Imagine travelling to an unfamiliar city. Strolling down a street, you come upon a church. Its doors are open; you go inside. A faint light hangs over the altar, your steps make and echo as your feet hit the stone floor of the central nave. You sit down in an empty aisle, the wood of the bench carrying the marks of thousands of people who have made it their temporary resting place before you. As you close your eyes, the silence is palpable. This is exactly what I need right now, you think. This space.

The architecture of sacred spaces (basilikas, churches, temples, chapels) sure have to do with Gods, but they have even more to do with mass and void, how light falls in and what shadows are created, how materials respond to the interactions of people and how movement patterns are directed. Contemporary/Sacred is about the appropriation of left-over spaces in the urban fabric and redefining these spaces for new uses: for contemplation, rest, awareness and meditation. For sacred but secular rituals, for being alone and together, for meetings and conversations, and for silence. In this project, sculpting and building models is the primordial method, a process that examines the field between sculpture and architecture. The materials used are the driving factors, providing both direction to the exploration and giving tactile character to the result.