Alternative Title
Built on the Rock: A Hybrid Typology Combining Worship and Emergency Care Functions for a Sustainable Model of Church Building and Community Resilience
Date of Award
2021
Document Type
Thesis
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/10365/31975
Publisher
North Dakota State University
Rights
NDSU policy 190.6.2
URI
https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf
Abstract
American church buildings age, deteriorate, and vanish, their congregants dwindling and lacking the financial resources to build or maintain them. Simultaneously, a global pandemic sheds light on shortcomings in emergency readiness, particularly related to emergency treatment capacities. The two problems need not be addressed in isolation. The place where people take refuge in God can easily and logically become the place where they take refuge from disaster. This thesis will seek to address specific issues facing church congregations and emergency care centers through an innovative design solution drawing on the historic association of churches with disaster-related health care. The adaptive church building will be designed as a community asset, used normally by worshipers but converting to function as a sophisticated field hospital in times of increased need. As this mixing of typologies will benefit not only the faithful few but also local populations at large, charitable relief groups and non-government organizations will be incentivized to supplement the churches’ own diminishing means of building and maintaining them.
Recommended Citation
Reim, Philip, "Built on the Rock" (2021). Architecture Theses. 175.
https://digitalcommons.ndsu.edu/architecture-theses/175