c3 RATIONALE

rationale (7/23/03)

Significant factors relating to my proposed thesis topic deal with modern day life and future norms of the architectural field, especially in regards to designing places of worship.

A mere four years ago, a statement was made by Fr. Richard S. Vosko, Ph.D.: “Perhaps the wake-up call sounding the pressing issues affecting the environment has not yet stirred the hearts of the design community” (Crosbie, 1999). However, during this same era, a movement toward sustainable design and natural building in the residential architecture world became more and more apparent (Elizabeth and Adams, 2000).

I chose this topic because I have a personal interest in learning more about sustainability practices, and I specifically mentioned places of worship due to my interest in that building type. My goals and purpose for researching sustainable and ecologically designed church architecture is to show how places of worship can apply practices of sustainability in the design of their facilities. This type of architecture places high value on social and environmental sustainability and emphasizes techniques using locally available, renewable resources. The term sustainable can be defined as of, relating to, or being a material of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged (Zeiher, 1996). “Sustainability is one of the most significant concepts of this decade, influencing the design of global government policy, economics, energy resources, technology, manufacturing, community planning, and architecture” (Zeiher, 1996).

I am focusing on church architecture because of my personal interest in religion and because many groups today are becoming increasingly aware and conscience of how caring for the earth (creation) is important to all of life (Krause, 1994). I also intend to study what various organizations world-wide have been doing to become more environmentally conscience, and to investigate methods that can provide such facilities in the form of a place of worship.

This investigation of non-residential, sustainable architecture is significant because it is becoming the new “norm” in today’s architectural practice and there is still plenty of research to be conducted. Addressing these practices in religious architecture is significant because of the large percentage of places of worship that are being built, and currently exist, in the United States: currently about one for every 1,000 people (Chiat, 1997).

Major trends within the architectural community during the past couple of decades have been the increasing acceptance of integrating sustainable practices into design. Carol Franklin of Andropogon Associates summed it up as “sustainable design is not a reworking of conventional approaches and technologies, but a fundamental change in thinking and in ways of operating” (Wilson, Uncapher, McManigal, Lovins, Cureton, and Browning, 1998). Nature is a source of knowledge and its wisdom should be drawn upon to develop principles for the built environment (Kiuchi and Shireman, 2002).

Many internet-based organizations, such as the Ecological Design Institute [EDI], delve into such principles, and specifically relate to non-residential architecture. EDI’s five principles of ecological design cover aspects of relating buildings to their environment, utilizing natural processes, cycles, and environmental impacts. These issues really are not new concepts; the earliest civilizations had to have great knowledge of their local environment in order to construct buildings that could respond well to local climates (Zeiher, 1996).

Green architecture, or solar, passive, ecological, sustainable, and regenerative approaches are often categorized as being “guided by both scientific principles and a worshipful romance with nature” (Bachman, 2003). The re-emergence of these approaches in today’s society should be taken advantage of by the religious community “to model a respect for the environment by exploring ingenuous ways to construct worship spaces” (Vosko in Crosbie, 1999).

Patterns can be found within my sources for principles for developing sustainable architecture. The Hannover Principles, developed for the EXPO 2000 World’s Fair in Germany include: insisting on rights of humanity and nature to co-exist, create safe objects of long-term value, eliminate the concept of waste, rely on natural energy flows, and to seek constant improvement by the sharing of knowledge (Zeiher, 1996). Other principles include conserving energy and minimizing the dependence on fossil fuels, working with the climate and natural energy sources, minimizing new resources, respect for users and the importance of all the people involved with the building, and respect for the site (Vale and Vale, 1991).

REFERENCES:

Bachman, L. R. (2003). Integrated Buildings: The Systems Basis of Architecture. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.
Chiat, M. J. (1997). America’s Religious Architecture: Sacred Places for Every Community. New York: Wiley.
Crosbie, M. J. (1999). Architecture for the Gods. Mulgrave, Australia: The Images Publishing Group.
Elizabeth, L. and Adams, C. (2000). Alternative Construction: Contemporary Natural Building Methods. New York: Wiley.
Krause, T. B. (1994). Care of the Earth: An Environmental Resource Manual for Church Leaders. Retrieved June 18, 2003, from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago Web site: http://www.webofcreation.org/start/manuals/krause.
Vale, B. and Vale, R. (1991). Green Architecture: Design for an Energy-Conscious Future. Boston: Bulfinch Press Book.
Wilson, A., Uncapher, J. L., McManigal, L., Lovins, L. H., Cureton. M., and Browning, W. D. (1998). Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate. New York: Wiley.
Zeiher, L. C. (1996). The Ecology of Architecture: A Complete Guide to Creating the Environmentally Conscious Building. New York: Whitney Library of Design.