Architecture/landscape : an urban sanctuary on Boston Harbor

Abstract

This thesis proposes an urban sanctuary at Chapel Rocks, a peninsula extending into Boston Harbor. The sanctuary includes an ecumenical chapel. restaurant/meeting hall and designed features of the landscape. Several general issues guided this exploration: Architecture and Landscape: How can the design of architecture and the design of landscape be conceived of as equal contributors to the experience of a place? How can the designed landscape build a relationship between human activity and the natural landscape? The nature of a reclaimed landscape: After industrial culture transforms the natural features of a site by cutting, fIlling, drilling, stripping .... how can a new landscape be conceived which acknowledges these changes and the original features of the site? How can a further transformation take place which fuses human aspiration and the specific nature of the place? The nature of an urban sanctuary: How can a site at the edge of a modem industrial city foster an understanding about the ultimate role that nature plays to sustain our physical and spiritual well-being? Can this understanding provide a meeting ground for people of different faiths to share in an experience of the contemplative and sublime?