On October 26 and 27th 2007, the Yale School of Architecture held a symposium called, “Constructing the Ineffable: Contemporary Sacred Architecture”. Among the presenters was Fariborz Sahba, Canadian architect of the Bahá’í House of Worship in India and the Terraces of the Shrine of the Báb in Haifa, Israel.
Mr. Sahba delivered a presentation entitled, “Faith and Form: Contemporary Space for Pilgrimage and Worship,” which reviewed in detail the process of designing these two structures and addressed the concept of sacred space. He also spoke of a fifth dimension in the realm of art to which the Bahá’í Faith points: “an inherent vital relation and bond in the reality of things.” It is this mystical relation, suggested Mr. Sahba, which defines the nature of sacred spaces.
Two other architects at the conference, Moshe Safdie and Emilie Townes, praised the Bahá’í emphasis on concepts such as “beauty” and “unity” in the development of sacred spaces, spaces both elegant and welcoming to people of other faiths.
Other architects invited to present papers at the Yale symposium included: Tadao Ando, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Stanley Tigerman, Rafael Moneo, and Richard Meier, each well-known designers of famous spiritual structures.
The overall intention of the Yale symposium was to open an international and interfaith dialogue between architects, sociologists, philosophers, and theologians that would consider the powerful influence that religion has come to exert in contemporary civic life, as well as in the design and construction of prominent religious buildings.
The symposium was hosted in conjunction with the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and the Yale Divinity School. A compilation of the papers presented at the symposium is being published by Yale.