How do you build a sacred place? |Baháʼí temple of chile architecture|

In the autumn of 2016, Mr. Hariri successfully concluded a project that he had initiated in 2003, namely the construction of the Bahá’í Temple of South America, situated in Santiago, Chile. This temple represents the final continental temple of the Bahá’í faith. It was secured through an international competition that involved a rigorous design process, attracting 185 entries from 80 countries. The temple is poised to become a significant architectural landmark located at the foothills of the Andes. It has already garnered several prestigious architecture awards. here, we’re going to read about his design process and thoughts of him. How he answered these two important questions “How do you design sacred space today?” And “How do you even define what's sacred today?” Hariri explained all in a TedTalk held in 2017.

How does Architecture touch your soul?

He starts with a memory of his Architecture school, “The architecture school where I studied thirty years ago was across the street from the wonderful art gallery designed by the great architect Louis Kahn. One day, I saw the security guard run his hand across the concrete wall. the expression on his face -- something touched me. I could see that the security guard was moved by the building and that architecture has the capacity to move you. I could see it, and I remember thinking, "Wow. How does architecture do that?" the aspire for beauty, for sensuousness, for atmosphere, the emotional response was a reaction of the heart which touched me to the core.

He continued that there was an open call for designs for the Bahá'í Temple for South America This was the first temple in all of South America. It's a continental temple, a hugely important milestone for the Bahá'í community because this would be the last of the continental temples and would open the door for national and local temples to be built around the world. the brief was deceptively simple and unique in the annals of religion: a circular room, with nine sides, nine entrances, and nine paths, allowing you to come to the temple from all directions, nine symbolizing completeness, and perfection. No pulpit, no sermons, as there are no clergy in the Bahá'í faith. in a world that is putting up walls, the design needed to express in form the very opposite. It had to be open, welcoming to people of all faiths, walks of life, backgrounds, or no faith at all; a new form of sacred space with no pattern or models to draw from. It was like designing one of the first churches for Christianity or one of the first mosques for Islam.

How do you design sacred space today? What is sacred today?

Hariri explained how he stumbled across this beautiful quote from the Bahá'í writings, “...It says that if you reach out in prayer, and if your prayer is answered -- which is already very interesting -- that the pillars of your heart will become ashine.” He loved the idea of the inner and outer and he was thinking, “How could we make something architectural out of that, where you create a building and it becomes alive with light? Like alabaster, if you kiss it with light, it becomes alive.”

How The Baháʼí Temple of Chile was designed?

So, he drew the first sketches, something with two layers, translucent with structure in between capturing light. Also, he mentions how watching a video of a plant moving in the light, made him think of movement, and reaching for the divine.

As it is said in the project’s brief, “The design was developed through hand sketches, physical models, and digital technology. The aim was to achieve an interplay of contradictions: stillness and movement, simplicity and complexity, intimacy and monumentality; a solid structure capable of dissolving in light.”

In the Bahá'í writings, it talks about the temples being as perfect as is humanly possible, but, what is perfection? Combining movement, rotation, and thinking of a form lead to an organic form. Like the plant and the way, it was reaching the light. lines that merge at the top, soft lines, which became like drapery and translucent veils and folding, and the idea of not only folding but torquing this started to become an interesting form, carving the base, and making the entrances. This temple with two layers, nine luminous veils, embodied light, and soft-flowing lines like luminescent drapery.

How the Baháʼí Temple of Chile was built?

Moving to the next stage and how to build it, they were doing many experiments with materials, trying to shimmer, and they ended up with borosilicate and borosilicate glass, as you know, it is very strong, and if you break borosilicate rods just so and melt them at just the right temperature, it ended up with a new material, new cast glass which took about two years to make. it had the quality, it embodied the light, but what about the inside?

Hariri said, “On the outside you have protection, but on the inside, you touch it. So we found this tiny vein in a huge quarry in Portugal with this beautiful stone, which the owner had kept for seven generations in his family, waiting for the right project, if you can believe it. Look at this material, it's beautiful. And the way it lights up; it has that translucent quality.”

About the structure he explains, “...the nine wings are bound, structurally but symbolically strong, a great symbol of unity: pure geometry, a perfect circle, 30 meters in section and in plan, perfectly symmetrical, like the idea of sacredness and geometry… Nine wings bound together forming a nine-pointed star, and the star shape moving in space, tracking the sun. Hopefully, a befitting response to that beautiful quote, "a prayer answered," open in all directions, capturing the blue light of dawn, tent-like white light of day, the gold light of the afternoon, and of course, at night, the reversal: sensuous, catching the light in all kinds of mysterious ways.”

“…14 years ago when we made the submission, we showed the temple set against the Andes. We didn't have the Andes as our site, but after nine years, that's exactly where we ended up, the lines of the temple set against nothing but pure nature, and you turn around and you get nothing but the city below you, and inside, a view in all directions, radiating gardens from each of the alcoves, radiating paths.”

Sum up

To sum up, The Baháʼí Temple of Chile is Built to last 400 years, there is hope that the Temple will continue to bring humanity closer to the Divine, to the quest for perfection, improvement, refinement, self-confidence, and aspiration for individual joy and unity and collective. Stone, glass, wood, and steel become spiritual, and the measurable becomes immeasurable. And of course, this temple belongs to people, collectively, from many cultures and backgrounds, from many beliefs. Have you ever visited any of the Baháʼí temples around the world? what about the Baháʼí temple in Chile? Share your thoughts and leave a comment below!