the interfaith forum on religion, art and architecture
For every issue we publish, Faith & Form features one article here on our website. As each new issue is distributed, our home page is updated with the latest featured article. Previously posted articles will remain on the website and will be accessible from this page. Our online article archive goes back to 2006.
A Kid’s Tale Around the Highway Church “What my eyes saw was simultaneous; what I shall write is successive…Something of it, though, I will capture.” Jorge Luis Borges, The Aleph The Highway Church, la Chiesa dell’Autostrada, is the nickname that is … [continue]
Of all the sacred places on earth, certainly the Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, just southwest of Paris, ranks near or at the very top of the list. Upon entering the dark, cavernous interior, the jeweled light of the 13th-century stained glass transports … [continue]
Ethno-spiritual architectures and emergent heterotopias in the context of ex-urban sprawl “Behind the wall of the city, life rested on a common foundation, set as deep as the universe itself. The city was nothing less than the home of a powerful god. The … [continue]
My job description is difficult enough: offering custom-designed luxury items to a charity. Stained glass, mosaics, and precious metals underwritten by donations is not the basis of a practical business plan. Add to the formula a blind pastor calling to … [continue]
Barrier-free environments have been a staple of architects and interior designers since the passage of the American with Disabilities Act in 1990. However, in a majority of church projects the focus has primarily been to provide the minimal accommodation for … [continue]
For two millennia icons have encouraged vibrant soul transformation through image and prayer. The Orthodox Church used this method of image and prayer as a teaching tool for the community while illustrating their doctrine. It is said that the first icon … [continue]
How do houses of worship across all faiths create welcome and hospitality? While the following perspective comes from a Christian—Catholic and Protestant—point of view, the principles are applicable to Jewish temples and synagogues and Muslim mosques, not to … [continue]
Throughout my professional career, my design perspective has been influenced by my early grounding in Eastern cultures. As such, the design for the Wat Nawamintararachutis (in short “Wat Nawamin” or “NMR Meditation Center ”) - a new $60 million Thai Buddhist … [continue]
“For my house shall be a house of prayer for all people.” Isaiah 56:7 In 2000, when the Reform Jewish synagogue Bet Shalom in Minnetonka, Minnesota, began considering plans for a new building, they made a far-sighted decision. Jackie Hirsh – a longtime … [continue]
With renewed and continual efforts to ensure, regulate, and legislate accessibility in all architectural spaces there remains the curious matter of gendered spaces in contemporary mosques. A gendered space is the clear demarcation and limitation of each … [continue]
