Titles
T-Z
Taobao - the e-commerce paradigm of Chinese urbanisation.Technology and the Unhoused: Does technology improve service...The Actual Cost of Contractor Invented Architectural StyleThe City as a Life Force, and its Will to LiveThe Collapse of Housing Bubble in China - New Power as New F...The Convivial City: Loneliness, Resilience, and Sustainable ...The Erosion of Forgotten Communities: The Challenges Faced b...The Hidden Network: addressing digital equity through meanin...The Interaction of Spatial Configuration and Functional Dyna...The Living and the Livable City: The Transforming Aesthetici...The Modernist Dream of Livability (California + Titirangi)The Rio de Janeiro Railway voids: An opportunity for urban r...The Role of Real Estate Market on Residents' Mental Health:...The Spatial Security Of Water Thru Access In The Built Envir...The Unmaking of a Livable Suburb: The Case of Heliopolis, Ca...The Urban Dichotomy: Unraveling the Dual Realities of New Sp...Tracing Power Shifts in Cities of Strangers: Exploration of ...Transformating Open Market. Local Knowledge and Global Risks...Transforming Urban Resilience: The Architectural Response to...Typologies of Adaptive Reuse and WildingUnderstanding urbanicity: how interdisciplinary methods help...Unraveling Issues of Declining Cities in Korea: A Text Minin...Urban Space(s) for Young People: A Focus for Resilient and S...Version Control: The Hidden Human Dimension of Building Ener...Welcome and introduction What Happens When a Sacred Place Transforms?
Schedule

VIRTUAL London.

Part of the Livable Cities Series
What Happens When a Sacred Place Transforms?
S. Angne Alfaro
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Abstract

Sacred places and religious architecture, also known as sacred architecture are areas where “special” qualities may be revealed. Established on traditional studies and phenomenology of religion (Brenneman et al, 1982) Eliade (1961) explains sacred space is an instance of hierophany, “a situation where something sacred shows itself to us” (p. 11). For philosopher Mircea Eliade (1959), the sacred was defined by space, time and cosmology. The sacred place is one where the three cosmic levels: earth, heaven and the underworld, at once come into contact with each other, and are represented. Drawing on sociologist Emile Durkheim’s (1915) work, Eliade says the sacred distinguishes itself from the profane; the sacred are those things set apart from society or transcend everyday life and the profane is everything else. As the world turns, time moves on, people change and places change. This study focuses on the transformative place. When spaces are built they have an intended purpose; years after, that place transforms through environmental factors as well as sociological factors. The transforming place, specifically sacred space, is a delicate subject.This case study features a Cathedral in Southern California it is transformative story. A theoretical framework involving sacredness and place attachment are revealed.

Biography

Dr. Sarah Angne Alfaro has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in interior design, a certificate in historic preservation, and a doctoral degree in architectural studies. Dr. Alfaro is an Associate Professor in Interior Design at Ball State University. She uses a synergistic combination of qualitative methods in her scholarly investigations. Interested in how the designed environment shapes the actions of people, and how people shape the place, she is positioned in the field of environment-behavior focusing on the fluid built form; places in the state of becoming, never finished, always becoming.