A New Spiritual Space Using Psychogeographic Methods

Abstract

A shrinking number of people are attending religious services in comparison to the growing proportion of people who claim a spiritual aspect to their lives. The divergence of spirituality and religion has left a gap in the built environment, where space to practice, explore, and reflect does not exist. This thesis fills that gap by creating a building complex within an inner block in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that bridges the gap between spirituality and religion using experiential movement to elicit a spiritual response. Using psychogeographic techniques, the creation of space was accomplished through possibilities of movement that explore what spiritual spaces become, based on the trends mentioned above. In this thesis the design proposal invites users to explore, escape, and encourage dwelling, to foster interaction and refl ection at various scales of spaces related to personal and larger group gatherings.