{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"DESIGN NOW: Cultural Collisions","title":"Why We Build","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3481,"description":"7 AM, Saturday, June 6, 2026 WPKN 89.5 FM wpkn.org\nWhat are aesthetics without profit, transaction and personality?\nWe create buildings to accommodate our desires. They are harbors first, inspirations second. All around us, we see new buildings built for profit: housing, stores, offices. We also build homes and institutions to glorify those building them. There are purpose-built constructions, too: hospitals, libraries, prisons, theaters.\nBut what about the places we make to go beyond ourselves?\nSome creations happen that are not based on their design but in the hope to connect us beyond ourselves. Going beyond architecture into ourselves is not the basis of design Canon, education, tradition. Buildings based in spiritual connection have traditionally been more like theaters than places of intimacy. The icons and rituals of museums and theaters are the tools of humans use to illicit response. That is the essence of tradition.\nWhat if what we create listens beyond what we know into what we feel? – To discover what light, space, sound – beauty – reveals rather than what aesthetic recipe conjures?\nIs there transcendance in design beyond the design and designer?\nChristianity Today recently brought up the the desire of most religious people for “traditional” places, https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/03/best-church-architecture-new-building-survey/ Other surveys are showing a cultural shift away from “traditional” weekly worship.  https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/religious-attendance-and-congregational-involvement/  but 2025 has seen an uptick in church attendance.\nThis DESIGN NOW! offers up a conversation on how the 21st century has (or has not) realized an evolution how anyone thinks of spiritual places. Mark Michael is the Editor of The Living Church and has seen hundreds of creations based on faith alone. Ian Douglas is a scholar of theology, was a Bishop in the Episcopal Church and worked with Duo Dickinson to create places that reflected how...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/szgB95-9kPVNh_zS6FHyChtAHi-IrV3nAnj1oRBKYT4/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8xZTJi/ZGViZGJkYWZjYjJl/ZTg5YWRiNjljNWRj/ZTc3OS5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}