What’s your experience of quiet rooms, prayer rooms, multi-faith spaces? In hospitals, prisons, council offices, police headquarters?

What is the impact of these spaces?  There are plenty of them in London, many of them in the public sector.

Have you been part of a planning team?  Is there one where you work?  Do you make use of these spaces?

LBFN has invited Andrew Crompton, part of a research team from the University of Manchester, to tell us about the findings so far.  Andrew says,

” Most multi-faith spaces are windowless rooms with a suspended ceiling and cheap furniture (which looks like it’s come from IKEA) and home-made decorations – they’re kind of homely.

In fact they’re sort of vernacular expressions of spirituality.”

Andrew and his colleagues are investigating multi-faith spaces

• as symptoms of specific societal trends and political ambitions
• as works of architecture, shaped through the actions of architects, designers, engineers, artists, users, etc
• as agents that encourage, shape or facilitate particular activities
• as historical entities, that have developed and consolidated over time.

LBFN will pass on your comments to the team – or why not come along to our next meeting on the morning of Wednesday 14th September in Victoria (details from the Convener)?