The Religious Imagination in Modern and Contemporary Architecture ─ A Reader

This anthology collects, substaniates, and demonstrates the importance of the religious imagination within Western modern and contemporary architecture.
The essays written expressly for the anthology take a critical look at the relationship between religion and architecture in the twentieth century, as well as giving a brief look at the pre-history of the modern movement and its relationship to religion and architecture. These are grounded by and help to explicate the reprinted essays that are culled from the last one hundred years.
This is an important introduction to the religious imagination in architectural thought of the last one hundred years, and to the interdisciplinary discourse that examines how different disciplines express abstract concepts such as faith, spirit, God and knowledge. It makes essential reading for any architect, aspiring or practising, delving deeper into the meaning of architectural practice.

Renata Hejduk is an Associate Professor in The Design School at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. Her research is focused on European and American avant-garde architecture and urbanism from around 1960 to the present and its development relative to the culture and philosophy of that period. Her work was most recently published in the interdisciplinary journal Culture and Religion, the Journal of Architecture, and Transportable Environments 3 (Routledge, 2006).
Jim Williamson is a Visiting Associate Professor in Architecture at Cornell University. He previously taught at Harvard University and the Georgia Institute of Technology and has been a Visiting Professor at numerous other institutions including Columbia University and the Cooper Union. He is co-editor and contributor of the forthcoming The Architecture of Disbelief and his work has been published in numerous books and journals including the recent Surrealism and Architecture (Routledge, 2005).

Forward Preface 1. Introduction: The Apocryphal Project of Modern and Contemporary Architecture 2. Religion and Myth from the Official Address, 1980 Pritzker Prize for Architecture 3. When the Sacred Journey Ends: Protestant Thought and Meaning of Puritanical Modern Architecture 4. Excerpt from Modernity 5. Shiva, Luria, Khan 6. The Architecture of Hope: Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum 7. Excerpt from Kunst en Maatschappy 8. Revolution and Revelation: Luis Barragan’s Divergent Modernism 9. Notes from Volume Zero: Louis Kahn and the Language of God 10. Ecclesia 11. The Goddess Temple, Organon of the Infinite 12. Excerpts from The Woodland Cemetry: Toward a Spiritual Lanscape, Erik Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz 1915-1961 13. Excerpt from The Public, The Private and the Sacred 14. A Dwelling for Man within the Harmony of the Cosmos 15. Excerpt from Excellence: the Culture of Mies as Seen in his Notes and Books 16. Excerpt from The Sacred and the Modern Artist 17. Interview: A Mighty Fortress: Quinlan Terry and the Reformation of Architecture 18. Excerpts from Transcendental Renaissance in the Arts: 1980-1920 19. Explorations of Jewish Space: 1978-present 20. Spiritual Basis of Creativity 21. Excerpt from Architecture’s Destiny from Sanctuaries: The last Works of John Hejduk 22. Wallpaper and the Sweet Juice Bled 23. Step into Liquid: Rites, Transcendence, and Transgression in the Modern Construction of Sacred Space 24. JLM Lauweriks and KPC de Bazel: Architecture and Theosophy 25. Excerpt from The Architectural Metaphor 26. Excerpt from Rudolf Scwarz: Modern Churches in Modern Culture 27. Interview: Leon Krier’s Theology of Traditionalism 28. Formal, Informal and The Jewish Question 29. Claude Bragdon and American Theosophy 30. Excerpt from Frank Lloyd Wright: the Architect as Preacher 31. The Chapel of the Savior at IIT 32. Excerpt from Mies van der Rohe: An Appreciation on the Occasion of his 75th Birthday 33. Excerpt from a Speech 1938 34. Alchemical Themes in the Poem of the Right Angle 35. The Aura of the Sacred: Art, Architecture, and Existential Sacredness 36. Abstraction in Modern Architecture: The Gnostic Dimension 37. Eschatology 38. The Dark Side of Bauhaus 39. The Foundation from The Church Incarnate: The Sacred Function of Christian Architecture 40. Prayer for a House 41. Excerpt from Mein Weltbild42. Nuclear Architecture or Fabulous Architecture, or Tragic Architecture or… 43. Purity 44. Architecture and Theology 45. Construction (De)Construction (Re)Construction: Architectural Antinomies and a (Re)newed Beginning 46. Excerpt from The Ideal of Holy Emptiness 47. Excerpt from the Polarities of Paradise in the Works of Frank Lloyd Wright 48. The Crystal Chain Letters49. Cosmopolitan Architectures: Notes on Drawing Glossary of Terms