chronicles of an architectonist: light is God's eldest daughter ... halle lujah!

finally! after months of waiting, finally!

the approval documents and drawings for the church project that i've been working on, submitted way back in october 2009, were finally attained! after months of torturous and frustrating periods of incredulous waiting, the call finally came on in early march that the approval was ready.

blessed news. literally.

and so with much joy and delight, i informed the reverend with whom i was in contact with that the approval was finally granted and that we could start construction in early april. all that's left was to choose a reliable contractor ( "mr. lee, I'm looking at you," ) to get the job moving and complete.

thank God. again, literally.

now, this project is a relatively small size project, dealing primarily with an extension of the congregation hall of about an additional 800 sq.ft. but size here doesn't matter, and the significance of this project laid in far more important aspects, namely pride and excitement.

more than anything else, i was very and deeply honoured and felt a great, immense sense of pride when i was awarded this project, after going through several rounds of creative consultation with the relevant people involved.

you see, here i was, a non Christian, selected and trusted by a church committee, a group of wonderful God-respecting people, to design the facade and extension of a serene, unassuming house of worship for their most sacred rituals, in the presence of their beloved Lord and within the sanctity of the building itself.

this was my chance to experiment with the concept of exploring and cultivating a sense of spirituality in architecture, and hopefully being able to design a structure that somehow establishes and encourages a spiritual atmosphere, and letting the sanctity of that atmosphere permeate within the walls of the church.

after all, after much thought, the first question that ran through my mind was what was it that makes a building 'spiritual'?

what are the key elements that set it apart from any other public buildings?

how does one create and encourage a sense of religious and communal bond within a structured space?

is it the walls? the structure? the materials? the congregation itself? probably all of them.

but the one thing that i felt was of momentous importance when designing a house of worship was how the presence of light should be incorporated and employed to create a particular kind of ambiance that encourages tacit relationships with the divine.

after all, i have read, that in architecture, light is God's eldest daughter, and she should be treated with all the respect she deserves. by the way, that's a beautiful quote isn't it?

light is God's eldest daughter.

and so with this in mind, i set out to design my first house of worship. after days of meticulous research, days of sketches and diagrams, days of mediation and discussion, resulting in 6 final concepts, the following visuals indicate the design that was unanimously agreed by all parties involved to be the approved design.

and i was happy, cause they choose the one that was my favourite too.

the concept of the design is as follows :

an elegant and rich design that unifies a cacophony of subtle yet striking eastern influences, constructed with a clearly contemporary structural vernacular of refined concrete, clear glass and white steel. the design will be set within boundaries of stone on the ground and incorporated with an arrangement of vertical and horizontal frames of light timber.

the church will also have a graceful cross that possesses a highly polished mirror like surface, conveying the notion that the cross is a reflection of the divine that's surrounds us eternally, and of the notion that you yourself are a reflection of the sacred as the sacred exists within you.

the reflective cross will be suspended at the entrance of the building, hung beneath the timber frames with a seemingly invisible cable, giving the impression that it is levitating above the earth, bathed in an aura of light in the early mornings and during the stroke of midnight.

this church is my tribute to the phrase that light is God's eldest daughter, and i hope that this holy place of worship will continue to illuminate the lives of so many as it always has through its serene architectural identity and even more so, through its wonderful teachings.