ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a better understanding of the reciprocal relationship between architecture and the development of religious and cultural community. It examines how the Detroit Jewish community seeks to maintain its historic ties to religious and cultural tradition, but also to be innovative and make Judaism more attractive and relevant to a declining population, through its adaptation of two architectural environments, the buildings of the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit (JCC). This is a comparative case study of the different ways that architecture is used to facilitate social interaction and group bonding, enact imaginations and desires for community, and foster active planning for future social change. The JCC makes for an especially fruitful case study because it operates two buildings in two very different suburban neighborhoods of the greater Metro Detroit, Michigan, area: the Kahn building in West Bloomfield and the Jimmy Prentis Morris (JPM) building in Oak Park.
