The Challenges of Religious Architecture in the 21st Century: Natural Light, Structure, and Natural or Urban Environment
Much progress has been made in the study of religious architecture from the past century; however, academic research on contemporary production that would allow us to identify trends in the design of sacred space in temples and sacred architectural interiors produced by the diversity of religions present in Ibero-America remains scarce. This symposium seeks to explore the following questions: How is sacred space being redefined in contemporary Ibero-American religious architecture? What transformations is religious architecture undergoing in the face of new forms of worship, community, and territoriality? What continuities and ruptures can be identified with respect to the modern paradigms of sacred space? To analyze these questions, three variables that affect the quality of the space and its morphological outcome will be examined: the role of natural light in the celebratory space, the structural solutions chosen to enable liturgical activities, and the relationship of the temple with its natural or urban surroundings. Through the analysis of these variables, the symposium seeks to discuss how contemporary religious architecture is redefining the ways of conceiving and constructing sacred space in Ibero-America during the first quarter of the 21st century.
In addition to these three main variables, papers may be complemented with reflections on the materials and construction systems used, as well as the connections with liturgical regulations, theological concepts, and moral prescriptions specific to each religion. For their analysis, papers are encouraged to draw on emblematic or controversial case studies [temples or sacred architectural interiors] built within the chronological period [2001-2025] in any Ibero-American country, whether professionally designed [by architects, engineers, etc.] or the result of social production, provided that the cases serve as a means of argumentation rather than an end in themselves. Cases should contribute to the formulation of comparative or interpretive arguments that allow broader processes and transformations to be recognized.
Likewise, it should be noted that the architectural element to be analyzed will be temples or sacred architectural interiors, not complementary facilities such as seminaries, schools, colleges, funerary complexes, or parish complexes, which may be mentioned as part of the context in which the case studies are situated but do not constitute the epistemological objective of the paper. Also of no interest to this symposium are historiographical analyses, theological discussions, semiotic interpretations of art, gender studies, or socio-religious conflicts, as these would depart from the purpose of the symposium, which is the analysis of the quality of contemporary religious production. In this sense, the symposium seeks to contribute to broader debates on architectural innovation, the construction of cultural landscapes, relationships between tradition and contemporaneity, and the production of meaning in built space.
