Date: 2020
Design/direction: Eduardo Delgado Orusco
Team: Javier Rincón Sánchez
The project is posed as a longing, a utopia if you want.
But it can also be read as the consequence of understanding that the three great monotheistic religions pray to the same God. The project proposes the desirable approach of the faithful through the experience of the same common space, capable, broad, open and where it is possible to share experiences and celebrations.
An analogous project, perhaps less ambitious but very commendable, has already been rehearsed in the city of Berlin, "The House of One". In that case the three temples were affirmed - synagogue, church and mosque - isolated from each other and only united by a large common space but external to the three.
Our proposal goes further: one God, one space. This project needs to overcome fears, develop trusts, give up rules, dream a common prayer that will be received by that one God.
The space - the project - is presented with a clear geometry and full of symbolism. Its sacred character - that is, segregated from the mundane and offered to God – is represented with a compact and ideal architecture. The access threshold is unique and broken, a preparation. The interior is tremendously bright, with a light coming from Heaven through a unique skylight, which takes advantage of geometric conditions, to offer its own lighting - although at the same time shared - to each of the areas of the complex. Each religion has its specific spaces within a particular area, but not closed. Those spaces are carved into the wall, but open to the common space in a kind of invitation. The material - the building - is understood as the institution, the interior space is the life of men. The more to the center, the more human, the more common.
However, there is also a textile limit, a kind of curtain, 3 meters away from the interior wall that will allow the perimeter, all of it or certain sensitive areas to be veiled at will. The corridor formed would function as a private ambulatory if necessary.
Possible affinities have been studied in the unfolding of the spheres of each religion: water - purifier for Jews, initiatory for Christians, cleanser for Muslims - forms a common sphere - a triangle - in the center of the space. Invitations not neces sarily rituals are also displayed, such as Ramadan dinners or the Jewish library that keeps a common history.
The volume of the set is located on the perimeter of a large garden - Paradise – which serves as a threshold and as a door.
Let's learn to pray in common ...