More on the Leura Chapel

Here are some additional images of the Leura Chapel in Australia that I posted on a while back. It remains my current favorite LDS Chapel with natural light carving out and shaping the forms of the building.


Looking toward the back of the chapel. Notice the natural light coming into the chapel from the light trough reflector bowl at the base of the wall as well as from the clerestory windows above. See building section here.


Looking toward the rostrum in the chapel. Note the light onto the rostrum coming from the notched area above the speaker. This window is recessed into the steeple tower.


Step-down Baptismal Font in main foyer of building. Natural light fills the foyer and corridor from the courtyard.


Light trough reflector bowl in the chapel - where the floor and the bottom of the wall meet - see section through chapel.


Stage in Cultural Hall - note there is no basketball court, making it a true cultural hall. The aerial photo has the basketball court exterior to the building. Natural light plays a key role even in the cultural hall.


Bishop's Waiting Area, while feeling a bit prison-like, is still filled with natural light and a connection to the exterior.


Exterior Beam Detail


Barrel Vault Corridor filled with natural light from the courtyard. Doors on the right of corridor open up to the cultural hall, allowing activities to flow directly from the cultural hall to the courtyard when the glass doors are opened up.


View to the Exterior Courtyard


Note the recessed window in steeple tower providing light onto the rostrum and speaker.


Serpentine Rostrum in Chapel. Note the wall of windows on the far wall which provides a connection to the main entry.
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Leura Chapel

The Leura chapel is located in the Blue Mountains of Australia in New South Wales, near Sydney. Designed in 1980 by Dale Swan from the firm of Ancher/Mortlock/Woolley and built in 1983, this is a striking departure from the Standard Plans program administered by Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City. I was very pleased to learn of its existence this week. The building has been published in two books, is featured on the architects’ website, and won a Merit Award from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in 1984.

"Mormon Chapel
Design/Completion 1980/1983
Leura, New South Wales
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
3,850 square metres
Load-bearing brickwork, steel roof frame
Painted brick, concrete, corrugated iron

The Mormon Church has traditionally chosen the design for each of its local chapels from a set of standardised designs. The chapel at Leura was one of the earliest breaks from this tradition, but was nevertheless required to incorporate the church’s familiar symbolism.

The result is a tower with a stylised and tapered finial and low spreading, white, domestic-scale roofs. The prominent hilltop site is typical of locations for traditional churches, so an effort was made to create a building that was recognisable as a church, while eschewing traditional church elements.

Light is the overall theme of the interior, and it is brought in from four sources to play on a volume of white surfaces. Primary sources are the close-mullioned window to the gallery and forecourt, and skylights at the ridge line. A large window recessed into the tower brings light along the surface of the end wall, behind the dais, to pass over the vault of the gallery. The most subtle light enters from a huge half-cylindrical reflector on the west side. Light is reflected up along the roof plane from an opening at the level of the pews, but as the roof extends to the centre of the cylinder, no direct view out is obtained. This cylinder also acts as a somewhat oversized roof gutter." (From ‘The Master Architect Series IV – Ken Woolley and Ancher Mortlock & Woolley,’ page 102-103.)







"NSW7 Church of Jesus Christ and The Latter Day Saints
Railway Parade, Leura
1983. Ancher Mortlock & Woolley
Public access available

The early 1980s saw a range of white architectural projects. This church by architect Ken Woolley incorporated symbols which are required by the Mormons in their churches, including the use of a tower and low-spreading, domestically-scaled roofs. The white colour in the church is also a requirement of the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints.

The serene interior space is lit with reflected light from semi-circular troughs at ground level. Light also enters through the ridge line where it is baffled by the tie beams. A large window, recessed into the tower which passes over the vault of the gallery, lights the speakers from the side and from above. The construction of the chapel was kept very simple to facilitate the use of volunteer labour to build the church." (From ‘The Architecture of East Australia’ by Bill MacMahon, page 122-123.)







The design incorporates simple, clean lines into the building. This allows for building costs that are in line with Standard Plan meetinghouses of similar size. The white exterior building materials and roof reflect the hot Australian sun away, helping to keep the building cool, providing energy savings, and a building that stands out in the neighborhood. The cultural hall opens up into the barrel-vaulted corridor and beyond into an open courtyard space for activities, directly linking the interior and exterior.

The font for the building is located at the entry lobby with step-down seating leading to the waters edge for viewing. The location of the font here is a sermon all by itself teaching the importance of baptism to the LDS Church. Baptisms are arguably the most important ordinance performed in our meetinghouses. And yet the space for baptism is in many cases unimportant with regard to its placement in the building. Putting the font behind closed doors hidden in a back classroom does little to promote our understanding of the importance of baptism. The font here exists in the most visible space of the building.

