ArchStudio    China   A sanctuary is buried under a mound, preserving the beautiful riverside scenery around it and creating an intimate atmosphere conducive to meditating in harmony with nature. With the objective of not felling any of the trees on the site, the project

Bevk Perović arhitekti   Slovenia   Besides a new place of worship, an ensemble of buildings provides a Sunni community with spaces for leisure and gathering, and seeks to trigger an entire regeneration of the zone. The language used avoids historicism and reinterprets traditional icon

Tatiana Bilbao   Mexico   The project to build a church is set forth as an opportunity to favor social cohesion in the area. The massive volume is divided into thirteen sections, each different in program, and the circulation within the enclosure is inspired by that of old ch

Kengo Kuma   Japan   Situated next to Yoyogi Park in the Tokyo ward Shibuya, the Meiji Jingu Shrine is a Shinto temple dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji (1852-1912) and his consort, Emperor Shôken (1849-1914). Blending with the surrounding trees, the new

Herzog & de Meuron   Switzerland   Along the A13 highway outside Andeer, a municipality in the Swiss canton of Graubünden, the firm Herzog & de Meuron will build a chapel with four 10-meter-high white walls positioned at angles to support each other in a play of inclinations. Chal

Vector architects   China   The image that inspires the project is that of an old boat adrift in the ocean for years. With time, the ocean recedes and leaves an empty structure behind, still lying on the beach. Starting from this poetic image, the project focuses on both the in

Kengo Kuma   Japan   Zuishoji Temple (Minato-ku, Tokyo) is the main temple in Tokyo of the Obaku Sect, one of the three Zen schools brought to Japan from China by the Priest Ingen during the Edo Period. The building, listed in 1992 as jubun or Important Cultural Property

Kengo Kuma   Germany   By stacking fir tree strips, the Wood/Pile meditation space recreates the komorebi effect produced by sunrays when they are filtered through the trees, in a forest near Krün in Bavaria.

Kengo Kuma   Taiwan   A warping wood roof contains a sacred space devoted to Taoism in the Hsinpu mountains, 70 kilometers south of Taipei. The project is part of an initiative promoted by the company TLDC (Taiwan Land Development Corporation) to boost rural growth throug

Undurraga Devés arquitectos   Chile   Since early times religion has been a rich and constant source of inspiration for art and architecture. Interpreting the sense and form of the sacred spaces is a hard task to take forward in today’s secular context. This chapel, conceived in 21st-cen

Miralles Tagliabue EMBT   Italy   The parish complex functions as a catalyst for social interaction, with a plaza where the two side access axes converge, connecting it to a series of attached structures containing educational, associative, and recreational services... [+]

Dominique Perrault   Notre-Dame, the heart of the heart of Paris, treasure of the Île de la Cité, has just suffered one of the most trying moments in its long history. Across all lands and cultures of the world, this drama leaves us speechless, touching the hearts and ar

Luis Fernández-Galiano   At dusk on Monday, April 15th, just in time for the evening news, the world was treated to the horrendous spectacle of uncontrollable flames licking the roof of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. The fire spread from a scaffold that had been installed si

Joaquín Medina Warmburg   In the work of Eladio Dieste, whose birth has been one hundred years, technical ingenuity was placed at the service of the social program and Catholic fervor.

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Places for gathering or for meditation, the spaces for the spirit celebrate at once the communion of believers and the intimacy of introspection. Be it in the West or in the East, temples offer stages for worship and rooms for individual prayer, brin

The temples conceived as spaces for rigorous observation of the liturgy have given way to places where collective faith and individual introspection live side by side. 

Tras la Catedral de Los Ángeles, la Iglesia Iesu, en San Sebastián, constituye una nueva indagación de Rafael Moneo en la arquitectura religiosa. Situado en el umbral de un área residencial, el edificio descuella de la trama urbana por el volumen com

La reciente consagración como basílica de la Sagrada Familia de Barcelona —oficiada con la presencia del Papa en noviembre de 2010— ha vuelto a poner de actualidad la polémica sobre la pertinencia de la continuación de los trabajos en el templo proye

La nueva sinagoga de Maguncia (Mainz en alemán), diseñada por Manuel Herz, se levanta exactamente en el mismo lugar que ocupaba la que fue quemada por los nazis en 1938. Esta dramática huella histórica ha constituido uno de los desencadenantes del pr

En el año 2001 la Conferencia Episcopal Italiana convocó un concurso nacional para la construcción en la localidad de Foligno de una nueva iglesia «que simbolizara el renacimiento de la ciudad» tras el terremoto de 1997. Los ganadores fueron el matri

La iglesia y el centro parroquial San Jorge en Pamplona, realizada por los arquitectos Tabuenca y Leache, ha abierto sus puertas en el barrio del mismo nombre de la capital navarra. El proyecto pone en relación las dos plazas urbanas que lo rodean a

En el municipio madrileño de Rivas Vaciamadrid se ha consagrado el centro parroquial de Santa Mónica, obra de Ignacio Vicens y José Antonio Ramos cuyo volumen expresionista en acero cortén contrasta subversivamente con el continuo de unifamiliares qu