For a printable copy of the Symposium information, click here

Many thanks to Faith & Form (The Interfaith Journal of Religion, Art, and Architecture) and the Architecture, Culture and Spirituality Forum for helping to advertise and organize this event.

Transcending Architecture: Aesthetics and Ethics of the Numinous. Interdisciplinary Symposium organized by The Catholic University of America School of Architecture and Planning. October 6-8, 2011. Symposium director: Julio Bermudez. In an age obsessed with speed, consumerism, technology, immediacy, and quantity, an architecture that transcends constitutes a radical and risky act of love and compassion born out of a spiritual and cultural awakening. By providing us with a respite, such environments afford us the rare opportunity to re-discover our bearings and, in so doing, frame our existential condition within the larger matters of life and the divine. If there was a time when a transcending architecture was necessary, it is undoubtedly today! This symposium will consider the aesthetics and ethics that move us from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from the profane to the sacred. Far from avoiding the charged issues of subjectivity, culture and intangibility, we will examine the phenomenological, symbolic, and designerly ways in which the holy gets fixed and transmitted through architecture. A remarkable group of presenters will provide attendees with ample opportunities for intellectual, spiritual, and professional growth. Confirmed speakers include Juhani Pallasmaa, Honorary FAIA (Pallasmaa Architects), Karsten Harries (Philosophy, Yale University), Lindsay Jones (Center for the Study of Religion, Ohio State University), Thomas Barrie, AIA (Architecture, North Carolina State University) and Michael Crosbie, AIA (editor, Faith & Form).