This type of approach to the building of sacred space is recognized by the community who have embraced the building, the members who use the building, and the design professionals who have awarded the building with deserving public recognition. The building also becomes a missionary face for the Church that clearly communicates the gospel principles of baptism, the light of Christ, the living water, renewal, and community. Repeating this chapel as part of the Standard Plan program would endear members to their buildings and be a place of joy for members of the community to rally around and support.



Unfortunately no building has been built in the past 25 years that resembles this, nor have any of the innovations or features discovered here by the architect been used elsewhere in LDS buildings. It is rumored that the presiding bishop, during a tour of the building said the Church would never again build a meetinghouse like this. And none ever have. This is the only recent LDS Meetinghouse I am aware of that has been published or honored with an award because of its beauty and architectural merit. If there are other recent modern LDS chapels out there that you are familiar with, that are of good report or praiseworthy, I would be interested to learn of them.



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Hydroponics, Urban Farming and LED Lighting

You know how you learn a new word and then all of a sudden you see it everywhere? I learned the term ‘locavore’ last week from a post on Latter-day Sustainability. And now I’m seeing it everywhere. Above is an image from an unusual, but fantastic, competition entry idea for creating an urban farm. ‘The Locavore Fantasia’ by the architect WORK AC is an apartment building topped with a working farm.

"We thought we’d bring the farm back to the city and stretch it vertically," says Work AC co-principal Dan Wood. "We are interested in urban farming and the notion of trying to make our cities more sustainable by cutting the miles [food travels]," adds his co-principal (and wife) Amale Andraos. The design would have different crops on each floor while four large water tanks would collect rainwater for irrigation. Crops would face south towards the sun.

VERTICAL FARM advantages:
-Ability to feed 50,000 people from one building
-Save significantly on transportation costs
-Stimulate economy by providing local jobs
-Build a stronger community
-Reduce rural agricultural land use
-Allow the return of farmland to forestland

The most published vertical farm design can be seen below. Interestingly, this has erroneously been reported all over the web as a building that is being developed in Las Vegas. However, the originator of the building is not aware of this, and is unsure how the false rumor was started. Still, it remains a great concept for urban food production.


Image from Chris Jacobs blog


Image from NY Magazine


Hydroponics
With the possibility of indoor farming, we can look to hydroponics rather than using soil-based methods.

HYDROPONIC advantages:
-Provides constant temperature and light to maximize crop yield
-Extended growth seasons
-Minimizes use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, improving the health of people and ecosystems
-Water is used efficiently
-The most environmentally friendly method of growing plants
-Cheaper and more efficient than soil gardening
-Removes risk of erosion and allows land to return to natural state
-Eliminates most bacteria, pathogens, protozoa, and plant nematodes improving the health of the plants
-Automatic watering and feeding
-Simple weed control
-Eliminates intricate soil-management strategies and guesswork
-Provides a balanced formula of nutrients made for the purpose of optimizing plant growth


Agro Housing by Knafo Klimor Architects
Winner of 2nd International Competition for Sustainable Housing (China 2007)
Chinese apartment tower utilizing hydroponic gardens at each unit


Agro Housing by Knafo Klimor Architects
Winner of 2nd International Competition for Sustainable Housing (China 2007)
Chinese apartment tower utilizing hydroponic gardens at each unit

"Specialty crops such as tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, and hot peppers, which cannot be grown conventionally all year long, are being grown hydroponically year ‘round. These vegetables that were previously scarce in winter are now plentiful. Since hydroponically grown vegetables can be continuously harvested, even regions that have harsh winters or short growing seasons can grow these specialty crops." (Source)


Lettuce growing Aeroponically

The most rapidly evolving type of hydroponic system is the ‘Nutrient Film Technique’ where a thin film of nutrient solution flows through a plastic-lined channel containing the plant roots. This system has the advantage of a using a significantly reduced volume of nutrient solution.


Strawberries growing in ‘Polygal hanging bed-pack’ troughs suspended at a height of 1.8 m above the ground level


LED Lighting
With the possibility of indoor farming, we can also look to LED lighting as an energy efficient light source.


Arclinea Indoor Greenhouse
Arclinea's innovation, based on technology developed by NASA, incorporates a specialized LED lighting system that mimics the movement of the sun from rise to set, allowing small herbs to grow indoors in the dead of winter.

LED advantages:
-Allows efficient indoor gardening - even in the kitchen
-Safe to use
-Low voltage
-10 to 12 year bulb life
-Operate 24/7 all year long
-No mercury, glass, or UV
-No ballast or reflector - light goes straight to the plant
-Produces only 25% visible light - minimum heat and glare
-Eliminates wasted light and heat

Good testing site for LED lighting and indoor gardening


LED Grow Master Global

(Primary source for much of the research taken from http://www.verticalfarm.com/plans-2k4.htm)

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Is the Desert Blossoming?

