First comprehensive overview and analysis of Buddhist architecture in North America following the parallel history of the religion's emergence in the U.S. since the California Gold Rush to the present day. A ground-breaking investigation of Buddhist structures with respect to the humanistic qualities associated with Buddhist doctrine and how Buddhist groups promote their faith and values in an American setting. A unique study of interest to religion, architecture, space and place, US history, Asian Studies and Buddhist Studies.

A comprehensive study of the sacred buildings built and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, this book offers scholarly discussion with analytical drawings and photographs. These projects represent different periods of Wright's career (from 1886 to 1958), new building technologies, and application of his design concepts as demonstrated in his sacred architecture. This unique contribution will be useful to all those interested in Wright's architecture and theory as well as in sacred architecture.

‘Two days after Notre Dame burned, I flew to Paris to appear on the TV programme La Grande Librairie for a discussion about cathedrals. The following morning I had breakfast at the Hotel Bristol with my French publisher and she asked me to write a short book about Notre Dame and what it means to all of us. She said she would donate the publisher’s profits to the rebuilding fund and, if I wished, I could do the same with my royalties. Yes, I said; of course, I’d love to.’ - Ken Follett

Born of his admiration for an an iconic cathedral and how it has influenced his own work, this short book about Notre Dame’s history is Ken Follett’s contribution to the fund created to help rebuild it, a fund that will increase with every sale that is made of the book.

This beautiful and groundbreaking book examines the use of sacred geometry and cosmology in Gothic cathedral design. Renowned geometer and lecturer Tom Bree demonstrates how medieval Master Masons combined their knowledge of the practical building arts with ancient cosmological knowledge to endow their constructions with profound spiritual meaning. Wells Cathedral, the focus of this book, was England's first Gothic cathedral, and its design symbolises the soul's cosmic journey from Earth, through the underworld and up into the heavens. Bree shows how the medieval Christian fascination with the knowledge of the ancient world laid the foundations for the more recent mythos involving the Templars, Freemasonry and Pyramidology. Packed with rare illustrations and original research unavailable anywhere else, this is a book to study and treasure.

'London was but is no more!' In these words diarist John Evelyn summed up the destruction wrought by the Great Fire that swept through the City of London in 1666. The losses included St Paul's Cathedral and eight-seven parish churches (as well as at least thirteen thousand houses). In After the Fire, celebrated photographer and architectural historian Angelo Hornak explores, with the help of his own stunning photographs, the churches built in London during the sixty years that followed the Great Fire, as London rose from the ashes, more beautiful - and far more spectacular - than ever before. The catastrophe offered a unique opportunity to Christopher Wren and his colleagues - including Robert Hooke and Nicholas Hawksmoor - who, over the next forty years, rebuilt St Paul's and fifty-one other London churches in a dramatic new style inspired by the European Baroque. Forty-five years after the Fire, the Fifty New Churches Act of 1711 gave Nicholas Hawksmoor the scope to build breathtaking (and controversial) new churches including St Anne's Limehouse, Christ Church Spitalfields and St George's Bloomsbury. By the 1720s the pendulum was swinging away from the Baroque of Wren and Hawksmoor, and it was James Gibbs' more restrained St Martin-in the-Fields that was to provide the prototype for churches throughout the English-speaking world - especially in North America - for the next hundred years.

This book reinterprets the Muslim architecture and urban planning of South India, looking beyond the Deccan to the regions of Tamil Nadu and Kerala - the historic coasts of Coromandel and Malabar. For the first time a detailed survey of the Muslim monuments of the historic ports and towns demonstrates a rich and diverse architectural tradition entirely independent from the better known architecture of North India and the Deccan sultanates. The book, extensively illustrated with photographs and architectural drawings, widens the horizons of our understanding of Muslim India and will no doubt pave new paths for future studies in the field.

The aim of the book is to energize the ongoing debate in academia and among practitioners on the meaning and understanding of Islamic architecture. It contains seventeen essays by architects and academicians from different parts of the world, representing an effort to clarify how the various disciplines of the design profession can be employed to build in the spirit of Islam.

People wonder what the future holds for them; they would no doubt like to know for certain. But is it possible? It may be, but how desperate are you to know? Are you willing to risk being deceived just to believe in something you just want to hear and believe?

Many wonder whether there really is a way of finding out. Will you regret your choice in putting your complete confidence in someone who claims they have all the answers? Will they be correct? Or will you suffer disappointment or beyond. It has been said that no one but Almighty God knows the future for anyone. Are you willing to seek his way for answers, or will you choose another way, a way that has been known to bring sorrow and counterfeit results--a way that has a reputation to continually fail, such as turning to a psychic?

