Typology - Multifaith - Architectural Review

ESSAYS BUILDINGS PLACES ARCHITECTS ARCHIVE COMPETITIONS FILMS PODCASTS AWARDS STUDENTS MAGAZINESA journey
SHOP ar
9 JUNE 2020
LAX Bar, Vie

Meier, Ute M
Lukas Stopc
13 APRIL 2020
BAU, Beirut
Architects
13 APRIL 2020
Typology: N
13 APRIL 2020
Josephine i
and Virgil A
13 APRIL 2020
Off Club, Ro
13 APRIL 2020
Typology: Multifaith
21 APRIL 2016 BY TOM WILKINSON TYPOLOGY
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Religious
learn more.belief systems
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out of some cookies powerful
by adjusting and
your browser settings. More information on how to do this can
be found in the cookie policy. By using our site, you agree to our use of cookies.
distinct but, alongside the differences, comes a
call for greater tolerance and cohesion. Can the
Accept
RELATED STOR
worship
ESSAYS ofBUILDINGS
differentPLACES
gods take placeARCHIVE
under one MAGAZINESA journey
ARCHITECTS COMPETITIONS FILMS PODCASTS AWARDS STUDENTS SHOP ar
roof?
9 JUNE 2020
LAX Bar, Vie

In AD631 (or AH 10) a delegation of Christians from Najran,
Meier, Ute M
in present-day Yemen, arrived in Medina to negotiate a treaty
Lukas Stopc
with Muhammad. He received the Najrans in the mosque and,
13 APRIL 2020
although they were unable to agree on certain doctrinal
matters, invited them to pray there nonetheless, which they BAU, Beirut
did – facing east. Architects
13 APRIL 2020
This episode demonstrates some of the possibilities – and the Typology: N
problems – inherent in the idea of adherents of different 13 APRIL 2020
faiths sharing spaces of worship. First, there is often no
Josephine i
intrinsic impediment to taking the occasional dip. Muslims can
and Virgil A
pray anywhere, as can Christians, although Mass should only
13 APRIL 2020
be celebrated on consecrated ground (according to Canon 933,
churches of other denominations may only be used in Off Club, Ro
extraordinary circumstances). Catholics aside, Christian 13 APRIL 2020
worship is now more likely to take place in a light industrial

unit or megachurch than in a cruciform building, basilica,
rotunda, or any of the other forms that have been developed
and disputed across the centuries. As for architectural
objections to shacking up on a more permanent basis, despite
there being great regional traditions in mosque design, there
is no essential mosque-form. As the above list demonstrates,
the same can be said for Christian churches.
Source: Andreas Duscha / Christine König Galerie, Vienna

The multifaith room in Franz Josef Strauss Airport, Munich
Let’s not be too indiscriminate, though: for many people the

shape of a place of worship is extremely important. It’s
enough to get certain forms torn down or banned – think of
Swiss minarets, for instance, or the long-running battle
between proponents of centralised and longitudinal plans in
the Western church.
We use cookies The idea
to personalize andthat a space
improve of worship
your experience is Visit our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy to
on our site.
sacred ismore.
learn not necessary toofall
You can opt out somefaiths but
cookies by it necessarily
adjusting depends
your browser settings. More information on how to do this can
on the exclusion of the profane: so even though a Shinto
shrine Accept
doesn’t have to display any particular feature, it
RELATED STOR
occupies sacred ground on which to spill cock’s blood to Papa
SHOP ar
Legba would certainly be bad form. Strict Orthodox Jews are
9 JUNE 2020
advised not to enter Christian spaces of worship (too
idolatrous); however, a mosque will do – at a pinch – given LAX Bar, Vie
that both mosques and synagogues are aniconic and both tend Meier, Ute M
to separate the sexes. And the divergent directions of prayer Lukas Stopc
adopted in the Medina episode show that fundamental 13 APRIL 2020
differences remain even where there is an ecumenical will, BAU, Beirut
albeit ones that could easily be resolved by some stackable Architects
chairs. 13 APRIL 2020
Typology: N
‘The Golden Temple 13 APRIL 2020
in Amritsar has Josephine i

and Virgil A
doors on each side 13 APRIL 2020
to welcome Off Club, Ro
worshippers from 13 APRIL 2020
all four corners of

