Life of a Church: Adaptive Reuse of a Dying Typology

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Taha K. Suhrawardy

Life of a Church Adaptive Reuse of a Bygone Typology

Life of a Church Adaptive Reuse of a Bygone Typology

Taha K. Suhrawardy Master of Architecture Candidate: Dec. 2020

Winter 2020 Matthew Jull Design Research

“Let the Church always be a place of mercy and hope, where everyone is welcomed, loved and forgiven.� Pope Francis

Discussion Contents State of Religion in the West Europe: Decreasing Religiousness Europe: Migration Europe: Shifting Demographics America: Decreasing Religiousness

State of Churches in the West Europe: Decreasing Religious Participation Emptying out of Churches

Adaptive Reuse Versatility of Churches Dutch Post-ChurchScape

Secular Spirituality Peter Van Ness – Spirituality and Secularity Nature of Spirituality Jennifer Clark – Embodiment of Memory

Adaptive Reuse Design Sound Light Procession and Movement Reverence Community

Abstract The recurrent focus posed in this book is: What does it take, architecturally, to recontextualize a church within the local social fabric so it can once more serve a positive role in its community but also where the richness of the space is preserved? And in doing so, what can we learn about how architecture can be evocative spiritually or emotionally?� This book starts with the inquiry as to why there are so many churches going out of use, how they are being repurposed, and how we can gain control of this trend as architects and thinkers. The study begins by examining the status of religion and the church in the Europe, making the point that Europe is a few years to a few decades ahead of America in the destauration of religious vibrancy and decline of churchgoership. As Europe has begun to adaptively reuse churches already, we draw lessons from these for American churches’ impending future. After a brief discussion of the current situation in Europe regarding adaptive reuse, the book evaluates what spirituality might mean in a post-church context. Understanding the importance and value of churches, the book sets out to discover what can be done not only to preserve the sanctity of the space but also allow it to be functional in a spiritual capacity. Some final conclusions are made based on this study, along with further questions posed and an emphasis on the relevance of this research due to the current trajectory of global trends.

figure 1

REPTON PARK GYM | LONDON, ENGLAND

State of

in the West

figure 2

4/27/2020

New poll finds only 18% of Europe’s Christians regularly attend church | Blogs | Lifesitenews

JONATHON VAN MAREN From the front lines of the culture wars

BLOGS

New poll nds only 18% of Europe’s Christians regularly attend church Europe has become a graveyard of empty cathedrals and crumbling churches Fri Jun 1, 2018 - 2:40 pm EST

By Jonathon Van Maren 4/27/2020

New poll finds only 18% of Europe’s Christians regularly attend church | Blogs | Lifesitenews

June 1, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Social commentators and scholars have been opining on the collapse of Christianity across Western Europe for decades now, as the vacuum created by the ongoing extinction of faith has been accompanied by the collapse of the traditional family and a demographic winter so severe it has forced governments to import massive amounts of https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/new-poll-finds-only-18-of-europes-christians-regularly-attend-church immigrants to supply their labor force and ostensibly to prop up their creaking, top-heavy social welfare systems. With the occasional spasm of resistance to the organized decay being languidly orchestrated by the Eurocrats in Brussels (like Brexit, the brief marriage of old guard leftists and actual conservatives, both disenfranchised by the homogenized center-left blob made up of the figure 3 Labor and Tory parties), whatever is left of Christendom is slowly imploding on itself. The Pew Research Center has released a wide-ranging study on Christianity in Western Europe,

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Decreasing Religiousness in Europe A discussion on the ontology of churches begins, broadly at first, with the state of religion in Western lands, and then more specifically, the state of churchgoership in these areas. A related discussion is migration trends that change the urban demographics. The Gallup data to the right paints a preliminary picture of religious sentiments in Europe. The western, more economically prosperous countries seem to be less inclined toward a faith tradition in the current context. But to understand this better, we must put this in a historical context.

Results of a 2008/2009 Gallup survey on whether respondents said that religion was "important in [their] daily life."