Designed by Le Corbusier, the Chapel of Notre-Dame du Haut draws thousands of visitors each year. Renzo Piano's new project includes three main elements: the gatehouse, the monastery and the landscape. Deep in the lush vegetation, the monastery is a place "of silence, prayer, peace and joy", where everything contributes to spiritual contemplation. Most of the material used in this book has not been previously published, and has been made available through the constant and detailed work of cataloguing and classifying the Foundation's archives. The history of this project will be shown through Renzo Piano's personal notes and memories, starting with his first visit to the site to the opening on September 2011

Britain is a treasure trove of medieval architecture. Almost every village and town in the land has a church that was built during the period, whose history is legible - to those who know how to look - in every arch, capital, roof vault, and detail of window tracery. By learning how to identify the stylistic phases that resulted from shifts in architectural fashion, it is possible to date each part of a church to within a decade or two; this book introduces all the key features of each succeeding style, from Anglo-Saxon and Norman through to the three great gothic styles, Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular. It will be indispensable to anyone who enjoys exploring medieval churches, and who wants to understand and appreciate their beauty more deeply.

The acclaimed best-selling author and popular historian explores the history of Europe via its cathedrals. Beautifully illustrated with color photographs throughout, this joyous exploration of the history of Western civilization showcases the cathedral's central role in the European imagination. A masterful writer, Jenkins tells the stories behind these stone wonders: the architects that made them possible, the triumphs of engineering, the artists who enriched their decor, and the inevitable human follies of those who were involved in their building, from the artisans and workers to the wealthy donors and the faithful who worshipped beneath their soaring spires and majestic domes. Simon Jenkins is the critically acclaimed, award-winning author of best-selling works that make history accessible. Blending insight and authority with personal reflections and experiences, he deftly reveals the history, design, and significance of each of these enduring monuments to the human spirit from popular favorites like St. Paul's and the Duomo in Florence to less well-known masterpieces well worth a trip. Europe's cathedrals are treasure troves of art and repositories of history that attract hundreds or thousands of visitors every year.

Green men are figures or heads that were carved in churches, abbeys and cathedrals from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. Inspired by the illustrations in book margins where heads were used to terminate trails of foliage, they were usually carved in the form of human masks, cats' or demons' heads. The earliest architectural green men are found in the churches of the wealthy and influential, such as Henry I's private chapel in Derbyshire but they were still produced in lesser numbers into the nineteenth century. Richard Hayman discusses the origins and definitions of these fascinating figures and traces their many declines and revivals throughout history - a valuable guide for any church history enthusiast.

Discover the fascinating stories of the world's most beautiful cemeteries, featuring spectacular photography, unique histories and famous residents. Cities of the Dead takes us on a tour of memorial sites, ranging from monastic settlements to grand cathedrals, Shinto shrines to Gothic chapels, tombs and crypts. Enjoy tales of myths and monsters, grave-robbers, pilgrimages, spiritual retreats, remembrance and community. Marvel in cemeteries with a hundred thousand to a handful of graves which feature famous headstones, weeping angels, ocean views, woodlands, thousands of glowing lanterns and a tomb of poets. From London's famous Highgate Cemetery, which houses famous names from Karl Marx to Malcolm McLaren, George Eliot to Christina Rosetti, to Hawaii's breathtaking Valley of the Temples, this book spans the globe to bring you the most fascinating, intriguing and evocative cemeteries across cultures and continents. Together with evocative images, the stories behind these notable burial sites bring these sanctuaries to life, detailing the features that make them special, highlighting both similarities and differences between time periods, religions and cultures, and showing how cemeteries are about and for the living as much as the dead.

The ruin of St Peter's College has sat on a wooded hilltop above the village of Cardross for more than three decades. Over that time, with altars crumbling, graffiti snaking across its walls and nature reclaiming its concrete, it has gained a mythical, cult-like status among architects, preservationists and artists. St Peter's only fulfilled its original role as a seminary for 14 years, from 1966 to 1979. As its uncompromising design gave way to prolonged construction and problematic upkeep, the Catholic Church reassessed the role of seminaries, resolving to embed trainee priests not in seclusion, but in communities. Although briefly repurposed as a drug rehabilitation centre, the building was soon abandoned to decay and vandalism. Ever since, people have argued and puzzled over the future and importance of St Peter's. It has been called both Scotland's best and worst twentieth century building. In 1992, it was listed category A. One of its architects suggested the idea of `everything being stripped away except the concrete itself - a purely romantic conception of the building as beautiful ruin'. And now in 2016, St Peter's is renewed as a cultural space through the work of the arts organisation NVA. In this landmark book, Diane Watters looks at the history of a structure that emerged out of an innovative phase of post-war Catholic church building. She traces the story of an architectural failure which morphed into a tragic modernist myth: unappreciated architects betrayed by an unloving client, and abandoned by an uncaring society. This is a historian's account of the real story of St Peter's College: an exploration of how one of Scotland's most singular buildings became one its most troubled - and most celebrated.

