Introduction

The Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 17 January 1995, the terrorist attack by Aum Shinrikyo sect members of 20 March 1995, and 9.11 were all events of considerable consequence for society, but they were also events of architectural significance—events that symbolize the crisis threatening the very thing called architecture. To a surprising degree, modernism exploited homeownership policies to extend its influence. The earthquake shook the very foundation of those policies as well as modernism itself. The religious buildings created by members of the Aum cult also upset the conventional view of architecture. Religions have traditionally made maximum use of the potential of architecture. Architectural stratagems such as symbolic exteriors that seem to reach the heavens and solemn interiors filled with light from above have been utilized in efforts to uplift the religious feelings of believers. The perpetrators seemed to mock the very act of creating symbols.