Completely unimportant

figure 4

Extremely Important

Migration to and from Europe The world’s second largest religion, Islam, seems to be making its presence stronger in Europe. The bar graph at the top right, borrowed from the Pew Global Religious Futures Project, shows the influx of immigrants to Europe in the year 2010, categorized by religious affiliation. The largest religious group coming into Europe is Muslims. The graph below it shows the emigrants from Europe, the largest group of which is Christians. These two pieces of information indicate that the net Christian population in Europe is declining — and instead being replaced by Muslims. Furthermore, the current political climate in the Middle East and North Africa do not indicate that this trend will be slowing down in the near future.

figure 5, 6

figure 7

figure 8

Madrid, Spain May 11th, 2016 Taha K. Suhrawardy

figure 9

Changing Demographics The Gallup poll to the right shows percentage of Muslims within each country, with darker green indicating a larger percentage of the whole. This information is particularly illuminating when compared with the map on page 11, reprinted below. Not counting Turkey, it is clear that the least religious European coun-

Percentage of each country’s population that is Muslim

<5% Muslim figure 10

>95% Muslim

tries are acquiring the highest Muslim population. This compounds into particularly sharp declines in church attendance in these countries, which we will see more of in later pages.

Results of a 2008/2009 Gallup survey on whether respondents said that religion was "important in [their] daily life."

Completely unimportant figure 4

Extremely Important

Generational Changes and Apostasy Although religious sentiments in Europe have been changing due to secularization and migration changes, another critical, yet related, cause of the decrease of religiosity in Europe is actually endemic. The birth rates within Christian communities gradually decreasing, contributing to the churchgoing population in Europe not being sustained.

figure 11

Great Britain

France

Netherlands

figure 12

Christianity in America The secularization of Europe seems to be a foreshadowing for America, where Christian affiliation is declining, according to the Pew Research Forum. This is important to note because the sociocultural phenomena occurring in Europe due to and alongside these changes in religious sentiments will eventually be present in full force in North America. This translates to changes in building trends, attitudes towards adaptive reuse of churches, and the concept of both spiritual and social spaces.

figure 14

figure 15

Religious Participation As discussed in the previous chapter, religious affiliation is generally a loose term and only gives the superficial survey of personal beliefs and religious demographics. It is something that can be seen as inherited, culturally obligatory, or nostalgic. In contrast, religious participation is more indicative of the health and future of churches. Here we look at the state of churchgoership in Europe as well as America, understanding that the loss of the church’s value within society is more pronounced than might have originally seemed.

figure 16

Weekly religious attendance in the European Union more than 30% 15% - 30% 10% - 15% (6) less than 10%

figure 17

These changing cultural attitudes have critical consequences for the future of churches. Historically, the heart of communities in the West has always been the church, where congregants have not only worshiped and found greater meaning in their lives, but built their social lives around this hub. As described in the previous chapter, changing demographics and secularization have depreciated the church’s position as the social locus of society, which has resulted in the decrease in church usage by the society at large. This phenomenon is particularly conspicuous in Europe where its large, historic churches and cathedrals have become progressively more vacant, leaving huge pieces of prime real estate practically empty year round.

figure 18

ART & THEATRE

ART & THEATRE

LAKEVILLE AREA ARTS CENTER MINNEAPOLIS, MN

figure 19

define: deconsecration verb “the act of removing a religious blessing from something that had been previously consecrated by a minister or priest of that religion. The practice is usually performed on churches to be rendered to non-religious (secular) use or demolished�

ART & THEATRE

ART & THEATRE

Context The first response to this phenomenon has been to make the church, often a cathedral, into a museum. However, a city can only sustain so many museums within its bounds, and not every church is worthy of becoming a museum. On the other hand, in the tight urban fabrics of Europe, the existence of a gaping void in the middle of the hustle and bustle is unsustainable, both due to issues of space and resource consumption. Moreover, the increasing lack of membership contributes to the deterioration of the building as funds slowly diminish. But deconsecration also constitutes its own barriers, particularly due to the cherished hallowedness of the building. Furthermore, the actual adaptation of a building typology replete with architectural idiosyncrasies poses many spatial, structural, and logistical challenges, not to mention questions of sustainability. The result is a complex web of intricacies that need to be overcome to give new life to churches and cathedrals, where not only their use, but their symbolic value must be taken into consideration in the process.