The classic guide to Suffolk's rich heritage of churches. Available again by public demand, Suffolk Churches has long been recognised as a classic; Pevsner described it as "outstanding" and calls its gazetteer "an unfailing guide". The first section deals with the various parts of the church and its fittings, and how they were affected by changing styles and religious reforms. The second part is the gazetteer to individual churches, followed by a supplement on Victorian Churches and Churchbuilding and a list of lost and ruined churches. This fifth edition includes a supplement, Victorian Church Building and Restoration by Anne Riches and a Survey of Lost and Ruined Churches by John Blatchly and PeterNortheast.

Parisian churches are revered around the globe. Their stunning stained-glass windows and intricate Gothic architecture are accomplishments of unrivalled elegance. Churches of Paris gathers 37 of the finest in the City of Light, spanning the 12th to the 19th centuries. Each entry is embellished with beautiful colour photography and behind-the-scenes historical commentary. Offering insight into the buildings' construction and genesis, this book narrates how each church was shaped by war, revolution and time. With information on restoration and preservation, this is an invaluable guide for Francophiles and curious armchair travellers alike. Featured churches include: Basilique du Sacre-Coeur de Montmartre, Basilique Sainte-Clotilde, Basilique Cathedrale de Saint-Denis, Notre-Dame Cathedral, La Chapelle de l'Epiphanie des Missions Etrangeres et la Salle des Martyrs, La Chapelle Notre-Dame de la Medaille Miraculeuse, La Chapelle Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, La Madeleine, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux, Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, Cathedral Saint-Alexandre-Nevsky, Saint-Augustin, La Sainte-Chapelle, Sainte-Elisabeth-de-Hongrie, Sainte-Marguerite, Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, La Sainte-Trinite, Saint-Eugene-Sainte-Cecile, Saint-Eustache, Saint-Francois-Xavier, Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais, Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes, Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, Saint-Louis-en-l'Ile, Saint-Merry, Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, Saint-Pierre de Montmartre, Saint-Roch, Saint-Severin, Saint-Sulpice, Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin, Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, The American Cathedral in Paris

Considered on of the most important religious structures of the twentieth century, the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence was regarded by Matisse himself as his great masterpiece. He dedicated four years to the creation of this convent chapel on the French Riviera, and the result is one of the most remarkable and comprehensive ensemble pieces of twentieth-century art. Every element of the chapel bears the artists touch, from the vivid Mediterranean hues of the stained glass windows to the starkly powerful murals; even the vestments and altar were designed by Matisse. This beautifully illustrated volume captures the chapel in exquisite detail, allowing an unparalleled view of this iconic and sacred space. With stunning new photography that captures the dramatic effects of the changing light in the building throughout the day, this book is the first to present the experience of being within the chapel exactly as Matisse himself envisaged it, while Marie-Therese Pulvenis de Selignys authoritative and insightful text explores the extraordinary story of the chapels creation and the challenges faced by the 77-year-old artist in realising his great vision."

How the Anglican church responded to population growth and the need for more accommodation, with the building of 1500 new churches, many of the finest quality. This book is the first comprehensive study of late-Georgian church-building. After centuries of post-Reformation inactivity, the Church of England began to address the desperate shortage of accommodation and build on a huge scale. Almost all the leading architects were involved and, amongst approximately 1500 new churches there are some outstanding designs; buildings of the very highest order architecturally. In this pioneering study, the churches are considered free from the Ecclesiological zeal that condemned them and has, for so long, prevented their serious study. It will celebrate the best of them and provide valuable insights into the design and planning of the whole corpus. There will be many revelations. Included is a thorough examination of the stylistic alternatives and contemporary liturgical imperatives, along with their architectural implications. And the book explores a lost world of late-Georgian churchgoing: what people expected and experienced in a church service. Also considered are some of the period's remarkable material and constructional innovations, ones often exploited in church-building, along with the provision of architectural services in the era that preceded full professionalisation.