the world’
That architectural forms are not intrinsically linked to belief
systems is demonstrated by the fact that, historically, there
have been many examples of places of worship being
converted from one faith to another. However, this rarely
occurred without vigorous modification: when the Pantheon
became a church, its pagan idols were replaced with Christian
ones, and the great mosque at Córdoba, which itself
swallowed an earlier Visigothic cathedral, had a cathedral
dumped in its centre following the Reconquista. There have
been vanishingly few historical instances of purpose-built
spaces for the use of multiple faiths: an exception is the
Golden Temple in Amritsar, which has doors on each side to
welcome worshippers from all four corners of the world. Its
foundation stone was laid by a Muslim Sufi saint at the
invitation of Arjan, the fifth Sikh guru, in 1574.
learn more. You can opt out of some cookies by adjusting your browser settings. More information on how to do this can
The unconsecrated chapel in Abney Park Cemetery, London, the first non-
Accept
denominational funerary chapel in Europe RELATED STOR
The problem of deistic multiple-occupancy becomes pressing
SHOP ar
only where faiths meet in a climate of mutual toleration,
9 JUNE 2020
which is happening more than ever, even in these fractious
times. But even when believers aren’t killing each other, there LAX Bar, Vie
is little impetus to permanently cohabit – which is at the very Meier, Ute M
least going to raise timetabling issues – unless it is to some Lukas Stopc
polemical purpose or, more commonly, if space is at a 13 APRIL 2020
premium. BAU, Beirut
Architects
13 APRIL 2020
Typology: N
13 APRIL 2020
Josephine i
and Virgil A
13 APRIL 2020
Off Club, Ro
13 APRIL 2020
Multifaith rooms in airports around the world featured in an exhibition bu

Andreas Duscha at Kunsthaus Zürich, 2015
Examples of the former tendency occur in temporary

circumstances such as at the New York World’s Fair of 1939,
when a ‘Temple of Religion’ was erected to foster cross-
cultural amity – just as Europe descended into bloodthirsty
mayhem. Eccentric or visionary individuals lie behind other
such efforts. Dag Hammarskjöld, second secretary general of
the UN, established the meditation room in the organisation’s
New York HQ in 1957. The truncated polyhedric space
culminates in an abstract mural in the style of Paul Klee and
has a black altar of polished iron at its centre (the room is
beloved of conspiracy nuts, who regard it as the spiritual
nexus of the One World Government). Oil-moneyed patrons
the de Menils commissioned Mark Rothko and Philip Johnson
to create a non-denominational chapel around a series of the
artist’s cod-mystical paintings in Houston in 1964. Brotherly
love was not much in evidence during the design process,
which lasted until Rothko’s death in 1970: he quickly fell out
with be
Johnson,
found in thewho was
cookie replaced
policy. bysite,
By using our a succession of use
you agree to our local
of cookies.
architects. Another, less easily parsed example of an artist-led
Accept
project is the 1,500m-high ‘World Temple’ designed by RELATED STOR
Johannes Baader in 1906. Baader had trained as an architect,
SHOP ar
later became a Dadaist, founded a company called Christ Ltd
9 JUNE 2020
and declared himself to be President of the Earth and the
Universe. These qualifications evidently failed to impress LAX Bar, Vie
Gropius, who turned him down for a teaching job at the Meier, Ute M
Bauhaus. Was his World Temple a satire or a sincere Lukas Stopc
ecumenical gesture – or both? 13 APRIL 2020
BAU, Beirut
‘at defines a Architects
13 APRIL 2020
place of worship?
Typology: N
Does it have to be 13 APRIL 2020
sacrosanct? Must it Josephine i
display certain and Virgil A
signs? Or is it 13 APRIL 2020
Off Club, Ro
enough that it feels 13 APRIL 2020
‘spiritual’?’
Source: Andreas Duscha

