The modern church

The modern church is a term I came up with while reviewing this project.

The project came about when i was asked by fellow creatives to partner up in reshaping a typical church experience. Whereas normally a church is home to gospel, choirs and priests we thought of the church as something more. The church is not just a holy place, it is also a place of coming together and sharing beliefs while working on inner peace.

We felt the church could be a place for people of our generation not as a tool to worship christ but as what the ambience of the building carries: spirituality.

The process began with research into:

• Historical church architecture and symbolism
• The role of churches as social hubs
• Modern reinterpretations and adaptive reuse of religious spaces

Particular inspiration came from how many churches today are being transformed into new functions, such as homes, cultural venues, or hybrid spaces, while still retaining their symbolic identity.

This raised questions like:

• What elements make a space feel “sacred”?
• Can atmosphere replace religious function?
• How do you design for collective experience in a modern way?

The design process moved through several stages:

1. Exploration
Initial sketches and references focused on identifying core elements:

• Verticality and light
• Silence vs. interaction

2. Abstraction
Instead of directly replicating church forms, these elements were abstracted into:

• Compositions
• Material contrasts
• Spatial hierarchies

3. Experimentation
Different iterations tested:

• How minimal the “church” could become
• How atmosphere could be created without explicit symbolism
• The balance between familiarity and reinterpretation

4. Refinement
The final outcome focuses on clarity and intention:

• A reduced emphasis on visual language
• Strong emphasis on mood and spatial feeling
• A contemporary interpretation of a traditionally loaded concept

Key decisions included:

• Stripping away recognizable religious
• Focusing on intensity, scale, and rhythm instead of ornament
• Creating a sense of calm or reflection through composition

These choices aim to make the project trackable, regardless of religious background.

For the final presentation I created an hour long meditative musical experience which I then played in the church. The electronically played set was about the theme of ‘loss’. Losing someone or something inside yourself. I played and people sat and meditated, listened and were spiritually aligned without the implication of religion.