figure 20

MEDIEVAL MILE MUSEUM | KILKENNY, IRELAND

Adaptive

Reuse

SKATEHAL ARNHEM | ARNHEM, NETHERLANDS

define: adaptive reuse noun “changing a building’s function in response to the changing needs of its users” — McMorrough 2013

figure 21

Finding New Uses Communities in Europe in the past couple decades have already been filling in the void that results when the church no longer functions as the social condenser in society. All across the western half of the continent, churches and cathedrals are being repurposed into everything from skate parks to cafes to disco clubs. These examples illustrate that church buildings are more versatile and open to adaptive reuse into diverse new programmatic uses than might initially seem.

Islamischen Zentrum Al-Nour | Mosque Hamburg, Germany

St. Sebastian Kindergarten Munster, Germany

DePetrus Library Vught, Netherlands

Martin’s Patershof Hotel Mechelen, Belgium

Saint Dunstan in the East Church Garden London, England

The Church Bar Dublin, Ireland

Virgin Active Repton Park Gym London, England

The Skate Church Asturias, Spain

Il Gattopardo Milano Disco Club Milan, Italy

Chiesa di San Vidal Concert Hall Venice, Italy

What does it take, architecturally, to recontextualize a church within the local social fabric so it can once more serve a positive role in its community but also where the richness of the space is preserved? And in doing so, what can we glean about how architecture can be evocative spiritually or emotionally?�

Church Adaptive Reuse in the Netherlands One of the foremost countries converting churches into new uses is the Netherlands. We may speculate that because of the Dutch Protestant culture of making simple churches and disengaging from the mechanical rituals of religion have accelerated this phenomenon. Regardless, almost one in five churches in the Netherlands is now deconsecrated for some other use. This map shows a selection of

Paradiso Disco Club

these precedents that, studied together, contain many important lessons for adaptive reuse of church buildings. Jopenkerk

A central concern to this typology of in-

Brewery

tervention is the relationship of the new structure to the existing church structure. Many of these adaptive reuse projects are completely integrated

Residence Church XL House

and irreversible, but several of them are detached structurally and can be removed if the community needs the building to reassume its religious function.

Rotterda BiercafĂŠ Olivier CafĂŠ

Yet others are designed to be flexible in space so as to allow large events throughout the year, including Mass, if need be.

Broerenkerk Bookstore

s

am

Vondelkerk Skatehal Arnhem

Office

Indoor Skatepark

DePetrus Community Center

Zwolle Amsterdam Brasserie Abshoven Restaurant Utrecht Arnhem Vught

Basic Fit Fitness Center

Selexyz Domincanen Bookstore Munstergeleen

Maastricht Kruisherenhotel Hotel

Psychosocial Impact This, however, begins to pose new questions about the intangible impact of preservation. The church, even while empty or abandoned, is a temple for those who Seek. So is it the case that preservation of the physical building of the church (into a new use) is at odds with the preservation of the spirit of the faith? Or does preservation of the spirit of the faith necessitate leaving the building as is, without deconsecration, and despite possible deterioration due to lack of regular maintenance, so that even the wayfaring passerby may be inclined to step in and pray? Such an opportunity might not present itself were the church converted into some other, secular use, such as dePetrus Community Center, shown here.

figure 22

figure 23

DEPETRUS VUGHT, NETHERLANDS

With this conundrum in mind, we will explore how the church’s memory – its spirit, we might even say – might carry on and continue serving a noble purpose. In the absence of a religious following, the adaptive reuse project should strive to fulfill the church’s original intention of connecting people with what’s greater than themselves. In looking at this typology and investigating what “post-church spirituality” might look like, we may begin to learn more about how architecture can contain meaning, connect us with our thoughts, emotions, and our spirit. Once again, the guiding questions of the book are copied here to reiterate our focus. What does it take, architecturally, to recontextualize a church within the local social fabric so it can once more serve a positive role in its community but also where the richness of the space is preserved? And in doing so, what can we learn about how architecture can be evocative spiritually or emotionally?”

