ABSTRACT

While sacred spaces and structures have historically been regarded as spiritually inspiring, more recent church design falls short of this. Immense and awe-inspiring cathedrals, built over centuries, were once the standard setting for Christian worship. Today, however, megachurches, housed in lack-luster “big-box” architecture, define the building-typology. The typical architectural design for contemporary houses of worship lacks the architectural characteristics to provide spiritual transcendence of the physical world.

With the opportunity to uplift congregational worship and affirm an individual’s connection with God, the design of sacred spaces should be more thoughtful and more impactful on a user’s experience. Sacred architecture in the past incorporated the design of natural light as an aspect of the architectural experience, ideas of procession, materiality, and verticality (scale perception). These designed attributes can captivate one’s visceral and cerebral perception, encouraging users to move beyond just physical experience and connect with ephemeral and spiritual experience. The goal of this thesis design is to study the influence of the integration of these architectural attributes.

05 This thesis is applied to the design exploration of a Christian church in downtown Muncie, Indiana. The design of the church is focused on achieving an architectural experience that is transformative as users transition from the realities of the profane world to the sacred experience of worship and relationship with God. While the conceptual and programmatic focus of the design is on the inward sanctuary space, the design also strives to welcome all people as we are all on this spiritual journey towards illumination.