WEBINAR - LeBrun Grant Lecture - Exploring Multifaith Spaces with Eric Salitsky

*This event is occurring as a live webinar. Registrants will be emailed a link to access the program; please continue to register.*

In this webinar, Eric Salitsky will present his 2018 Stewardson Keefe LeBrun Travel Grant research, "Exploring the Global Phenomenon of Multifaith Spaces." Most commonly found in airports, hospitals, and university campuses, multifaith spaces also exist in military bases, prisons, malls, stadiums, museums, and as stand-alone institutions. Salitsky traveled to over 50 of these spaces in New York, Boston, London, Manchester, Zurich, and Berlin to document the various ways that both architects and laypeople have attempted to solve the inherent issues involved in accommodating the prayer needs of various religions at once.

Multifaith worship spaces not only serve an important spiritual role in post-secular society but also showcase how diversity in religious inclusion helps encourage the acceptance of religious and ethnic minorities within a multicultural landscape. Unfortunately, many spaces fail to reach the fullest expression of these principles due to a lack of financial investment, design consideration, and general awareness of their existence. Since there are no well-known precedents and few established guidelines to follow, each multifaith worship space varies greatly. Salitsky determined that most of these spaces fall into two typologies: the hive and the hub. Throughout the webinar, Salitsky will consider the success of the design, the challenges of creating a multi-use space, the reactions of worshippers, and other features to discuss best practices going forward in this building type. 

Speaker:
Eric Salitsky, Architectural Designer 

Eric Salitsky received a M.Arch from Pratt Institute and a B.A. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from University of Wisconsin-Madison.