Contemporary Church Architecture

The last decade has seen the emergence of a whole new generation of church designs. Covering buildings across the world, Contemporary Church Architecture aims to appeal not only to architects and clergy involved directly in ecclesiastical architecture but also other practitioners and those with a broader interest in cutting-edge design. This book covers the development of contemporary church design by looking at how the rational and the sacred can be reconciled and can inform one another. It also outlines the main trends and approaches: the conflict between self-expression...

American Synagogues: A Century of Architecture and Jewish Community

American Synagogues is the first book to explore the exceptional architecture of modern American synagogues in the twentieth century, and this intriguing book relates the fascinating history of the Jewish people in America and how it is expressed in twentieth-century synagogue design. The book features all new photography of synagogues in many styles from a dozen states, many never before published in any form. The synagogues were designed by European masters, the best-known modern American architects, and by important contemporary architects including Frank...

New Spiritual Architecture

This timely book reflects are awakening of interest in religious faiths and the emergence of a global exchange of architecture and culture. While Spain’s Rafael Monco has just 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 Millennium Cathedral in Rome. As one Wallpaper* pundit commented, "religion is getting a redesign," and the architect’s faith is as unimportant as his nationality. These buildings...

Houses of God: Religious Architecture for a New Millenium

Advocates of aesthetic restraint in the service of God will find much to attack in this compendium of 43 highly adorned 20th-century North American houses of worship. Crosbie (architecture, Roger Williams Univ.) exercises able aesthetic and ecumenical judgment in his sensitive presentation of recent neo-baroque religious structures, which range from well-known national edifices to small abbeys. Each project and congregation is briefly introduced, followed by pages of photographs (exterior, interior, and ornamental details), site and floor plans, and elevations. Texts are...

Sacred Buildings

The building of religious structures represents a rare opportunity for the architect to concentrate on the creation of volume, space, and form. Sacred architecture is far less determined than other building tasks by functional requirements, norms, and standards. As a rule, it is free to unfold as pure architecture. Thus in design terms this building task offers enormous freedoms to the architect. At the same time, however, the special atmospherics of sacred spaces call, on the part of the architect, for a highly sensitive treatment of religion and the relevant cultural and...

Sacral Space: Modern Finnish Churches

Architekturfuhrer / Architectural Guide: Christliche Sakralbauten in Europa seit 1950 / christian Sacred Buildings in Europe since 1950

A comprehensive architectural guide to modern churches throughout Europe, this book looks at the finest examples of Christian sacred buildings built within the latter half of the twentieth century. Organized geographically, it features nearly 150 buildings from twenty countries, each with its own double-paged spread. Numerous photographs and plans offer an in-depth perspective of each church, while convenient and accessible maps help readers create their own itinerary. In addition, the volume also takes into account developments in the Central European region from the Czech...

Building Type Basics for Places of Worship

Building Type Basics for Places of Worship presents practical guidelines and inspirational design ideas to jump-start a broad range of religious building projects. To steer the project team to sound decisions early in the planning cycle, Nicholas Roberts, a renowned architect of places of worship, provides guidelines, advice, and lessons learned from a variety of actual design projects for churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples. Descriptive illustrations and need-to-know information cover such essential topics as consensus-based decision-making, site selection...