Practice

Architects bring unique skills to bear on the design of religious buildings gleaned from many years of practice and past experience working with congregations, communities and boards.

The skills include technical knowledge of the building code and how it applies to assembly buildings, interpretation of life safety issues and compliance with the fire code and issues of accessibility.

More essential skills relate to the architect's ability to create buildings that satisfy the aspirations and beliefs of the users and express them both in symbolic and practical terms. The architect gives physical form to the community's vision for their place of worship.

Often it is assumed that small additions to churches and other religious buildings do not require an architect because the project is so simple. This is not a new problem. I was recently looking at a magnificent 19th century church building in a southwestern Ontario community. Additions had been placed on the the front of the building on either side of the original central tower. A turn of the century engraving of the building referred to these as the "1878 disfigure- ments." Some members of the congregation are still talking about wanting ta remove them. Another skill which an architect can bring to the design of a religious building comes from an ability to understand the symbolic meaning of the programme. This is based on an understanding of the cultural and theological aspects of the belief system. These aspects require interpretation so that a building will look like a church, or a synagogue or a temple.

People of all religions have a need to create a sacred space which can be consecrated as a place to be together, to worship and meet with the Divine. It is the understanding of what a sacred space requires that becomes one of the crucial criteria in thedesign of religious buildings.

Recently, in the redesign of the First Unitarian Congregation building in Toronto, our firm was trying to satisfy the client's mandate of making the building more visible by bringing the facade closer to the sidewalk and by rebuilding a tower. When I showed the model of our project to the congregation, one elderly lady felt it looked "too Christian," and she didn't want Christian symbolism in her church!

Our firm responded by relating the design to Unitarian theology. A few weeks later I developed the idea of using the Unitarian Service Committee symbol of a flaming chalice as the theme for a stained glass window which would split the stone tower traditional to churches in the area. The idea appealed to the Committee so much that stained glass artist Sarah Hall was commissioned to execute the window immediately.