“Historically, religious architecture and church-building have been the main motor of architecture,” says Lukas Feireiss, coeditor of Closer to God, a new book from German publisher Gestalten that documents 93 awe-inspiring examples of sacred spaces from the past decade. “If anything could be done, it was first tried in a cathedral or other religious building. With religious architecture, you always expect more meaning.”

Take the church at the Sao Paolo Parish Complex (interior shown here), designed by Italians Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas for the Umbrian town of Foligno and completed in 2009.

Parishioners pass through the doors and gather under an imposing concrete box that’s almost as big as the church itself. The hollow structure hovers disconcertingly over the floor, without a single column in sight. “I tried to give a spiritual sense of life inside the building,” Massimiliano says. “You have something that is simple but also complex—complexity to make a human emotion.” The effect is transformative: The congregation feels closer to otherworldly powers, and the space is just ominous enough to keep them in line.

Authors: Tim McKeough

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