“Context” was the watchword for this year's Faith & Form /IFRAA Awards jury, which reviewed a field of 140 entrants distributed among all categories. Context was important for several reasons. On a pragmatic note, the jury was eager for more contextual information in the entries themselves. In architecture and interior design, they wanted to have a better understanding of the neighborhood, existing conditions... more...

As members of the “Y” or Echo Generation, born in the 1980s and early 1990s, my age group spent our youth witnessing the rise of the religious right. Megachurches blossomed across the country as mainline religions consummated their move to the suburbs. more...

Adding to a National Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places would be intimidating enough for your average architect. But to design an addition to such a building that was also designed by Frank Lloyd Wright really cranks up the anxiety level. more...

For centuries, those of faith have admired the stained and art glass windows in houses of worship. The changing daylight streams through the glass, shifting colors and bringing life to the windows’ figures and forms while projecting plays of color and light throughout the interior spaces. The association of art glass with religious architecture has become a part of our cultural DNA, dating back centuries... more...

While concrete and wood may be relatively foreign materials to many, everyone has a relationship to fabric. It is, after all, the most intimate environment that we have. Upon entering the world, leaving the protection of a mother&rsqou;s womb, the newborn is swaddled in fabric. Upon leaving the world, we are clothed in special garments... more...

This past summer, when our five jurors gathered to review and deliberate over the submissions to the Faith & Form/ IFRAA International Awards Program for Religious Art and Architecture, it wasn’t clear what the impact of the economy might be. One possibility was that the number of entrants would be lower, and that appeared to be the case. Typically there are about 200 submissions in all categories. This year’s 168 entrants marked a 15 percent decline in submissions; the categories with the biggest dips in submissions were the visual arts... more...

Sacred landscapes mirror the order of the earthly cosmos, providing context and defining regional culture. Terrain and climate inform society, civilization, spirituality, and attitude. The local spirit of place is greeted and given a precinct from which to interact with people ceremonially. more...

Traditional buildings, ones that follow traditional patterns of assembly and organization and are made from traditional materials, even ones that are extremely well designed and constructed, are rarely acclaimed on architectural grounds these days. With much critical and popular attention currently focused on architectural innovation, bedazzlement, and authorship, traditional buildings, when not overlooked or slighted, are often considered, at least cursorily, on the basis of their “shock value” to prevailing design culture. In fact, they are often so anomalous that thoughtful recognition of their inherent qualities and characteristics becomes a footnote if they are recognized at all. more...

At almost no other time in recent history have houses of worship faced so many monumental challenges in balancing budgets and envisioning transformation: in the way they operate, how they interact with their constituents, and how and what they might consider when approaching the possibilities of renovations or new construction. This angst is similar to that facing other nonprofit organizations across the U.S., but houses of worship have often not been truly prepared to wage effective large capital and endowment campaigns–until today. Now approaches and “tools” not previously utilized are available, and architects are an integral part of the solution. more...

Each year we invite five jurors who represent different constituencies in the world of religious art and architecture-architects, artists, liturgical designers, clergy, and congregants – to select the winning projects in the Faith & Form/IFRAA International Awards Program for Religious Art and Architecture. After two days devoted to reviewing projects, deliberating, and making final choices, the jury has an opportunity to reflect not only on the winning projects, but also on all of the submissions, and to comment on what they have seen, what they have not seen, and the trends in the field. more...

The renovation of Houghton Chapel and Multifaith Center at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, is a project profoundly rooted in dialogue: between architect and client, between historical and contemporary programs and spaces, and among the people of diverse cultures and religions who constitute the campus community. This dialogue moved the project beyond implementing preconceived notions of what a renovated chapel space might look like, and instead impelled us to create spaces within an historic structure that would welcome all and would invite the campus to experience the diversity of the human community. more...

Most of our knowledge of the relation of architecture to spirituality addresses the “objective” conditions of sacred buildings: their material, spatial, functional, and other empirical attributes. Long ago we discovered that, if well designed, architecture could evoke the sublime. It is precisely because churches, synagogues, mosques, and monuments can influence consciousness that we build them. And, because objective conditions are perceptually accessible, measurable, and testable, our empirical knowledge of sacred architecture has advanced over time. more...