Multifaith rooms in airports around the world
The second reason for sharing space – exigency – accounts for

the most common form of non-denominational worship-space,
which is to be found in places such as airports, shopping
malls, prisons and universities. This nearly invisible tology
has been intensively
We use studiedand
cookies to personalize byimprove
Andrew Crompton
your experience ofsite. Visit our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy to
on our
Liverpool University,
learn more. You can optwho
out of has
someventured into airless,
cookies by adjusting your browser settings. More information on how to do this can
be found in carpet-
windowless, the cookieand
policy.ceiling-tiled
By using our site, you agree
rooms to our use ofaround
in airports cookies.
the world to analyse this curiously modern phenomenon. It

Accept
RELATED STOR
represents nothing, and yet it does represent something: the
SHOP ar
survival of belief in a demystified world, growing like weeds
9 JUNE 2020
through cracks in concrete. The inadequacy of the
architectural expression speaks of the contradiction between LAX Bar, Vie
technological rationality and its opposite; nevertheless, it will Meier, Ute M
do for one last prayer before hurtling into the emptied void Lukas Stopc
(meanwhile, unbelievers imbibe their sacrament of choice in 13 APRIL 2020
Wetherspoons). BAU, Beirut
Architects
Ironically for a tology that appears alien to the mainstream 13 APRIL 2020
of Modernist discourse, Crompton’s object of enquiry raises
Typology: N
some pretty fundamental questions about architectural form
13 APRIL 2020
and functionality – what defines a place of worship, anyway?
Does it have to be sacrosanct? Must it display certain signs, Josephine i
iconographic or architectural? Or is it enough that it feels and Virgil A
‘spiritual’? This nebulous idea usually entails round spaces, 13 APRIL 2020
which in themselves are functional – they fudge the problem Off Club, Ro
of orientation – and formally significant, since they can be 13 APRIL 2020
claimed to symbolise globality or community or some other
almost entirely empty concept.
Source: Andreas Duscha

Multifaith rooms in airports around the world
Crompton argues that these spaces are in fact impossible to

design: since ‘being unspecific does not come easily to
architects … Saying nothing might actually be impossible.’ He
concludes
We usethat,
cookieson
to the whole,
personalize andbanal
improvevernacular spaces
your experience do Visit
on our site. it our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy to
better than
learn architectural
more. gestures.
You can opt out of ‘Having
some cookies visited
by adjusting many settings.
your browser of More information on how to do this can
thembeI found
would say
in the that,
cookie in general,
policy. By using ourthe
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worse they turn out, and that the UK, through its amateur
Accept
RELATED STOR
and parsimonious approach, is the accidental world leader in
SHOP ar
this field.’ Not just in terms of design, but also in number:
9 JUNE 2020
2,000 have been opened here since the millennium – 13 of
them at Heathrow alone. at does this say about the UK – LAX Bar, Vie
about its tradition of grudging toleration of imported faiths, Meier, Ute M
always holding them at arm’s length, never quite welcoming, Lukas Stopc
but too polite (or too two-faced) to explicitly tell them to 13 APRIL 2020
shove off? BAU, Beirut
Architects
13 APRIL 2020
Typology: N
13 APRIL 2020
Josephine i
and Virgil A
13 APRIL 2020
Off Club, Ro
13 APRIL 2020
Source: Gabriel Jorby / Flickr

MIT Chapel, Cambridge, MA, United States, Eero Saarinen, 1955
Perhaps the only successfully designed examples of the te

are not multifaith spaces at all, but multifaith spatial
ensembles. The now-demolished ‘Tri-Faith Plaza’ at Idlewild
(now JFK) Airport in New York aligned three separate
buildings for Jews, Protestants and Catholics along a
reflecting pool outside the terminal, allowing for proximity
and intermingling, while avoiding toe-treading
superimposition; the proposed House of One in Berlin will
bring together around a central courtyard three distinct
spaces for Jews, Muslims and Christians. Perhaps this is the
most sensible approach but it is also a recognition of the
fundamental irreconcilability of religions – which are, after all,
based on belief and not openness to new ideas. Like the
porcupines in Schopenhauer’s fable, they huddle together –
they have more in common with each other than with the
demystified world outside – but their spines forever prevent
an embrace.
House of One, Berlin, Germany, Kühn Malvezzi,

