A church and family housing for Berkland Baptist Church (BBC)

Abstract

Creating a sound church is totally different from designing a fabulous poetic space. Major problem of current built form of a church is that it is built mostly in a liturgical form to serve sacred ordinances that does not address the importance of activities among the members. Church has turned into a liturgical space only to serve once-a-week spiritual purgation. This causes serious problems to Christians. There is a big dichotomy between their actual life and religious life. It is a constant struggle for Christians to figure out on what values -Christian or Daily-to make decision to perform their life. A church is a body of Christ where one not only finds the eternal life by faith, but also gathers to lead a life based on Christian values. Therefore, a church has to be a part of actual living. Berkland Baptist Church (BBC) is one of the leading churches that address to return to the spirit of early churches where religious life and daily life are fully integrated. This thesis, thus, explores a new concept of what a built form of a church would be. The final product has informed that a church is not a single building with well contrived light to arouse spiritual excitement, but an assemblage of functions - church & housing - that invigorate communal activities among the faithful.