For much of our history all architecture - not only religious monuments and buildings - created the physical context of the sacred. It can be seen in buildings as diverse as the Parthenon, Hopi initiation lodges, Stonehenge, the Temple at Luxor, the cathedrals, and the Palladian memory theatre, in which astronomical, mythical, geometric and structural patterns have been incorporated.

The subject of architecture for religion continues to fascinate. 'Houses of God: Religious Architecture for a New Millennium' by noted author and architect Michael J. Crosbie, demonstrates an inspiring array of gathering places for worship, collected from the USA and abroad. These projects, illustrated with superb photography and detailed plans, demonstrate how architects and congregations can work together to build places that satisfy often complex cultural and personal needs. There are churches, synagogues and temples by some of the world's leading architects, including Tadao Ando Architect and Associates, Heinz Tesar, Gould Evans and many others. AUTHOR: Michael J. Crosbie is an architect, author, journalist and teacher. He is the author of numerous books on architecture and has written for a number of journals and magazines. He is currently the assistant editor at 'Faith andamp; Form', teaches architecture at Roger Williams University and has lectured at architecture schools in North America and abroad. SELLING POINTS: - Third title in IMAGES' sell-out religious architecture series that has a captive and loyal returning audience around the world. New layout and design. - Superb colour photography captures the latest designs and renovations for over fifty churches, synagogues, temples and inter-faith centres, each drawing either from age-old tradition, or daring to chart new waters for religious expression. - Features project descriptions and many plans. - Authored by renowned author and professor Michael J. Crosbie ('Architecture for Architects', 'Architecture for the Gods I and II'), Editor-in-Chief of 'InterFaith and Form' magazine. Former editor of 'Progressive Architecture' and 'Architecture' magazines. 288 col., 58 b/w

Since the mid-1960s, skepticism about organized religion has largely eliminated discussion of the sacred from architectural curricula. This secular turn did not mean that all consideration of transcendence evaporated from our teaching and practice, but the operative program for such study decisively shifted. Despite orthodox modernism’s wish for an architecture founded on “pure” utility (on efficiency, science, production, technology, forthrightness, and so forth), architects and architectural educators still intuitively recognized that buildings had to serve “other” needs. Humanity yearned beyond the pragmatic, mechanical, or biological. Instead of the temple, cathedral, mosque, or synagogue, the art museum became the alternate venue...

Kishwar Rizvi, drawing on the multifaceted history of the Middle East, offers a richly illustrated analysis of the role of transnational mosques in the construction of contemporary Muslim identity. As Rizvi explains, transnational mosques are structures built through the support of both government sponsorship, whether in the home country or abroad, and diverse transnational networks. By concentrating on mosques--especially those built at the turn of the twenty-first century--as the epitome of Islamic architecture, Rizvi elucidates their significance as sites for both the validation of religious praxis and the construction of national and religious ideologies. Rizvi delineates the transnational religious, political, economic, and architectural networks supporting mosques in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in countries within their spheres of influence, such as Pakistan, Syria, and Turkmenistan. She discerns how the buildings feature architectural designs that traverse geographic and temporal distances, gesturing to far-flung places and times for inspiration. Digging deeper, however, Rizvi reveals significant diversity among the mosques--whether in a Wahabi-Sunni kingdom, a Shi&8219;i theocratic government, or a republic balancing secularism and moderate Islam--that repudiates representations of Islam as a monolith. Mosques reveal alliances and contests for influence among multinational corporations, nations, and communities of belief, Rizvi shows, and her work demonstrates how the built environment is a critical resource for understanding culture and politics in the contemporary Middle East and the Islamic world.

After World War II, America's religious denominations spent billions on church architecture as they spread into the suburbs. In this richly illustrated history of midcentury modern churches in the Midwest, Gretchen Buggeln shows how architects and suburban congregations joined forces to work out a vision of how modernist churches might help reinvigorate Protestant worship and community. The result is a fascinating new perspective on postwar architecture, religion, and society. Drawing on the architectural record, church archives, and oral histories, The Suburban Church focuses on collaborations between architects Edward D. Dart, Edward A. Sövik, Charles E. Stade, and seventy-five congregations. By telling the stories behind their modernist churches, the book describes how the buildings both reflected and shaped developments in postwar religion--its ecumenism, optimism, and liturgical innovation, as well as its fears about staying relevant during a time of vast cultural, social, and demographic change. While many scholars have characterized these congregations as "country club" churches, The Suburban Church argues that most were earnest, well-intentioned religious communities caught between the desire to serve God and the demands of a suburban milieu in which serving middle-class families required most of their material and spiritual resources.

The Iranian Expanse explores how kings in Persia and the ancient Iranian world utilized the built and natural environment to form and contest Iranian cultural memory, royal identity, and sacred cosmologies. Investigating over a thousand years of history, from the Achaemenid period to the arrival of Islam, The Iranian Expanse argues that Iranian identities were built and shaped not by royal discourse alone, but by strategic changes to Western Asia's cities, sanctuaries, palaces, and landscapes. The Iranian Expanse critically examines the construction of a new Iranian royal identity and empire, which subsumed and subordinated all previous traditions, including those of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Anatolia. It then delves into the startling innovations that emerged after Alexander under the Seleucids, Arsacids, Kushans, Sasanians, and the Perso-Macedonian dynasties of Anatolia and the Caucasus, a previously understudied and misunderstood period. Matthew P. Canepa elucidates the many ruptures and renovations that produced a new royal culture that deeply influenced not only early Islam, but also the wider Persianate world of the Il-Khans, Safavids, Timurids, Ottomans, and Mughals.

