Faith & Form - Religious Art & Architecture Awards

Each year, a group of five jury members gathers to judge the submissions to the Faith & Form/IFRAA Religious Art and Architecture Awards program. New to this year’s awards program was a “Sacred Landscape” category, and it drew 11 submissions, which we thought was a pretty respectable showing out of a total of 210 entrants. And the new category sparked some lively discussion about what is sacred space, how sacred space can be used, and who can create a sacred landscape.

One submission, for the Texas A&M Bonfire Memorial (see inset), launched a far-reaching discussion among the jury members about what is a legitimate sacred space. The project was the result of a national design competition to memorialize a dozen Texas A&M students who were killed while constructing the Aggies’ annual bonfire structure in 1999. The scheme notes the history of the bonfire tradition and culminates in a circular space, described by the designers as “The Spirit Ring,” which is surrounded by 12 concrete portals that face toward the hometowns of the “fallen men and women from different backgrounds, communities, beliefs, and religions,” as explained in the awards submission. One jury member championed the project, lauding it for what he described as its elegant, abstract design quality. But other jury members questioned whether this was, in fact, a sacred place. The crux of the issue for these jurors was that the memorial was built by a secular institution, for which the annual bonfire has become a “sacred” rite. The requirement for the Sacred Landscape category was stated as a design that “supports a religious or spiritual purpose,” and “the use of landscape and man-made materials to create outdoor environments—new or restored—conducive to prayer, meditation, or transcendence.” Is it possible for a secular space to be sacred in the ways described above? Most of the members of this year’s jury were not willing to consider it in the case of this submission. They warned, in fact, that opening the door to what they considered a secular monument would give the green light to every “dead cat memorial” out there. Each year the jury members change, and so does what a particular jury considers sacred and not sacred. But we’d like to hear from our readers. Is the Bonfire Memorial a legitimate sacred landscape? How would you have judged it? Write and let us know what you think.

Click on the links below to view the winners in each category.