faith

Even though people have started disregarding religion, they don’t disregard visiting a worship place altogether. However worship places are predominantly made religion specific. This proposed center will be open for all regardless of their faith. It isn’t made religion specific, but without ignoring the minimum basic requirements demanded by each of them. So the design intended to resonate the feeling of spirituality and neutrality. By appreciating common ethical values and a common search for truth by inviting people of all faith or faithless without creating conflict. The design will promote beliefs and its purpose is intended to build respect between people as fellow human beings.

When we think of religious places; painted window, colorful carpet, or some kind of old stone structure are the things that come to our mind but recent demands show that this culture is not more working. So in order to create worship places that invite practicing all faiths, we need to reconsider the design culture of ancient worship architecture, especially in light and color usage. White as color able to highlight geometry with simplicity and purity. Purity of white highlights geometry in this design and allows to generate interesting effect between lights and shadows without ornamental or decorative elements. As white is the maximum representative of neutrality

The new building does not try to compete with the existing context around it which is Wall Relic of the Ming Dynasty or try to mimic it. Instead the design tries to reflect the wonderful surrounding landscape and wall relic by contrasting to it. This contraction is going to be achieved by color and material usage which will make it look like more futuristic.  The new design is roof is accessible to keep the visual connection to the heritage, which creates panoramic view toward Wall Relic of the Ming Dynasty.

The main concept of the design center is its connection and relationship with nature and the surrounding context. Careful attention has been given to the siting of the building and its relationship with the strong site topography and tree positions since the project is renovation of an existing park and also due to the characteristics of the building function which demands visual connection to natural elements. As such the building follows the slope gradient of the landscape and lines of the building follows direction of existing tress to showcase tree-architecture cohabitation by keeping existing tress. In addition to that water feature are introduced to the site which are visually connected to the interior space.

Shelter is not always required for worship, some rites are practiced outdoors with a monument as a focus. The places we create must communicate, they need to talk and interact.  But when we come to Dongcheng District it’s an urban Core and the specific site lies adjacent to the highway, which makes impossible to achieve full openness to nature. The design try to create reasonable openness to nature by the merging of indoor and outdoor spaces. The openness of the architecture helps create the calm and relaxing atmosphere as users brought closer to nature. The strategies used in making the design act as shell from the exterior include connection to nature, natural lighting, materiality, functionality and color usage which are completely in contrast with the neighborhood facilities. Even when someone passing the road can experience this” escape from everyday life” by feeling the contrast of design from the adjust context.

The design isn’t made religion specific, but without ignoring the minimum basic requirements demanded by each of them. Some for example some of this demand includes geographical orientation the simultaneous use of the space & conflicting timetables, physical separation of genders position during worship, and hygiene needs, among other questions. Neutrality therefore is the main strategy used for the design of this multi-phase center, even if perfect neutrality will not be possible. Thoughtful program development and   orientation arrangements among them leads the design to achieve the above listed demands with off course neutrality approach.