If each work of architecture must bridge past, present, and future – and all of the particular social and cultural dimensions embedded within – then a new Catholic cathedral, set in a relatively young and very culturally diverse city in California, provokes especially profound questions.

How might a cathedral, conceived in the 21st century, within a rapidly changing Pacific Rim setting, possess the cultural integrity and the power to inspire that define the great European cathedrals? How might a new cathedral speak to contemporary culture while honoring two millennia of Christian tradition? And more specifically, how might this new cathedral provide a meaningful setting for both spiritual renewal and civic discourse in its immediate community, the city of Oakland? more...

Each year, the members of the awards jury gather to pore over nearly 200 entries in religious arts and architecture. It is the perfect opportunity to consider the direction of the field, to reflect on project both selected for awards and those passed over, and what they indicate for the future of architecture and art for worship. more...

The U.S. is currently the fifth largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. Many residents of New Mexico and the Southwest are proud to claim that their Spanish-speaking ancestors were landowners there for 200 years before the U.S. ever existed as a political entity; some Floridians and Louisianans could say the same. According to the 2000 census and the projection of experts on population growth and immigration, the Latino percentage of the nation’s population will continue to increase... more...

Kabbalah, the mystical aspect of Judaism, dates back to the Middle Ages. It means tradition in Hebrew: what is received, and was ignored with the rise of a more rational Rabbinic Judaism in the 19th century. It is theosophy, a theory of the elaborate structure of the Divine world and how humanity is connected to it. As Adin Steinsaltz writes in The Thirteen Petalled Rose, the Kabbalah’s multiple worlds are all intricately interconnected, and as in Hindu karma, deeds have reverberations throughout creation. more...

In 1998, the Passionist Community of Canada decided to provide a new legacy for St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin, a Roman Catholic parish in Toronto, Canada, that it has served for more than 53 years. In November of 2006, this legacy was realized with the consecration of a new church that our firm, Larkin Architect, designed, which includes a 750-seat worship space, a generously proportioned narthex, offices, meeting rooms, and other support facilities for its ongoing ministries... more...

When the 2007 awards jury members gathered to choose this year’s winning projects, they were struck by the range of work represented: big projects, small chapels, houses of worship for a wide range of faiths and from diverse locations around the globe. more...

What factors give architectural and artistic shape to church buildings in the U.S.: tradition, style, response to current events? Do they have anything to do with religion at all? Identifying emerging trends in architecture for worship is not an easy task. The winds that blow the state of religion in the U.S. are very strong and unpredictable. Old religious institutions are struggling to maintain identity, while new ones are not yet firmly established... more...

Six small “art chapels” sit on a spit of green space in the middle of a shopping mall’s parking lot in Fargo, North Dakota. Small signs stuck into the ground let shoppers know that the structures and the art inside them belong in this unlikely location. In fact, the little buildings seem well suited to their wind-blown island surrounded by concrete and cars.more...

What are one’s expectations upon first entering a worship space? They vary according to one’s religious denomination, cultural values, experiences, and tastes. A few common elements, however, are powerful influences: the sense of space (intimate or grand); the aspect of light (its absence or control, with shafts of light from a concealed source or reference to the heavens, or from large openings that bathe a space in sunlight). But it is the aural experience — a hushed silence, a soaring reverberation, or an intimate voice — that can keenly reinforce the sense of the sacred. more...

Listen to a selection from composer Roger Davidson's "Missa Universalis." here...

Artist Helle Scharling-Todd of Ventura, California was asked to decorate the interiors of two Danish churches to reinvigorate the spaces and, by extension, the congregations. You can see more photos of these projects on Faith & Form’s website at www.faithandform.com. Her account of the projects, and how she approached them, is available here.

Photographer Cindy Pavlinac has captured glimpses of the sacred feminine in her work as she has traveled the world. I sat down with Pavlinac to talk about her photos, her inspiration, and how her images convey an ancient sense of the sacred feminine. more...

Lyrics and audio file here...

The Komyo-ji Temple is a reconstruction of a Pure Land temple (Pure Land is a dominant form of Buddhism) dating from the Edo period (1606-1867). Its site is on the eastern side of Saijo City in Ehime Prefecture. more...

Hanging on the wall of my painting studio in New York is a newspaper clipping of a hooded man, his arms outstretched, standing on a box in almost a pose of crucifixion. more...