The Architecture and Design of Sacred Spaces

I have long been a fan of Scott Berkun.  Particularly his essays, which are remarkably lucid meditations on what it takes to be a successful manager, among other things.  So it comes as no surprise that his blog is most readable as well.  I particularly enjoyed this post in which he describes an exercise in studying the architecture and design of sacred spaces that was part of the 2006 GEL Conference:

As part of the GEL 2006 Conference I ran an architectural tour through NYC, focusing on sacred places. What’s a sacred place? Well, I left that up to the people on the tour. Half of the stops had some religious affiliation, but the other half were secular (A park, a train station and a square). Since the goal of the tour was to explore these powerful places as designers, I wanted a wide definition for what a sacred place is.

Questions we asked:

• What feelings did the architects want people to have when inside? When entering? When leaving?
• How does the design achieve those effects?
• What is the visual focal point of the space? How is it supported?
• How are rhythm and symmetry used?
• What senses are activated by how the space is designed?
• What are the sacred places in your home? How do you use and honor them?

In my studies of architecture, especially sacred architecture, I realized that churches, shrines, and temples are all designed by people. There are no blueprints, and few descriptions, for them in most bibles or holy texts - so what you see in them is an expression of design imagination and talent, as much as anything else. I’m confident that most people can appreciate these buildings and designs in a non-religious way, if they choose too.

Scott comes to architecture from software design and I think you can see in the quoted text the calm lucidity he brings to the many and varied subjects he writes about.  Urbanities was also most intrigued by the GEL Conference which is described on the site as:

Short for "Good Experience Live", Gel is a conference, and community, exploring good experience in all its forms -- in business, art, society, technology, and life.

The goal of the conference is to create an environment that allows our multi-disciplinary community to explore the idea of "good experience" in a variety of contexts.

Here's to good experience!