House of Worship for Muslims, Christians, and Jews Proposed In Berlin
A new proposal in Berlin is seeking donations for its so-called House of One, a multi-purpose house of worship for Christians, Jews, and Muslims. The building will hold a synagogue, a church, and a mosque all under the same roof.
A competition for the design of the unified house of worship was held and architect Wilfried Kuehn's team won with its simple building design that features a tall, centered tower.
Via the BBC:
"Each of the singular spaces is designed according to the religious needs, the particularities of each faith. . . . There are for instance two levels in the mosque and the synagogue but there's only one level in the church. There will be an organ in the church. There are places to wash feet in the mosque."
Kuehn's team, when designing the building, discovered that the three different religions share a lot in their architectural history.
"What's interesting is that when you go back a long time, they share a lot of architectural typologies. They are not so different," Kuehn says. "It's not necessary for instance for a mosque to have a minaret - it's only a possibility and not a necessity. And a church doesn't need a tower. This is about going back to the origins when these three faiths were close and shared a lot architecturally".
To discourage arguments, each section of the building is exactly the same size.
The rabbi in the project, Rabbi Tovia Ben Chorin, says building the House of One in Berlin is historically significant. He told the BBC, "From my Jewish point of view the city where Jewish suffering was planned is now the city where a centre is being built by the three monotheistic religions which shaped European culture."
Donations are now being accepted, though perhaps the timing is off for all this peace and harmony. A new statistic showed that anti-foreigner attacks in Germany rose 20 percent last year to its highest level since 2006.
[Image via Getty]