Based around an interview with Tadao Ando, this book explores the influence of the Buddhist concept of nothingness on Ando's Christian architecture, and sheds new light on the cultural significance of the buildings of one ofnbsp;the world's leading contemporary architects. Specifically, this book situates Ando's churches, particularly his world-renowned Church of the Light (1989), within the legacy of nothingness expounded by Kitaro Nishida (1870-1945), the father of the Kyoto Philosophical School. Linking Ando's Christian architecture with a philosophy originating in Mahayana Buddhism illuminates the relationship between the two religious systems, as well as tying Ando's architecture to the influence of Nishida on post-war Japanese art and culture.

Built around three sacred springs, the Jin Shrines complex (Jinci), near Taiyuan in Shanxi province, contains a wealth of ancient art and architecture dating back to the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127). The complex's 1,500-year-long textual record allows us to compare physical and written evidence to understand how the built environment was manipulated to communicate ideas about divinity, identity, and status. Jinci's significance varied over time according to both its patrons' needs and changes in the political and physical landscape. The impact of these changes can be read in the physical development of the site. Using an interdisciplinary approach drawing on the research of archaeologists, anthropologists, and religious, social, and art historians, this book seeks to recover the motivations behind the creation of religious art, including temple buildings, sculpture, and wall paintings. Through an examination of building style and site organization, the author illuminates the multiplicity of meanings projected by buildings within a sacred landscape and the ability of competing patronage groups to modify those meanings with text and context, thereby affecting the identity of the deities housed within them. This study of the art and architecture of Jinci is thus about divine creations and their power to create divinity.

The famed linen cloth preserved in Turin Cathedral has provoked pious devotion, scientific scrutiny, and morbid curiosity. Imprinted with an image many faithful have traditionally believed to be that of the crucified Christ "painted in his own blood," the Shroud remains an object of intense debate and notoriety yet today. In this amply illustrated volume, John Beldon Scott traces the history of the unique relic, focusing especially on the black-marble and gilt-bronze structure Guarino Guarini designed to house and exhibit it. A key Baroque monument, the chapel comprises many unusual architectural features, which Scott identifies and explains, particulary how the chapel's unprecedented geometry and bizarre imagery convey to the viewer the supernatural powers of the object enshrined there. Drawing on early plans and documents, he demonstrates how the architect's design mirrors the Shroud's strange history as well as political aspirations of its owners, the Dukes of Savoy. Exhibiting it ritually, the Savoy prized their relic with its godly vestige as a means to link their dynasty with divine purposes. Guarini, too, promoted this end by fashioning an illusionary world and sacred space that positioned the duke visually so that he appeared close to the Shroud during its ceremonial display. Finally, Scott describes how the additional need for an outdoor stage for the public showing of the relic to the thousands who came to Turin to see it also helped shape the urban plan of the city and its transformation into the Savoyard capital. Exploring the mystique of this enigmatic relic and investigating its architectural and urban history for the first time, Architecture for the Shroud will appeal to anyone curious about the textile, its display, and the architectural settings designed to enhance its veneration and boost the political agenda of the ruling family.

Learn how the seclusion of women can be used as a feminist defense against exploitation--and as an empowering force Internationally acclaimed author Ann Chamberlin's book, A History of Women's Seclusion in the Middle East: The Veil in the Looking Glass is a critical interdisciplinary examination of the practice of seclusion of women throughout the Middle East from its beginnings. This challenging exploration discusses the reasons that seclusion may not be as oppressive as is presently generally accepted, and, in fact, may be an empowering force for women in both the West and East. Readers are taken on a controversial, belief-bending journey deep into the surprising origins and diverse aspects of female seclusion to find solid evidence of its surprising use as a defense against monolithic cultural exploitation. The author uses her extensive knowledge of Middle Eastern culture, language, and even archeology to provide a convincing assertion challenging the Western view that seclusion was and is a result of women's oppression. A History of Women's Seclusion in the Middle East goes beyond standard feminist rhetoric to put forth shocking notions on the real reasons behind women's seclusion and how it has been used to counteract cultural exploitation. The book reviews written evidence, domestic and sacred architecture, evolution, biology, the clan, the environment for seclusion, trade, capital and land, slavery, honor, and various other aspects in a powerful feminist argument that seclusion is actually a valuable empowering force of protection from the influence of today's society. The text includes thirty black and white figures with useful descriptions to illustrate and enhance reader understanding of concepts. A History of Women's Seclusion in the Middle East discusses at length: prehistoric evidence of seclusion the sense of honor in the Middle East a balanced look at the Islamic religion the true nature of the harem the reasons for the oppression by the Taliban the positive aspects of 'veiling' seclusion as a defense against capitalist exploitation and other challenging perspectives! A History of Women's Seclusion in the Middle East is thought-provoking, insightful reading for all interested in women's history, feminism, and the history and culture of the Middle East.

Hasidic Williamsburg is famous as one of the most separatist, intensely religious, and politically savvy communities in the entire United States. Less known is how the community survived in one of New York City's toughest neighborhoods during an era of steep decline, only to later oppose and also participate in the unprecedented gentrification of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Nathaniel Deutsch and Michael Casper unravel the fascinating history of how a community of determined Holocaust survivors encountered, shaped, and sometimes fiercely resisted the urban processes that transformed their gritty neighborhood, from white flight and the construction of public housing to rising crime, divestment of city services, and, ultimately, extreme gentrification. By showing how Williamsburg's Hasidim avoided assimilation, Deutsch and Casper present both a provocative counter-history of American Jewry and a novel look at how race, real estate, and religion intersected in the creation of a quintessential, and yet deeply misunderstood, New York neighborhood.

The essays in this book represent an up to date research and investigation into the various aspects of heritage and sustainability in the Islamic Built environments with an analysis of the problems that these cities face, as they confront the forces of gl