Capuchin monastery in 1966. Since then, Botta's spiritual spaces of worship have made a broad reach internationally, especially in Europe. Currently, three new religious buildings are under construction in China and Seoul.

Church San Giovanni Battista in Mogno, Switzerland. Image © Enrico Cano

Chapel Santa Maria Degli Angeli in Mount Tamaro, Switzerland. Image © Mario Botta Architetti

Kirche Papst Johannes XXIII designed by Mario Botta. Image © Enrico Cano

Throughout his career, Botta has designed synagogues, Catholic churches, and mosques. With this spectrum of open creative application Botta designs each building ...

Japan designs mobile mosques for upcoming 2020 Olympics hospitality

2018-08-29T15:07:00-04:00

The organizers of the upcoming 2020 Olympics in Japan want to ensure that visitors from around the world feel welcomed in their capital [...] Japanese event company, Yasu Project, developed a mobile mosque that will travel throughout the multiple Olympic stadiums. The mosque on wheels is located inside a 25-ton truck, with enough room to fit up to 50 people. It is also equipped with an outdoor rinse station, so that users can participate in a pre-worship cleanse.

In an effort to extend hospitality and cultural inclusion during the 2020 Olympics, Japanese event company Yasu Project has created mobile religious spaces for Muslim attendees. These pop up mosques attempt to solve the issue of limited public and religious infrastructure and the desire for religious spaces.

Mobile mosque designed by Yasu Project for the 2020 Olympics in Japan.

Israeli Pavilion at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale will explore the negotiation of holy spaces

2018-04-25T17:20:00-04:00

The Israeli Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale will explore the established mechanisms by which the country facilitates the co-existence of Holy places. As a location with special sacred status as the cradle of three Abrahamic religions, the region encompasses a variety of holy sites that are both contested and shared. Curated by Ifat Finkelman, Deborah Pinto Fdeda, Oren Sagiv and Tania CoenUzzielli, the exhibition In Statu Quo: Structures of Negotiation will, through the lens of architecture, look at the status quo regulations within these mutually sacred places.

"In the geopolitcal context of the Holy Land, the combination of historical events, myths, and traditions has created a multiplicity of places, sacred to competing groups of religions, communities and affiliations" the curatorial team argue. "These in turn, have led to the formation of an extraordinary concentration of intricate spaces, fragmented and stratified both historically and physically." Through "a ...

BNIM restores Kansas City's century-old Westport Presbyterian Church

2017-06-06T20:11:00-04:00

Completed in 1905 in one of Kansas City, Missouri's oldest neighborhoods, the Westport Presbyterian Church was in dire need of repair after suffering from a catastrophic fire in 2011. Undertaking all the technical challenges that come with a project of this nature, architecture practice BNIM worked with the congregation to successfully preserve the Church's most sacred elements while creating a new, dynamic space for the community.

Photo © Michael Robinson.

The church's exterior limestone shell survived the fire, while its roof structure, interior structure, and finishes were destroyed. Following an analysis of the existing 27,000 square-foot building, BNIM restored the most significant elements in the original structure: the sanctuary, chapel, second floor, and basement. On the other hand, a second building first grafted to the church's east side in 1916 had to be fully reconstructed. BNIM also redesigned the storefront facing Westport Road to be more welcoming and easily accessible....

One brick per Bible verse in Napp Studio's enormous, lightbulb-infused "Archive of Light"

2017-01-05T14:44:00-05:00

The imaginary realm of architecture frequently ventures off into scales that are improbable, if not outright impossible, on the politically and gravitationally constrained Earth (think Étienne-Louis Boullée, or Lebbeus Woods). In a similar if less secular vein, Napp Studio has conceived of an enormous, walkable brick wall that would feature every verse of the bible and/or other spiritual texts inscribed on titled, lightbulb-illuminated bricks. The idea here is to create the sensation of leafing through a book page by page, with each page being loosely represented by a brick.

As the architects note, "The bricks are books written with text of living stories of the everyday reality, yet, a reality with hope. Hope is the most significant spiritual grain we rely on when facing the sometime harsh life, it provides us with strength and will – the light to live on." The massive scale of the project does not place it beyond the realm of the possible, although there's no word yet of an officia...

2016 Faith & Form Religious Architecture Awards name Koning Eizenberg, John McAslan & Partners, John Ronan among winners

2016-12-14T17:43:00-05:00

Whether you frequently visit a religious space or not, there are plenty of projects out there that are worthy of praise in their own right, as seen in the 2016 Faith & Form/IFRAA Awards Program. Founded in 1978 and co-sponsored by Faith & Form Magazine and the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA), the annual competition scopes out the best in religious architecture, liturgical design, and art for religious spaces.

Open to all, from architects to clergy to students, the 2016 Faith & Form/IFRAA Awards concluded with 28 winning projects based worldwide. Categories included New Facilities, Restoration, Liturgical/Interior Design, Sacred Landscape, and more. Here are a few of the winners:

Sacred Landscape: Shoji Oshio + UA architects; 8-Shaped Passage; Ueno, Tokyo, Japan

Liturgical/Interior Design: John McAslan + Partners; Sacred Heart Cathedral of Kericho; Kericho, Kenya

Adaptive Reuse/Repurpose: Koning Eizenberg Architecture; Temple Israel of Hollywood; Los Angeles, California

Murphy Burnham & Buttrick Architects; St. Patrick’s Cathedral; New York, New York; Restoration

New Facilities: John McAslan + Partners; Jumaa Mosque; Doha, Qatar

Student Work: Rafaela Paes; “City of Spirits”; Recife, Brazil

cover image: New Facilities: John Ronan Architects; Chapel of St. Ignatius; Chicago, Illinois

Find the full list of winners on Bustler.

For more about religious architecture on Archinect:

LeRoy's Ark: LeRoy Tro...

A glimpse on the changing state of religious architecture in the latest Faith&Form/IFRAA Awards

2015-01-05T20:26:00-05:00

Religious architecture is a typology where the traditional and the contemporary can easily clash, but it is possible to create harmony between the two, as seen in the Faith & Form/IFRAA Awards. The annual awards program not only showcases a glimpse of the wide range of religious architecture around the globe, it also poses the question of how architects can rethink a sacred congregational space that is suitable for the evolving state of present-day religious practice.

According to Faith & Form editor-in-chief Michael J. Crosbie, the jury of the latest edition of the Awards -- Terry Byrd Eason (liturgical designer, jury chair); Michael Berkowicz (artist); Craig Rafferty (architect); Doug Johnston (architect); and Rev. Robb Webb (clergy) -- were most impressed with the diversity of architectural styles and overall sophistication of the 134 submissions, regardless if they were small or large, modest or opulent.

Compared to 19 winners last year, a total of 32 projects were awarded this t...

2013 Faith & Form/IFRAA Awards winners revive and modernize religious architecture and art

2014-01-09T18:37:00-05:00

The winners of the international 2013 Faith & Form/IFRAA Awards Program restored and remodeled religious spaces that can indeed be deemed worthy of praise. Founded in 1978 and co-sponsored by Faith & Form Magazine and the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA), the annual awards program recognizes the best in architecture, liturgical design, and art for religious spaces.

Here's a selection of the winning submissions:

Find more winning submissions and other competition details on Bustler.

Images courtesy of 2013 Faith & Form/IFRAA Awards Program.