ongoing
Berlin has an unhappy history when it comes to
accommodating non-Christian religions, and the rest of
Europe is treating synagogues and mosques in a way that
balefully echoes this past. So what better place to set an
example of a more positive interaction between adherents of
different faiths than on the site of a church that was burnt by
the SS Accept
and demolished following the Second World War – and RELATED STOR
which, itself, stood on the site of Berlin’s first medieval
SHOP ar
church? The idea of replacing it with a more-inclusive facility
9 JUNE 2020
was first dreamt up by the church authorities in 2008; Kühn
Malvezzi won an international design competition in 2012. The LAX Bar, Vie
projected building consists of three separate spaces grouped Meier, Ute M
around a towering central volume, which permits ‘unity in Lukas Stopc
diversity’: the Jewish element is a lozenge, the Islamic 13 APRIL 2020
element square and the Christian rectangular. The first two BAU, Beirut
are equipped with galleries to permit gender segregation; the Architects
Islamic space has ablution facilities and the Christian space an 13 APRIL 2020
organ. Rather than simply expressing a hope that proximity
Typology: N
will breed amity, the central zone will be used to host events
13 APRIL 2020
that encourage interaction. Funds are being raised to begin
construction. Josephine i
and Virgil A
13 APRIL 2020
Off Club, Ro
13 APRIL 2020
Setre Chapel, Kobe, Japan Ryuichi Ashizawa

Architects, 2005
Japanese religion is syncretic, being composed of Shinto,
Buddhist and Christian elements. And although only 1-2 per
cent of the Japanese population is Christian, around 80 per
cent of Japanese weddings are celebrated in a Christian style
Accept
– that is to say, they have some of the trappings of a Christian RELATED STOR
wedding but are without any sacramental status and are not
SHOP ar
conducted by ordained ministers. Instead, Westerners are
9 JUNE 2020
often hired from specialist agencies to play the part of the
priest, and the ceremony commonly takes place in chapels LAX Bar, Vie
that are likewise confected from ersatz elements of Western- Meier, Ute M
style culture. The gleaming white Cristea Church on Okinawa Lukas Stopc
is particularly splendid, with its gothic pinnacles and 13 APRIL 2020
Corinthian columns, but there are some rather less-kitsch BAU, Beirut
examples of the te – a case in point is Setre Chapel, Architects
constructed for a hotel in Kobe. Here there is no overt 13 APRIL 2020
symbolism; instead, the dramatic site provides a sense of the
Typology: N
ineffable, and hints at the Shinto element of Japanese
13 APRIL 2020
syncretism. The concrete structure is cantilevered over the
lobby and terminates with a glazed wall looking west over the Josephine i
sea to where the sun sets behind Akashi Bridge. and Virgil A
13 APRIL 2020
Off Club, Ro
13 APRIL 2020
Abney park cemetery chapel, London, UK,