Because the church has always been a place of spiritual refuge, it is most appropriate for it to continue being a place that allows such contemplative activity to occur. It has always been a place where worldliness was left behind and transcendent thoughts and emotions– spirituality– were nourished. Therefore, the ultimate preservation of a church building in any adaptive reuse project would be to preserve this essential quality. But given the results in the first chapter of this book, what does spirituality even mean outside the context of religion? With regard to established world religions, spirituality is normally a term that means connection with God (or a Higher Power). It is at the core of any faith; it gives faith meaning and power, because otherwise, faith is just...faith. We have an inexplicable connection with the metaphysical that gives us a fullness and fuel for our search for a Higher Being. The departure from religious doctrine has led to innumerable attempts to redefine the essence of spirituality. One important example is Peter Van Ness’s piece called Spirituality and Secularity, shown in the next chapter and discussed after.

Secular

Spirituality

“It is not necessary to believe in God to be a good person. In a way, the traditional notion of God is outdated. One can be spiritual but not religious. It is not necessary to go to church and give money - for many, nature can be a church. Some of the best people in history did not believe in God, while some of the worst deeds were done in His name.� Pope Francis figure 24

ST. DUNSTAN IN THE EAST CHURCH GARDEN | LONDON, ENGLAND

define: sp no

our longing for a

with God, or a

figure 25

pirituality un

and connection

a Higher Power

ST. CECILIA’S CHURCH | COLOGNE, GERMANY

Van Ness is one of a number of philosophers who have theorized what spirituality can mean for those who are irreligious, despite its relationship to religious practice. In order to understand this displacement, it is relevant to know the fundamental intellectual shift that occurred in the West during the Renaissance. Before, the main focus of humanity was on God, the Afterlife, and the Soul. As empirical methods began to dominate the paradigm, the study of God translated directly to the study of the universe and material sciences. The focus on the Afterlife shifted to focus on this world, where we started to think of how to make this life better. And thirdly, we argued that the soul was an intangible figment so we began studying the human body, replacing spirituality with psychology. Knowing this, we realize that any attempt to redefine spirituality strictly within the context of secularity is a reappropriation of an idea inherent to the ideology that is antithetical to secularity. An example of this is Van Ness’s article, where his definition that it is “the quest for attaining an optimal relationship between what one truly is and everything that is” sounds very much like a theological understanding of spirituality, but he qualifies it by saying that worldly endeavors fulfills this relationship. However, there are two fundamentally important lessons from the reading that we can draw from. The first is an understanding that it is not only religious folk who have a monopoly on spiritual inclinations. While we may define spirituality however we want, we all seek deeper meaning that permeates all moments in life and resonates with some core within all of us. There are some things we all hold sacred – love, honesty, fresh air, community, life itself. The second lesson comes from the end of the article where he categorizes a list of activities that fulfill our spiritual desires. This list, shown here, is a summary of the article, where he posits that secular spirituality can take the form of pursuit of scientific knowledge, creation of cultural bonds,

artistic expression, or ecological harmony. In contradiction to Van Ness, while these activities are not spiritual in and of themselves, they can be instrumental elements of attaining spirituality. But in order to understand how to implement this in the adaptive reuse of churches, we first need to understand the cultural, societal, and spiritual value of the church. The following article by Jennifer Clark discusses how “religious, congregational, individual, and community memories are embodied in church buildings�. The next chapter will draw from the article and break down what makes a church special, then translate it into elements of consideration, exemplified by specific precedents, for adaptive reuse of churches.

