A priest, a rabbi and an imam walk into a building, it could be the start of something beautiful! The House of One, the three Abrahamic faiths together in the same building, is to be built on the land that has been occupied by a church, built and rebuilt since the 13th Century. The church, which is in Berlin Germany, was destroyed in WW2 and the congregation that owns the property then chose to pave over the lot. Until now!
Seeking to give something back to the city, the congregation didn’t wish to build another church that might only see infrequent use. So they have decided to build a spiritual center with a common entrance and three separate, but equal in size, worship spaces for Christians, Muslims and Jews.
The charter for the House of One is founded on four principles;
- nonviolence and respect for all life
- solidarity
- respect and life lived with integrity
- equality
A design competition was conducted to seek out an architect. The firm chosen was Kuehn Malvezzi. They need €43 million for the project and currently they have only chipped away that goal by €1 million. They are taking a page from the building project for the Crystal Cathedral, back in the day and they are selling bricks for the project at €10 each. The rabbi involved in the undertaking, Tovia Ben Chorin, hopes that this is an idea whose time has come, the start of something that will spread to other multicultural cities around the world.
The images can be found in the link to the design firm Kuehn Malvezzi above.
The origin for this story is at Good.