The Forum for Architecture, Culture and Spirituality is an international scholarly environment established in April 2007 to support architectural and interdisciplinary scholarship, research, practice, and education on the significance, experience and meaning of the built environment. Its activities include web-based information resources, networking and discussion groups, conferences and symposia, and publications.
For fifteen years prior to the creation of the ACS Forum, a number of conferences dedicated to the cultural significance, ritual use and meaning of sacred places and religious architecture had been held. These included the “Multidisciplinary Symposium on the Definition and Design of Sacred Space," (Miami University, 1993); “Making Sacred Places,” Built Form and Culture Research Conference, (University of Cincinnati, 1997); “Pilgrimage and Complexity,” (Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, 1997); “Space, Place & Spirituality in the Built Environment,” (Ball State University, 1999); and “Evangelical Worship and Church Architecture” (Judson College, 2001).
During those years, there also was a remarkable growth in scientific and professional research on mind and spirituality accompanied by a parallel increase in public interest in the subject (see Definitions-References). All this indicated a propitious time to engage a national/international audience through a process that was integrative (interdisciplinary), diverse (ecumenical), cutting-edge (at the forefront of research and practice), rigorous, and open. With this on mind and at heart, the ACS Forum was founded in Spring 2007.
Since then, our group has gone from 30 original members to over 230 (and growing), successfully organized four symposia, peer-reviewed and published relevant work, offered services to its members, and developed a community among scholars, educators and practitioners interested in matters occurring at the intersection between architecture, culture, and spirituality.
For the whitepaper explaining the creation of ACS, CLICK here (in PDF format)