Bahá’í Temple Competition, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 2015
in collaboration with Maziar Behrooz Architects
AIA Peconic Award for unbuilt work
Bahá’í literature stipulates that temples must be nine-sided dome structures that are in harmony with nature: rules typically translated into pure geometric forms of domes and cones. Following clues from vernacular typologies, this proposal for a new Bahá’í Temple in Port Moresby Papua New Guinea allows nature (and in particular, the movement and orientation of the sun) to gently deform a ribbed dome, pulling open an oculus to the midday sun angle, and pulling open the nine bays to create shading and structure.
The depth of the fins varies according to the need for shade. On the interior a dome-shaped canopy reinforces the dome form.The concentric seating plan is laid out with its center off-center with respect to the overall form, but in the location where the sunlight will illuminate the speaker.
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