Graduation Thesis
Nostalgia for Religion: A Temple for Non-Theists
For a second let us assume that God doesn't exist. What now? Where do we go from here? How does one incubate a successful community without a common belief? Can this be achieved through architecture and design? Or are communities too precarious without a punitive god? What I'm getting to is, if we’re to make a viable world beyond religion, where do we begin?
This design dissertation seeks to address the notion of a space built for social cohesion, spaces often correlated with religion. This shall be an attempt to create a space of equal value, primarily for non-religious individuals and groups, hoping to create successful large scale communities. The need for such a space is imminent in an era of a growing number of non-theists(people who do not affiliate themselves with any religion). Studies indicate that the number of non-theists today stands at well over 500 million worldwide, which places them as the 4th largest group by population (after Christians, Muslims and Hindus; in that order). Such individuals often lack the psychological tools provided by religion that help guide an individual through life; like social and community support, acceptance and validation, existential security and gene-culture co-evolution among many others.
This shall be achieved by employing various tools, both psychological and design-oriented through the lenses of nature, science and the universe as binding constitutions. This space shall not seek to provoke various religions by creating a 'religion' of itself but instead challenges to create a space without an anti-religious prejudice. A space that on its face-value does not consciously seek to be a collector of non-religious individuals; and therefore also be welcoming for individuals on any spectrum of religious belief.
Background
We all know that each of us have natural physical needs, food, water, clothing, shelter. If we took these things away from an individual then they would be in real trouble real quick, correct? There's equally strong evidence that humans have natural psychological needs. You have to feel you belong. You have to feel that your life has meaning and purpose. You have to feel that people see and value you. You have to feel that you have autonomy and a future that makes sense. Our culture is good with a lot of things. But our culture has been getting less and less good with (inclusion and) meeting these deep, underlying psychological needs for lots of people. Such is true for religion; religion has been one of humankind's most successful tools to help bind large scale communities together; and as doctor of psychology Dr Azim Shariff said "religion arose to solve problems of social cohesion" [The Science of Religion, online video course at edx.org]. An integrated suite of religious beliefs, rituals, practices and institutional forms thus evolved to address the evolutionary challenge of sustaining large-scale cooperation and exchange among non-relatives. These are true adaptations in the evolutionary psychological sense, because they are complex, functionally integrated solutions to recurrent ecological problems and incubators of gene-culture co-evolution. This seems to work exceptionally for religious individuals, but not so much for people who might not have equal faith in similar beliefs. Such individuals are often void of such sociocultural opportunities and may not have access to such psychological guidance and support in day to day life. In some cultures non-religious people may be looked down upon by society and subject to prejudice. Empirical evidence has shown that non-religious individuals, especially atheists are among the least liked people in areas with religious majorities. This antipathy is striking, because atheists are not a coherent, visible, or powerful social group. Nonetheless, atheists are quite numerous, according to the most comprehensive estimate to date, there are more than half a billion atheists in the world, meaning that anti-atheist prejudice has a potential to affect a substantial number of people. Such individuals often lack a sense of community and belonging; in today's world, society deprives secular individuals of physical spaces where they can submerse themselves into a moment of solitude, feel a part of something greater, or perhaps connect with nature and the universe. Looking at how religion successfully functions for its believers in the modern world, it probably would seem that a physical space by itself might not be an incubator enough to help develop social cohesion among such individuals, and it probably won't. But the intention is to go beyond the framework of religion, not dismissing, but building upon to form something that would nurture relations in the modern world and not become inevitably obsolete. It challenges to see how big a role architecture plays in such an institution, and how it's design itself can be a catalyst to such communities and cohesion, not only momentarily but more importantly in the long term.
Program Development
Cafe / Bar
A platform for individuals and groups to come together through one of the oldest social mediums known to humankind, breaking bread together.
Theater and Music
Rooting from primitive ritual and ceremony, as forms of expression and depiction, branches in every modern means of theatrical presentation
Library
A catalyst for socio-cultural and educational development, providing access to information and knowledge.
Community
Where members of a community may gather for group activities, rituals, social support, public information, and other purposes.
Art
Artistic beauty is capable of evoking a sense of transcendence, or the presence of some deeper (divine) principles in the world.
Meditation
A space for psychological appease and development, often with existential contemplation.
