ABSTRACT
Archaeologists, art historians, critical theoreticians, geographers, philosophers, and social historians have defined religious space through human interaction and "urban phenomena and institutional forces". Scholars and architects must investigate sacred space using interdisciplinary frameworks. In medieval Christian traditions, sacred space meant "the way in which ancient and medieval patrons, architects, and masons physically shaped the environment in sacred cause". Contrast this with medieval Indian and Chinese Buddhist temples that were inhabited by study or practice monks and nuns with the wealthy donor laity as a third group. Many projects integrate secular spaces within their walls, including recreational, educational, ecological, aesthetic, political, and communal, specifically sports, music concerts, and, of course, communal food events. People who partake in these activities are not just limited to members of the religious community. Some projects exemplify shifts in religious institutional identity: while the space was originally built for one religion, through a combination of necessity and human intervention, it was shifted to a different religion.
