An architect can design a building, organize space, compose a façade and transform materials into form. A spiritual architect searches for something beyond all of these things. The spiritual architect asks what architecture can awaken in a human being. What can a space make us feel about ourselves, about nature, about other people and about our place within something larger than ourselves? Can architecture create silence without demanding silence? Can it make us suddenly awar

Architecture does not begin with a building. Design does not begin with a shape. Long before there is a floor plan, façade, material palette or beautifully rendered image, there is something much more fragile and much more important: an idea searching for its own language. Creative research for architects and designers is the process of discovering that language. It is a way of moving beyond the collection of information and entering a deeper investigation into meaning, emoti