NATURE

CULTURE

Scientific inquiry

Arts

Ecological Activism

Sports

Naturalistic Recreations

Games

SOCIETY

SOCIETY

Social Justice Struggle

Radical Psychotherapy

Feminism

Twelve-Step Programmes

Alternative Forms of Community Life

Holistic Health Practices

Journal of Religious History Vol. 31, No. 1, March 2007

JENNIFER CLARK

“This Special Shell”: The Church Building and the Embodiment of Memory

Religious, congregational, individual, and community memories are embodied in church buildings. Under normal circumstances these memories sit harmoniously together. Once the church building is destined for closure, however, the equilibrium of the memory platforms is disrupted, often causing conflict. The value of associating memory with a building is questioned, especially when such attachments are seen to impede the rationalisation of church assets. Through the process of closure and afterwards, the memory patterns and associations are reorganised, redrawn, and reprioritised. This article examines these memory shifts in the context of Australian religious history from the 1970s to the present day. Special attention is given to the Uniting Church in Australia. A shape less recognisable each week, A purpose more obscure. I wonder who Will be the last, the very last, to seek This place for what it was . . . for whom was built This special shell? — Larkin, “Church Going”

In “Church Going,” English poet Philip Larkin struggles with the drawing power of what he simply calls “another church.”1 He is uncomfortable. His behaviour is a mix of “awkward reverence” and casual dismissal. Although he tells himself “the place was not worth stopping for” he quickly acknowledges “Yet stop I did: in fact I often do, / And always end much at a loss like this, / Wondering what to look for.” Larkin knows a compulsion to deeper thought, to revelation, to the seeking of a place “which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in.” “And that much never can be obsolete,” he explains, “Since someone will forever be surprising / A hunger in himself to be more serious.” Larkin struggles because the church is what he calls a “special shell.” More than simply another building, it represents the spiritual hope of generations 1. Philip Larkin, “Church Going,” in The Less Deceived (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1960), 28–29. All subsequent references to Larkin are from this edition. Jennifer Clark is Senior Lecturer in history at the University of New England, NSW.

59 © 2007 Association for the Journal of Religious History

60

j o u r na l o f r e l i g i o u s h i s to ry

known and unknown. The church building carries in its form, religious purpose; in its day to day history, personal stories; in its very existence, communal tacit knowledge; and in its disrepair and renovation, the faded, selected, and reconstructed past we might like to call heritage. The church building supports and sustains religious, congregational, personal, and community memory. These memories sit as interconnected platforms in accommodating tension until church closure triggers a displacement and a reconstitution of memory in a new pattern, perhaps a contorted pattern. The church building is the embodiment of memory, regulated and controlled, personal and unique, interpreted and changing, lost and forgotten, conflicting and contested, undefined and poorly understood but felt just the same. “For though I’ve no idea / What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth,” says Larkin, “It pleases me to stand in silence here.” What Larkin struggled to grasp, as one self-confessedly “bored, uninformed,” was that the church building was purposeful, even when empty, abandoned, or relegated to the musings of the uninitiated, hostile, or confused. The building had a base purpose to accommodate a congregation, however, its shape, architectural form and atmospheric presence had an instructive purpose as well, to serve equally in the memorial expression of Christian thought and practice. The building embodied religious memory, that is, it reminded the congregation and the community of religious precepts. Christianity charges the believer to live in remembrance of Christ, to pattern daily affairs on remembered teachings and to practice collective remembrance rituals through a Christian calendar.2 The church building is the place of regeneration, restoration, and recognition of the Christian memory for both the community and the individual. In that purpose the special place of the church building is sealed, what Larkin calls a “serious house on serious earth.” Margaret Visser, in her imaginative study The Geometry of Love, explains that A church is a recognition in stone and wood and brick of spiritual awakenings . . . it constitutes a collective memory of spiritual insights . . . a church reminds us of what we have known. And it tells us that the possibility of the door swung open again remains.3

Memory for Margaret Visser is a link with the past, an engagement with the present and a hope for the future. The intrinsic role of the church building, she explains, is to communicate that link as time represented in space.4 Visser describes the church building as an organic structure that “nods to each individual.”5 The building is expressive; it creates sentiment, mood, and emotion; it stimulates thought; it promotes self-reflection. Every aspect of the building is a “language” that forces introspection, Visser argues, so there is no need for human intervention to construct a message because the church “can go on ‘working’ even when there is no performance or crowd.”6 Philip 2. On Christian memory see Jacques Le Goff, History and Memory, trans. Steven Rendall and Elizabeth Claman (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992), 70–71. 3. Margaret Visser, The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery and Meaning in an Ordinary Church (London: Penguin, 2000), 11. 4. Visser, Geometry of Love, 15. 5. Visser, Geometry of Love, 11–12. 6. Visser, Geometry of Love, 13. © 2007 Association for the Journal of Religious History

