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Holy Ground: A Speculative Investigation into the Spatial Methodologies of the ‘Alàdúrà

Part 2 Project 2023
Oluwademilade Oyeyinka
Architectural Association London | UK
'Holy Ground' functions as an investigation into Alàdúrà Churches, a Pentecostal Yoruba denomination of Christianity that was imported into the UK, during the 1960s as a consequence of the mass immigration of Nigerians. It documents the spatial and social manifestations of their distinctly Nigerian form of worship, in the context of London. The Alàdúrà often utilise readily available meanwhile-spaces for their services, as vernacular buildings; schools, offices, warehouses & community halls - to name a few, are temporarily transformed into ‘Holy Ground’ through the utilisation of readily affordable religious instruments as well as banal everyday objects.

As an individual of Yoruba descent, born into an Alàdúrà church, later converting to Catholicism and ultimately, facing existential questions of faith, the project functions as an experimental speculation into the vestigial aspects of religious canon that may continue to remain beneficial amongst an increasingly agnostic diasporic generation. The project culminates in an inchoate proposition of a new methodology of spatial practice, one marked by a sensitivity towards cultural nuance, generating worlds and rituals designed to facilitate themes cultural expression, communal enterprise, and spiritual wellness, in the ilk of the Alàdúrà’s methodology of place-making.


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2023
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