Desert sky
Dream beneath the desert sky
The rivers run but soon run dry
We need new dreams tonight
(Lyrics from ‘In God’s Country’ by U2)

From the time they left the United States in 1846 to head West, the Mormons were involuntarily introduced to living in the desert. Since that time, the country has followed them West, against the recommendations of John Wesley Powell. "Powell challenged the popularly held belief that ‘rain follows the plow’—that is, that tilling the soil actually increases the annual rainfall, or that as the population grows, the moisture intensifies." And yet today, three of the fastest growing metro areas in America are Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. At the end of 2006, seven of the top ten largest cities in the country all bordered Mexico. (source) The population is shifting to the desert and is quickly running out of water.

Last week was reported that Lake Mead, the largest artificial reservoir in the country, has a 50% chance of going dry by 2021 because of increasing demand from the booming populations. (here and here) The population estimate for Las Vegas and Clark County is two million, Phoenix is four million, and greater Los Angeles is 13 million.

These three cities also happen to be some of the largest concentrations of Mormons outside of Utah. There are 83 Stakes in Arizona, 33 in Nevada, and 158 in California. Adding these to the other desert-climate states of Idaho (107), Texas (52), Utah (425), Wyoming (13), and New Mexico (14), for a total of 885, which is 1/3 of the entire church total of 2745.

With one third of the Church living in the American desert, how does this affect our attitudes towards the land? Is it even sustainable to live in a desert? With very little rain, past policies built dams on rivers to provide a water source for living and irrigating with. River flows were modified and aquatic species were threatened or extinguished. The excellent book by Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert, states "By the late 1970’s, there were 1251 major reservoirs in California, and every significant river—save one—had been dammed at least once." (page 9). Irrigation was needed to expand into the west, hydroelectric power was the cash cow, and so dams were built by the thousands, creating "a blanket death sentence for the free-flowing rivers in sixteen states." (page 136)

Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Utah, Rand Decker, stated, "The Colorado River, already utilized at 100-plus percent, will have more demands put on it as the Southwest continues to grow. The need for a well thought out, overarching policy, including instructional and technical considerations, will also grow. Utah is, literally, right in the middle of this." (source)

But is water conservation even a high priority to members of the church who have at least 1/3 of its members living in a desert? As of 2002, Utahns were the 2nd highest per capita water users in the country while also being the 2nd driest state in the nation (next to Nevada). Additionally, "Utahns waste up to 25 to 50 percent of all the water they use outside by relying on automatic sprinkling systems, which tend to over water by about 44 percent; by planting water-consuming Kentucky bluegrass lawn, rather than native, drought-resistant grasses; and by growing gardens of water-needy types of vegetation rather than native shrubs and flowers." (source)

From the scriptures, we learn about the temporary sojourn of both the children of Israel and Lehi’s family through the desert. After eight years of being led by the Liahona through the "fertile parts of the wilderness" (1 Nephi 16:16), Lehi’s family arrived at the land of Bountiful, with "its much fruit and also wild honey; and all these things were prepared of the Lord that we might not perish." (1 Nephi 17:5) Moses provided food (Exodus 16) and water (Exodus 15:22-25 and Exodus 17:1-6) miraculously to the children of Israel during their 40 years of wandering through the desert. Is the sojourn of the church in the desert likewise only temporary? If water sources run dry, is picking up and moving an option?

Oft-quoted scriptures about the desert include "the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose" (Isaiah 35:1) and "he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord." (Isaiah 51:3) Are these scriptures speaking literally? Isn’t this scripture speaking metaphorically for Israel receiving the gospel and flourishing? Because literally speaking, the western United States is still a desert. Irrigation has made it possible to live in such a climate, but annual rainfall is still very low.

Looking away from America, Dubai, also located in a desert, is the fastest growing city in the world. With no reliable water source, they have invested in the technology of desalination plants from the ocean to provide their water. "DEWA delivers water to almost 305,000 customers across the emirate of Dubai. As the Emirate continues its vibrant progress in all spheres, DEWA meets the growing demand for water and electricity, by advanced planning, preparing the necessary groundwork and execution of its projects at the highest quality, safety and environmental standards." (source)

Latter-day Saints pioneered the settling of the desert West. What is our proposed solution for the upcoming water shortage? Are we prepared? Here is one interesting concept, based on building greenhouses over microdams. David O Mckay said, "With every progressive age of the world, intellectual, nobleminded leaders have sought a better way of living than that which was current....The Church...offers to the world the solution of all its social problems."

As Latter-day Saints, do we really believe this? If so, what is the answer? Migration?Technology? A Miracle…? Read more on "Is the Desert Blossoming?"