Going to Church

Today was very beneficial, instead of being cooped up inside discussing what spirituality means to us, we went for a stroll. We first took a trip to the universities multi-faith rooms. Funnily enough it didn't feel spiritual at all, it just felt damn awkward, like someone had just died or farted in a lift. The colours of each room were all the same, but they were soft creams faded light blues and didn't evoke a seance of a higher purpose or being. Their was also no windows at all, just the horrible yellow glow on the walls and furniture you get from unnatural light which is quite funny considering spirituality is meant to involve nature and natural things. The main problem that I had with the multi-faith rooms were that they were tucked away right at the bottom of the university, like the university was ashamed and scared of having people express their beliefs. I've been at university for 4 years and that's the first time i knew anything of those drab depressing rooms.

This is a shot of one of the multi-faith rooms, horrible.

After being trapped for 15 minutes or so, we moved on the Sheffield's Winter Gardens, which is a massive arched greenhouse. In this greenhouse is a few nick-nack shops,a lot of exotic plants, benches, ponds and other relaxing ornaments. I do like the Winter Garden for it's massive overarching room/wall but it didn't in any way make me feel spiritual. I felt that the architecture and idea of the Winter Gardens would have worked a lot better if it wasn't slotted in between other building and was more a building on it's own. When you look out of the top of Winter Gardens you should get a feeling of inner peace and possibly a feeling of how small you are compared to the rest of everything. Instead you notice building at either side the grab away from the experience. 

This is the Winter Gardens. 

Another reason I don't think the Winter Gardens achieves it's full potential is because it feels cluttered, it's not well kept, some of the plants are dying and it's just not as clean as it could be. I feel like a spiritual place should either be clean at least. 

After the Winter Gardens we moved on to Sheffield Cathedral. As I mentioned in previous posts I'm not religious but I really appreciate the ways in which a Cathedral can make a person feel uneasy and insignificant. Just from the walk up to the Cathedral I felt like I was being watched by someone in the sky just  from the architecture of the building. Many buildings that are built for religious reasons tend to be overwhelmingly tall even by today's standards. They also mostly have spires that point towards the heavens. 

Outside.

Inside.

When we went inside the Cathedral I remember being astounded by the level of scale, it was probably only slightly taller than the Winter Gardens but was so much more effective with its use of the space. Most of the others were focused of the symbolism within the stain glass windows and statues but for me it was all about the space used. One other thing I hadn't considered until visiting the church was the use of the acoustics in the church that made you quite, if a person at the opposite end of the church coughed you heard it crystal clear at the other end, this made everyone quite not out of respect for the church but because if you were talking everyone would be able to hear what you were talking about. Another thing that made me consider sound more was a girl proceeded to sing as we entered the church, again because of the acoustics the sound carried through the church and sounded amazing, it made the hairs of the back of my neck stand on end. 

This got me thinking, the main thing that makes me feel spiritual is sound, and scale. So the project for me really has to focus on these two points in order to work. 

From talking with tutors they've helped me come to the conclusion we want to create something that will stop people in the street, and take them out of their busy lives for either 5 second or 5 minutes. With the sound elements introduced I instantly thought of this. 

This design was to encourage people to walk up stairs and be less lazy. I like it because regardless of where people are going they will stop for a while and have some fun, it is this i want to do. I want people to stop and take some time out to have fun.