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.
On the centenary of his birth, Edward Anders Sövik’s designs and ideas about religious architecture continue to reverberate. A remarkable convergence of movements shaped mid-20th-century church design in Europe and the United States. Momentum for … [continue]
A new exhibit at New York’s Metropolitan Museum investigates the impact of Catholicism on clothing design. Do religions make fashion statements? Is there a “Catholic style” that offers a well of imagery from which a purveyor of haute couture might draw? The … [continue]
What can Gothic cathedrals teach us about architecture today? While these buildings are masterpieces in the history of architecture, how relevant are they today in educating young architects? Beyond architectural history courses, we have found that Gothic … [continue]
Inventing an architectural form to provide for the worship of an invisible and non-representational deity has never been achieved, and anything that became an accepted form had to be evolved through the passage of time.1 ~ Martin Frishman In the spring of … [continue]
The recent restoration of Duke Chapel teaches some lessons about preserving the ‘soul’ of this common material. Wood is so commonplace in sacred spaces that we seldom pause to think about its presence. Its use seems unremarkable, even in buildings as unusual … [continue]
The significance of materials in sacred architecture—what matters most? When we consider what materials or architectural features are most important in fostering the sublime experience of connecting humans with divinity, it is essential to acknowledge the … [continue]
As a material that suggests the presence of the divine, glass has no parallel. If one were to search for an Ur-spirituality of glass in the ancient world, its antecedents would likely be found in the “material” of fire and fire’s observable properties. … [continue]
“The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God. The history of our friendship with God is always linked to particular places which take on an intensely … [continue]
Considering Marcel Breuer’s Saint John’s Abbey Church and Bartholomew Voorsanger’s Chapel at the National World War II Museum. In 1961, upon completion of the Abbey Church of Saint John the Baptist in Collegeville, Minnesota, by Marcel Breuer and Associates, … [continue]
Places of worship are complex compositions containing a variety of physical elements, each with specific properties, functions, and symbolism. The tremendous range of material choices in design and decoration for a sacred space can be overwhelming. How on … [continue]
