MODERN RESONANCE
selected projects
selected works of contemporary sacred architecture resonating with the the Mandãla project
a sacred architecture for our Time
CHAPEL OF SACRED MIRRORS
outside link
A womb for the gestation of the awakening human spirit. A sanctuary of visionary art to inspire every pilgrim's creative path and embody the values of love and perennial wisdom.
The Chapel will display the Sacred Mirrors series—21 life-size representations of the human body, portraying its physical and energetic systems. Both rigorously precise and vividly visionary. The Sacred Mirrors dramatically reveal the miracle of life's evolutionary complexity, the unity of human experience across all racial, class and gender divides, and the astonishing vistas of possibility inherent in human consciousness.
LOCATION
STATUS
PROJECT DIRECTOR
Wappinger, NY
first incarnation) completed / (second incarnation) planned
Alex Grey
MATRIMANDIR
outside link
The symbol of the Divine's answer to man's aspiration for perfection.
Matrimandir means 'Temple of the Mother'. It appears as a large golden sphere which seems to be rising out of the earth—symbolizing the birth of a new consciousness. At the heart of the temple, a globe made of pure crystal-glass suffuses a ray of electronically guided sunlight coming through an opening at the apex of the sphere.
LOCATION
STATUS
PROJECT DIRECTOR
community of Auroville, India
building completed / gardens ongoing
The Mother
THE TEMPLES OF HUMANKIND
outside link
A series of underground Halls where art and beauty become a means of communication with the Divine.
Built in the heart of the mountain, the rooms are linked to one another at different levels, forming a pathway similar to the life journey undertaken by every human being, from birth to death, then again at rebirth. For those who enter, the Temples of Humankind are an initiatory journey.
LOCATION
STATUS
PROJECT DIRECTOR
community of Damanhur, northern Italy
ongoing
Oberto Airaudi
LINDISFARNE CHAPEL
outside info
A silent meditation space.
A domed sanctuary as an interfaith chapel. To express the place of transformation where the unique and particular become the universal and archetypal, sacred geometry was chosen, and not iconography, as a means of communicating the vision of the chapel. A place to experience where culture ends and Being continues.
LOCATION
STATUS
PROJECT DIRECTOR
Crestone Mountain Zen Center, near Crestone, CO
completed
William Irwin Thompson
WATER TEMPLE
outside info
An underground Buddhist temple like a pool of lotus flowers, open to all.
Among the bamboo woods, the mountains, the rice paddies and the sea, the temple appears like a pool of lotus flowers enclosed in a thin oval-shaped skin of concrete. Walking between the lotus flowers, one feels that this is a place which transcends day-to-day life, a place where the combination of architecture with nature and the reverberation of the placid mirror of water naturally lead to meditation and asceticism. A pure sensory experience and a mystic quality of space.
LOCATION
STATUS
PROJECT DIRECTOR
Hompukuji, Awaji Island, Japan
completed
Tadao Ando
LOTUS TEMPLE
outside link
A Bahá'í House of Worship, dedicated to the oneness of humanity and religion.
Shaped like a half opened Lotus flower with 3 ranks of 9 petals, surrounded by 9 reflecting pools. An architecture with virtually no straight lines—made of marble, cement, dolomite and sand, built by combining traditional Indian means of construction with modern Western engineering. The temple exemplifies the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith, with its tenets of the oneness of God, the oneness of religions, and the oneness of humankind.
LOCATION
STATUS
PROJECT DIRECTOR
New Delhi, India
completed
Fariborz Sahba
MEDITATION SPACE
outside info
outside slideshow
A space for global peace transcending religion, ethnic and cultural differences and conflict.
Situated at the end of a Japanese garden on the ground of UNESCO, the drum-like volume of this one-story structure embodies the very essence of space. It rests on a slanted surface paved with granite exposed to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima—now incorporated into the structure such that a constant flow of water now washes over the once irradiated stone.
LOCATION
STATUS
PROJECT DIRECTOR
UNESCO in Paris, France
completed
Tadao Ando
RODEN CRATER
outside link
An interactive sculptural environment that gives an experience of space and light through the use of a modified volcano crater containing a number of underground chambers.
As the sun, moon and stars move through the sky, the sculptural spaces respond—sometimes evolving slowly over long periods of time, sometimes in a matter of moments. Allowing one to stand in the present and look into both the past and the future. The crater focuses one’s attention on infinite reaches that are both geologic and astronomical, both personal and psychological.
LOCATION
STATUS
PROJECT DIRECTOR
near Flagstaff, Arizona
partially completed
James Turrell
mound of the planetary mind
portal to the posthistory of art and civilization