LIGHT TEXTURE SOUND

procession GEOMETRY

proportion

Sp Ex iritu pe al rie nc e

accessibility

Sound Clark describes the importance of sound in the church building. She references Philip Larkin, poet of the 1960s, who describes the sacred space as imposing a “a tense, musty, unignorable silence/ Brewed God knows how long“. This quality of space, constructs a space in which “it is possible to concentrate, to think to pray”. By pinpointing sound as the central component to spirituality, we tie spirituality to many psychological needs, such as tranquility, stillness, and lack of disturbance. In applying this in our case, converting a large open space into something else usually necessitates adding infrastructure and materials that acoustically dampen the space. We can use this to our advantage because this reduces reverberations and echo, thereby increasing the acoustic comfort of the space. The Selexyz Dominicanen Bookstore uses this technique effectively. The length of the sanctuary is filled with a huge mass consisting of books that allows the building to create an Individual-focused space. This is especially important the program, where users are able to withdraw into their texts with contemplative freedom.

figure 26

SELEXYZ DOMINICANEN MAASTRICHT, NETHERLANDS

Light It is common understanding how important light is in churches. Among many other elements, this is theologically grounded in Christianity, as the concept of Light– and God being Light – is translated to very careful manipulation of intangible space. Residential Church XL contrasts with Selexyz Dominicanen in several ways. It was a much smaller church building, in contrast to a cathedral. The treatment of light in the space is also fundamentally different. Residential Church XL takes the building’s affinity to light and amplifies it within the scope of the project, where volumes are constructed (and removed) so that they each have their own separate relationships with the natural daylight. The white color and choice of materials also aid in this endeavor. Darker materials like wood and concrete and placed to divert your attention upward. Artificial lighting is not forced and done so in a way to that complements daylight. The volumes and the manipulation of light bring a certain earnestness and honesty to the space that recalls the Christian concept of light as a the medium of God.

figure 27

figure 28

RESIDENTIAL CHURCH XL UTRECHT, NETHERLANDS

Procession and Movement Churches are steeped in methodical, regulated rituals where the movement and placement of the body is carefully articulated. Adaptive reuse offers incredible creative opportunity of positioning bodies in relation to one another and designing the experience of movement through the new space. The goal is to translate the processional quality of the church expierience into a new one that evokes the same sense of spiritual solemnity by regulating the speed of movement, the distance between individuals, and assembling the order and type of activity in the space.

figure 29

The Kruisherenhotel maximizes the the opportunity of the long nave to construct this experience. It construct multiple levels with different program in which various activities can occur, including lounge, lobby, and restaurant. Paths through this spaces are made to create several different flows of traffic. Of particular relevance to this are the objects, analogous to the paraphernalia of the past church, that are integrated into the promenade. The furniture and tactile architectural features are fully a part of this experience.

KRUISHERENHOTEL MAASTRICHT, NETHERLANDS

Reverence Perhaps the most important component of a church is its sanctified aura. Clark says of churches, “[t]he significance of the church building primarily rests with its spiritual use as the place where regular and ordered communication occurs between God and humanity. Such a divine purpose has traditionally resulted in the building being set apart, identified by architectural and decorative singularity, not human-scaled and unpretentious, but imposing and grand to approach God. ‘Places of worship,’ explains Margaret Visser, ‘are usually the most famous, the strongest, the most beautiful buildings any town has to offer.’ Even in the dissenting traditions there was

PARADISO AMSTERDAM, NE

sublime beauty in simplicity. Sacred space demanded special treatment so the church was accorded a higher degree of respect than other buildings. On entering the church behaviour was expected to be more reverential, quieter, more reflective, and decorous...” Paradiso is a club in Amsterdam, originally a church. This conversion is a poignant example of replacing spirituality with short-lived revelry. It is individual focused rather than cosmically inclined, and while a cathedral contains the necessary large, open space requiste for such a crowd, affirming this conversion indelibly severs the link to hundreds of years of community and cultural memory.

