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Our inspiration for this project drew from a responsive reading we wrote for and read with the building committee at our first meeting. The existing lobby and sanctuary are typical examples of mid-century religious spaces that lack a sacred quality- feeling more like auditorium spaces than religious ones. The existing lobby not only was located at the wrong side of the building (considering the addition of a new parking lot) but also did not provide a quiet transition from the street to a sacred space. There was also no place for stopping and talking before and after services. The existing sanctuary was dark, gloomy and suffered from the glare of light through translucent glass at only one side of the room. It also spatially separated the congregation and clergy with a high, frontal bema. Land Park across the street offers the potential for a beautiful view of treetops and sky. The new sanctuary provides natural daylight from all sides of the space as well as poetic views of the park behind the new ark. The bema was designed as a platform that stretches from the ark deep into the space of the surrounding congregation. The notion of a presence in the sanctuary is manifested in the layered, translucent panels of the ark. It is reminiscent of the “Shechinah” or cloud of G-d’s presence. This “cloud” also hovers over the bema as a chuppah. Looking from the congregation toward the ark and through the windows to the trees and sky above allows clouds moving through the sky to blend with the “clouds” inside the sanctuary mingling the transcendental, temporal and metaphysical qualities of the sky with the interior. TOP |
© 2004-07 LOCUS Architecture, Ltd.