By Ross Anderson and Maximilian Sternberg

Modern Architecture and the Sacred provides a timely reappraisal of architecture's manifold engagements with notions of the sacred in the twentieth century. A wide range of case material is presented over sixteen contributed essays - including the work of iconic modernist architects such as Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto and Mies van der Rohe - which together demonstrate that sacred or semi-sacred buildings should not be dismissed as peripheral phenomena in modernism. On the contrary, such works have much to reveal to us about the deeper motivations and complexities at the core of the modernist project. The case material is not limited simply to discussions of explicitly religious buildings (churches, synagogues, etc). The chapters look outwards to invocations of the 'semi-sacred' within secular buildings too - museums, exhibition pavilions, and memorials - which can all make claim at times to a form of sacred space. This expansion of the notion of sacred space sets this collection apart, providing a deeper insight into the role that spirituality plays in modern architecture's philosophical foundations, whether explicitly religious or otherwise.