Home Design Book

Designing Sacred Space: Creating Homes with Soul

By Anne Knorr

Overview

In 1998 when I participated in a program to learn the subtle art of spiritual direction, listening to another person's spiritual journey and bearing witness to his or her experience of God, I began to think about how spirituality, the center of my personal life, and architecture, the center of my professional life, interface. At some level, I knew they were both about space. Architecture deals with the physical and tangible space of structures and how they affect the way we live and feel, while spiritual direction delves into the internal space of spirit, emotion and personality. Both practices require me to listen carefully to hear the underlying longings and dreams of my clients. Designing Sacred Space is the culmination of my inquiry into the link between the interior space of a person's spirit and the exterior space where one dwells. I have found that when the intangible qualities of a person's spirituality are reflected in theri physical environment, their home becomes sacred.

"The People whose lives are lived simply and wholesomely, in the open, and who have, in a high degree, the sense of the sacredness of the home, are the people who have made the greatest strides in the development of the race."

- Gustav Stickley
Simplicity and Domestic Life

Spiritually minded people who dream of living in homes with soul will find Designing Sacred Space an indispensable guide book. With a little direction and a fresh perspective, their homes can become a sanctuary. In my experience of bringing the sacred into my own home and the homes of my clients, I've found it can be as simple as rearranging a single room or as extensive as remodeling an entire house. The main ingredient is a willingness and desire to make one's home sacred. The guiding principles for creating sacred space apply regardless of the resources available to a person. You don't need to be a millionaire to have a sacred home.

Designing Sacred Space uses an ancient structure, the Tabernacle, as a template for creating sacred environments. The Tabernacle was a large tent used by the nomadic Jewish people as a place of worship. The sacred text of the Torah and the Old Testament of the Bible give extensive descriptions of the tent and its contents providing a blueprint for the divinely inspired structure. It housed three main spaces:

The Court: Public Space
The Holy Place: Private Space
The Holy of Holies: Intimate Space

This pattern of three is often associated with the divine and has an archetypal quality. It appears in many faith traditions; Christians believe God has a triune nature of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Buddhists hold three universal truths as the foundation to their tradition, and the triad of heaven, earth and humanity is the classic expression of the Tao. The three spaces of the Tabernacle articulated the range of experiences the Jewish people encountered while worshiping God, but they also expressed the range of experiences we need in our own homes for a sense of completeness or wholeness. We need spaces in our homes and in our lives that are public, open and energetic like the Outer Court, but we also need private places, a Holy Place, for deeper connection with family and friends as well as intimate spaces where we can quiet our minds and reconnect with our hearts in our personal Holy of Holies.

Four qualities that are essential when integrating spirituality into a home are specified in Designing Sacred Space as well. To be a sacred space, a home must:

Reflect who we are and the context where we live
Invite us to unstructured time and mystery
Transform ordinary space into extraordinary space through ritual
Be understood as the gift it is

Using worksheets and exercises along with meditations throughout the book, readers will be shown how to identify the public, private and intimate spaces in their homes and be reminded of the intuitive understanding of sacred space they already possess, particularly from their childhood and their experiences in nature. The four qualities that bring meaning to a dwelling will be explored, and using my skills as a spiritual director I will help readers articulate their dreams and develop rituals that foster connection with their spirits and their homes. Architectural details will be presented in an accessible manner giving readers the tools they need to enhance their home. The final chapters will look more closely at creating a Holy of Holies, including spaces for couples and children and give guidelines for getting started. Each chapter builds, like a workbook, instructing readers and leading them to transform their homes into sacred spaces.

The longing for our homes to nurture our souls is a legitimate yet intangible need. I am moved by the enthusiasm of participants in my Sacred Space workshops and by the richness they have experienced in their daily lives from applying these principles. While seemingly simple, the message of the Tabernacle and Designing Sacred Space is profound: Space matters. We are connected to the places where we live. Our environment has an impact on us physically, emotionally and spiritually and our spirituality, in turn, informs and shapes our living spaces. When thoughtful design is intertwined with the dreams of our hearts, our homes can indeed become sacred.

Introduction ~ Architecture and Spirit

Chapter One ~ Intuitive Understanding of Sacred Space

First Encounters and Memories; We are Drawn to it Naturally
Nature; We Recognize it When We Experience It
Early Structures; We Have an Understanding of how to Create It
Body Knowledge; Our Five Senses Guide Us

Chapter Two ~ The Tabernacle as Archetype for Sacred Space

Three Distinct Spaces in Balance; Public, Private and Intimate
A Series of Entrances
Gradation of Space and Engagement of the Senses
Exterior Movement that Mirrors Interior Movement
Connection with the Earth

Chapter Three ~ Qualities of Sacred Space

Ordinary Space Made Extraordinary Through Ritual
A Reflection of Who We Are and the Context Where We Live
An Invitation to Withdraw into Unstructured Time, Mystery and Interior Stillness
Remembered as a Gift

Chapter Four ~ Architectural Elements of Space