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... housing, parks and even retail are being inserted into the mix, with new opportunities for design professionals to rethink traditional church design.
The economy is on the upswing. And for the worship space, that means we’ll probably see an influx of new worship facilities built in 2019--and plenty of older churches looking to make changes.
The leadership group of the Washington, D.C.-based American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Interfaith Design Knowledge Community expects that with a continued strong economy, there will be continued demand for both new and renovated church projects, with an emphasis on the latter.
In with some of the old?
“Institutions that rely on capital campaigns tend to see larger contributions that are coupled with an overall optimistic outlook,” a spokesperson representing the group says. “We expect to see more renovations as churches continue a trend toward expanding their outreach by offering more opportunities for daily interaction with their parishioners by renovating older structures to be more inviting.”
At the same time, the AIA’s Interfaith Design Knowledge Community is also seeing more emphasis being placed on creating a secure environment for worshippers.
... more emphasis [is also] being placed on creating a secure environment for worshippers.
“Now more than ever, design must encompass a faith-based culture that is evolving almost as quickly as technology,” the group shares. “More churches than ever are embracing their role as an everyday community resource, with the result that new building types are emerging that combine different types of occupancy within mixed-use developments.”
“More churches than ever are embracing their role as an everyday community resource, with the result that new building types are emerging that combine different types of occupancy within mixed-use developments.” AIA Interfaith Design Knowledge Community
That means housing, parks and even retail are being inserted into the mix, with new opportunities for design professionals to rethink traditional church design. As many religious organizations continue to see more value in land holdings than cash, the group believes that the future will result in fundamental changes to management of their assets. And that will lead to the addition of new facilities within existing campuses, the Interfaith Design Knowledge Community reports, fostering community interaction and becoming more the norm than the exception.
Straight talk on Tech
Sean Wargo, senior director of market intelligence for AVIXA, the Fairfax, Va.-based trade association representing the professional audiovisual and information communications industries, sees a big trend coming with enhancing the worship facility, which falls into the $186-billion category of venues and event space that the organization tracks (House of Worship accounting for approximately 10% of the segment).
“Technologies of all kinds are showing up in venues as ways of better engaging the constitutes,” Wargo says. “What we tend to see there is they are sending people to trade shows to learn about new technologies, whether it’s video displays, projections, audio equipment, etc.”
He believes that worship facilities across the board are increasingly looking to improve the attendee experience, and are doing that with technologies that are helping people engage.
“The sexy one most people talk about immediately is video because of declining prices in flat panel and improvements in the supply chain, and you are seeing a pretty strong investment,” Wargo says. “Digital signage is where we are seeing that a lot to convey information about services, and within the house proper, larger displays to help people follow along.”
The AIA’s Interfaith Design Knowledge Community notes that recent advances in LED display brightness allows for the design of more natural light into worship spaces, while more accurate color rendering of new LED lighting, as well as controls for adjusting the quantity of light, have seen huge improvement over the past year.
“Self-tinting glazing isn’t inexpensive, but for the right project, it is changing the way architects think about natural light into what was previously considered ‘black-box design,'” they say. “Sound and light controls have both become more critical as churches broaden their outreach to people outside the physical confines of a single building.”
Audio too is another tech component showing strong opportunity, with new technologies coming out that allow for more efficient and effective distribution, noise cancellation and targeted audio broadcasting.
“As an architect, whether you are being asked to ‘hide’ the technology or showcase the 21st century, the options at your disposal have never been greater.” AIA Interfaith Design Knowledge Community
With the required flexibility of many contemporary worship facilities, designers are also focusing more and more on new technology in acoustic panels that can be adjusted when necessary for a particular outcome.
“Miniaturization of enhanced active sound systems allows designers more opportunities for creative spaces without compromising the acoustics of that space,” the group shares. “As an architect, whether you are being asked to ‘hide’ the technology or showcase the 21st century, the options at your disposal have never been greater.”
Challenges to consider
The AIA’s Interfaith Design Knowledge Community believes the biggest challenge is coming from the emerging conflict between a strong demand for new construction projects and available construction capability in an industry that is still rebuilding its workforce after the last recession. Coupled with the unprecedented destruction from natural disasters over the past two years, construction demand is creating ongoing challenges for schedule and budget as projects compete against each other for available building resources.
Coupled with the unprecedented destruction from natural disasters over the past two years, construction demand is creating ongoing challenges for schedule and budget as projects compete against each other for available building resources.
“The only thing we can be certain of in the future is the uncertainty of predicting that future,” the group asserts. “Knowing that, we recommend to our current and prospective clients that they consider both durability of design and flexibility of space for the future we do not yet know. Faith-based design has and always will have as its goal timeless design, whether it be expressed in terms of tradition or modernity.”
"... we recommend to our current and prospective clients that they consider both durability of design and flexibility of space for the future we do not yet know." AIA Interfaith Design Knowledge Community
Good design now will be good design for the future. And technology, utilized appropriately, can only contribute to the success of architecture.
AVIXA’s Wargo says there will always be challenges associated with retrofitting or refurbishing a worship space. Not only do you need to account for older wiring and the ability to open up walls and install new solutions, but many of these solutions have lower price points and ease of integration, which will allow churches the ability to do more of the AV changes they hope for.