figure 30, 31

ISLAMISCHEN ZE HAMBURG, GERM

ETHERLANDS

ENTRUM AL-NOUR MOSQUE MANY

Community The idea of reverence connects to a larger theme: community. Clark illustrates in her article exactly why church buildings are so important in society. “Church building supports and sustains religious, congregational, personal, and community memory”. These contribute to our heritage and are central to our social fabric. Members in the community have a sentimental and emotional attachment to churches; despite the “theological placelessness of Christianity”, the “importance of place in identity formation and development” makes the building itself an important component of social activity. Furthermore, churches are tied to important events in our lives: weddings, funerals, etc, increasing the importance of the place itself in our lives. With community membership, meaningful bonds are formed and stability is established. This translates architecturally to this typology at a programmatic level. The Skate Church was a community project that brought together locals seeking to fill a social void. To make the project the way it looks the way it does today, a group of individuals took the initiative to crowdfund the conversion of the church and commissioned Okuda San Miguel, a local artist, to paint the walls and ceilings. Here, Van Ness’s list of acts of secular spirituality come back to us to shed light on ways a church can provide fulfillment. This project conveys the ability of the church to continue being of use to the community by being a place of shared spirit and energy. The Skate Church is a project sustained by community involvement and investment, which is precisely analogous to the emotional and physical energy that church communities expend in the upkeep of their church.

figure 32

THE SKATE CHURCH ASTURIAS, SPAIN

Concluding Thoughts

TECTONICS

Sterile

Unfulfilling Successful Adaptive Reuse

PROGRAM

SPIRITUALITY Ineffective

Architecture is always said to be a dialogue between society and building. Through this methodology of reusing church buildings, we are making an attempt to make the architecture speak back to its users. This analysis has begun to peel back some layers of these complexities. In seeking to preserve not just physical structure, but the memory and essence of the space, we’ve begun to build a manifesto on how church buildings can continue to serve a spiritual purpose, by creating a comtemplative space, detached from the world, yet firmly anchored to its local community. The topic that is the focus of this study is not a church typology; it is instead the typology of a converted space. Looking at it through the aim declared in this book, we can break down a successfull adaptive reuse church project as fully incorporating three main elements. The first is aspiring to construct a space conducive to spiritual activity and reflection, utilizing principles that have been employed for centuries. The second is purely architectural: the use of tectonic articulation that can actualize the first. The third component is again subjective - but not vague. I identify it as program, but I include in the category community engagement and reason for conversion. As global cultural shifts continue to occur and American society feels the ebb of Christian sentiment, the lessons gains from extant church reuse precedents in Europe, like the ones discussed here, become more and more relevant. Many more phenomenological and ontological conclusions about the architecture of the space and the dynamism of its dialogue with the surrounding social and urban context can be drawn from these projects by interrogating their urban context, geometric compositions, spatial manipulations, circulation flows, proportional relationships, and aesthetic characterisitics. More than ever this research is critical to be able to have a dialogue about how the heritage we hold so dar and future which we continually prepare for can coexist in ways that supplement both.

Bibliography Clark, Jennifer. “This Special Shell”: The Church Building and the Embodiment of Memory. Journal of Religious History 31, (1)(03). 2007 Van Ness, Peter H. “Spirituality and Secularity”. Spirituality and the Secular Quest. 1996 Birch, Robert; Sinclar, Brian R. “Spirituality in Place: Building Connections Between Architecture, Design, and Spiritual Experience” University of Calgary 80-87 Kelly, Kristen. “Profound & Profane Places: The Adaptive Reuse of Sacred Spaces in Philadelphia”. University of Pennsylvania. 2016 Duckworth, Linnea Cara. “Adaptive Reuse of Former Catholic Churches as a Community Asset”. Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning masters Projects. 2010 Lueg, Rebecca. “Houses of God… or not?! Approaches to the Adaptive Reuse of Churches in Germany and the United States”. University of Maryland, College Park 2011

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This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples. No need for complicated philosophy. Our own heart is our temple. The philosophy is kindness.

Dalai Lama

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