Funerary
Spaces used by a culture to remember and respect the dead, can bring perspective to ones life.
Performance / Auditorium
A space for ritualistic celebrations and for the community to come together to appreciate ideas of common interests.
Grouping Programs helps to understand what programs work well, connected, and what programs might require different conditions and context. Programs were grouped according to desired human density for each function, starting with higher density areas closer to the entrance, gradually transitioning towards semi-private spaces that require tranquillity and silence.
Community Spaces
First is a collection of spaces that promote interaction and community, spaces that allow for celebration and gathering. the home of a community.
Meditative Spaces
The second is a set of spaces for solitude, spaces that do not discourage interaction but are designed for and around psychological appease.
Funerary Spaces
What brings us closer together can often times be our sorrows, providing perspective for just how human each of us is. Spaces that celebrate this will always be indispensable.
Community
Religions use rituals as a means of social cohesion, these are sources and reminders of consolation, ethical framework, guidance and morality. They however are often designed with a God at their center, and these belief systems cannot please everyone. Therefore, we must move from a God centered way of community to a human centered one, and culture can very well fill this gap. Works of culture ranging from essays of Plato to plays of Shakespeare, Poetry and so on, they comprise of a copious amount of knowledge and wisdom that could very much do all the things that scripture has traditionally done. They could too be sources of guidance, morality and of consolation. I believe that culture can get us through some of the greatest challenges of our life. I’d add a few more things, like cinema, music and art, but all these things together are vital tools to a good life. This is reflected in the modern world when a great work of art comes along, it could be a film by Tchaikovsky or a song, or even a book, and suddenly you think “Oh! That’s what love is.” or, “That’s why I should be caring about the world or loving my children or trying to be more tolerant towards people”. We are reminded in a sense of truths which would otherwise have been left to wither.
Terminalia Catappa
Butea Monosperma
Dalbergia Latifolia
Crateva Adansonii
Erythrina Suberosa
Bombax Religiosum
Meditative
Religions use rituals as a means of social cohesion, these are sources and reminders of consolation, ethical framework, guidance and morality. They however are often designed with a God at their center, and these belief systems cannot please everyone. Therefore, we must move from a God centered way of community to a human centered one, and culture can very well fill this gap. Works of culture ranging from essays of Plato to plays of Shakespeare, Poetry and so on, they comprise of a copious amount of knowledge and wisdom that could very much do all the things that scripture has traditionally done. They could too be sources of guidance, morality and of consolation. I believe that culture can get us through some of the greatest challenges of our life. I’d add a few more things, like cinema, music and art, but all these things together are vital tools to a good life. This is reflected in the modern world when a great work of art comes along, it could be a film by Tchaikovsky or a song, or even a book, and suddenly you think “Oh! That’s what love is.” or, “That’s why I should be caring about the world or loving my children or trying to be more tolerant towards people”. We are reminded in a sense of truths which would otherwise have been left to wither.
Funerary
Nowhere are can the effects of bad design be more heartbreaking or the opportunity for good design more compelling than at the end of life, where things are so distilled and concentrated. There are no do-overs. The need for a physical and temporal space for the soul to breathe. It is difficult losing someone we love, I think we all can agree. The frightening thought of what life might be without that person. Sometimes it all feels as though that person had never really existed. We know, for example, from research what’s most important to people who are closer to death, comfort, feeling unburdened and unburdening to those they love. In such times a sense of community and the comfort it provides can be very vital. Once the loved one has been laid in a raft, anyone who wants, family, friends, fellow members too, can share a story or a song or silence. It takes a few minutes, but it's a sweet, simple parting image to usher in grief and warmth, rather than repugnance.
We must reach across disciplines to start design thinking into such conversations. Now, the thing about necessary suffering is that it is the very thing that unites caregiver and care receiver - human beings. This we are finally understanding is where healing happens, compassion, literally suffering together. Designing such an experience is very vital, in such times when we are overwhelmed by the loss and the anxiety of living life without a loved one. It is in such times that our thought needs guidance to allow these feelings to untangle. This particular design intervention proposes to use music as a means of guidance to allow loved ones to work through the grieving process.
We will never discover cast-iron rules of good conduct that answer every question about how human beings can live peacefully and well together. However, a lack of absolute agreement on good life should not in itself be enough to disqualify us from investigating and promoting the theoretical notion of such a life.
- Alain de Botton -