William Hosking, 1840
Victorian London overflowed with bodies both living and
dead, with the overcrowding of parish graveyards by the
latter causing almost as much disquiet among the middle
classes as the slum-dwellers. Contamination was feared and so
a network of suburban necropolises – since dubbed the
‘magnificent seven’ – was built to accommodate the
posthumous populace. These offered a resting place for
various Christians,
We use and twoand
cookies to personalize buildings were
improve your provided
experience on our for
site. the
Visit our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy to
use of mourners
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more. You can opt outconfession.
of some cookiesAbney Park
by adjusting yourCemetery
browser settings. More information on how to do this can
be found in the cookie
was established policy. By using
in north-east our site,as
London you
anagree to our use
entirely of cookies.
non-
denominational
Accept facility and, rather than constructing two
RELATED STOR
buildings, its unconsecrated chapel was intended for all
SHOP ar
comers. The result was the first non-denominational funerary
9 JUNE 2020
chapel in Europe, described in a 1903 brochure of the Abney
Park Cemetery Company as the ‘Campo Santo of the English LAX Bar, Vie
non-conformists’. The building’s designer, William Hosking, Meier, Ute M
later became the first professor of architecture at King’s Lukas Stopc
College London, and his antiquarian interests are reflected in 13 APRIL 2020
both the chapel’s curious mixture of historical idioms and the BAU, Beirut
splendid Egtian cemetery gates. The cemetery company Architects
eventually went bankrupt, leading to the decay of the grounds 13 APRIL 2020
and the chapel. This was attacked by arsonists in the 1970s
Typology: N
and is now a semi-ruin, while the cemetery is famously
13 APRIL 2020
haunted by cruisers and – according to one British newspaper
– the scene of drug-fuelled tramp orgies. Non-conformist Josephine i
indeed. and Virgil A
13 APRIL 2020
Off Club, Ro
13 APRIL 2020
Accept
RELATED STOR
Abraham
ESSAYS Ecumenical Centre,
BUILDINGS PLACES Barcelona,
ARCHITECTS ARCHIVESpain
COMPETITIONS FILMS PODCASTS AWARDS STUDENTS MAGAZINESA journey
SHOP ar
Josep Benedito and Agustí Mateos, 1992 9 JUNE 2020
The Olympic Games brings together people from all over the LAX Bar, Vie
world and, hence, adherents of many different faiths. This Meier, Ute M
raises a challenge for host nations, which must find ways of Lukas Stopc
accommodating a wide range of religious demands on site. For 13 APRIL 2020
the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, a dedicated building was
BAU, Beirut
constructed for this purpose for the first time in the history
Architects
of the Games. It was named after the ‘father’ of three
13 APRIL 2020
religions – Christianity, Islam and Judaism – and comprised
separate spaces to allow for simultaneous use by multiple Typology: N
groups. The project was administered by the local diocese, 13 APRIL 2020
rather than the Olympic administration and, as such, since the Josephine i
Games ended it has been converted to exclusively Christian and Virgil A
use – a change signified by the installation of crosses on the 13 APRIL 2020
facade. The plan of the building is vaguely piscine in character,
Off Club, Ro
a response to Gehry’s famous sculpture but also, of course, a
13 APRIL 2020
Christian symbol.
Haus der Stille, Frankfurt, Germany, Karl +

Probst, 2009
Universities across the West are enrolling increasing numbers
of international students, many of whom have religious
requirements that have not hitherto been met on campus. In
Accept
order to remedy this, some institutions opt for portakabins; RELATED STOR
others, such as Goethe University in Frankfurt, choose
SHOP ar
instead to make more-permanent accommodations, to be
9 JUNE 2020
shared in this instance by adherents of every faith. The
university hoped that, by doing this, it could foster dialogue, LAX Bar, Vie
making the name chosen for the project – House of Silence – Meier, Ute M
initially seem somewhat inappropriate but, on second glance, Lukas Stopc
inadvertently apt. The building thus designated appears to be 13 APRIL 2020
silent itself, devoid of explicit religious symbols. But that is BAU, Beirut
not to say it doesn’t murmur certain aspirations. Its Architects
indeterminate plan is vaguely oval – an ‘inclusive’ form 13 APRIL 2020
favoured by designers of non-denominational spaces – and the
Typology: N
exterior is clad in timber. Ablution facilities and religious
13 APRIL 2020
accoutrements are kept in adjoining rooms.
Josephine i
and Virgil A
13 APRIL 2020
Off Club, Ro
13 APRIL 2020
MARCH 2016
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Josephine i
and Virgil A
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Off Club, Ro
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ESSAYS BUILDINGS PLACES ARCHITECTS ARCHIVE COMPETITIONS FILMS PODCASTS AWARDS STUDENTS MAGAZINESA journey

LAX Bar, Vie

LAX Bar, Vie

worship is now more likely to take place in a light industrial

Source: Andreas Duscha / Christine König Galerie, Vienna

Let’s not be too indiscriminate, though: for many people the

in Amritsar has Josephine i

all four corners of

Multifaith rooms in airports around the world featured in an exhibition bu

Examples of the former tendency occur in temporary

Source: Andreas Duscha

The second reason for sharing space – exigency – accounts for

the world to analyse this curiously modern phenomenon. It

Source: Andreas Duscha

Crompton argues that these spaces are in fact impossible to

Source: Gabriel Jorby / Flickr

Perhaps the only successfully designed examples of the te

House of One, Berlin, Germany, Kühn Malvezzi,

Setre Chapel, Kobe, Japan Ryuichi Ashizawa

Abney park cemetery chapel, London, UK,

Haus der Stille, Frankfurt, Germany, Karl +

Since 1896, The Architectural Review has scoured the

LAX Bar, Vie

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