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Sacred Space in the Modern City: A Monument for Secular Liturgy

Part 2 Project 2020
Felicity May
University of Sydney | Australia
Modern architecture, like the modern world, has distanced itself from the sacred. Productivity and technological developments, amplified by the turbo charged economy, has become the dominant spirit of the age. The sacred has been relegated to the periphery of our lives, reflected in the junk space of our cities. To experience something as sacred is to experience a moment of transcendence, a suspension of the everyday. Yet within the profanity of our urban environments, what sense can someone make of such an experience?

This project looks to manifest the continued need for sacred space, as an extension of the city. Public space for public use, regardless of religion or spirituality. As religious affiliation is decreasing globally, the project looks to the possibility of non-denominational sacred space for the practice of secular liturgy. Establishing the circle as an archetype of religious architecture, the specificity of the site and formal restraints became a testing ground for the project in an attempt to translate the notion of neutral and generic sacred space into built form. Amidst the tension of current global situations, this project is not an attempt to provide an escape from reality, but rather an invitation to deeply engage with it.



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2020
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