Debra Moffitt

Creating Sacred Space
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Room to Meditate
 
Creating altars at home and in offices is a way to foster mindfulness. Spaces like this one at Duke Integrative Medicine Center created by Duda Paine Architects gives a sense of how to design spaces that open to nature and integrate light.


Courtesy of Duda Paine Architects

      Debra writes about elements of sacred space in her book, "Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life" and in articles like "Room to Meditate" for Southpark Magazine.


 
 

 
         Sacred Architecture

Light Inside

Light is a powerful symbol. When it's brought into spaces it can inspire and uplift. Architects work with light to consciously create an experience.


Rendering of Jean Nouvel's Louvre in Abu Dhabi. Photo Courtesy of Jean Nouvel Architecture Studio, Paris.

      Jean Nouvel's design for the new Louvre in Abu Dhabi brings in interesting plays of light evocative of a cathedral with light pouring in from above. Light in sacred spaces is symbolic of the divine inner light. Read more on light in architecture in Debra's article,  Working Light.

     For deeper explorations into sacred space, see her writing on "New Sacred Space" about contemporary designs to inspire. She also explores it in her essay "The Contemporary Face of Sacred Space", in acclaimed journal, Faith and Form.

    Other explorations of the ecology and meaning of architecture can be found at Debra Moffitt's author page at Architecture Week.
  

 

Designing Sacred Space

 

Spas and retreats have become places to feed the spirit. Mario Botta's Bergoase Spa opened at the five star Tschuggen Hotel near St. Moritz. Read one of Debra's articles on this experience for body, mind and soul.  Bottanical Spa




     Curves evoke the feminine. The interior of the Bergoase (Mountain Oasis) spa designed by world renowned architect, Mario Botta, reflects his sense of turning a spa experience into a retreat from the mundane to nourish the spirit. The walls are made of individually hand carved Verona stone. The exterior is below. It's located at Arrosa, Switzerland.


Photo by Pino Musi
Courtesy of Studio Architetto Mario Botta