Stuckeman master’s student wins thesis award for multi-faith superstructure

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Department of Architecture in the College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School named Dillon Brown, who graduated from Penn State on May 5 with his master of architecture, the winner of the 2024 Jawaid Haider Award for Design Excellence in Graduate Studies for his proposal of a superstructure made up of five religious temples that he said “more accurately reflects the religious landscape in the United States than what is currently offered.”

With the Borough of Manhattan in New York City as his site, Brown designed temples for Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism to make up the larger structure, basing his selection of religions on census data from the Borough.

Brown said his project encourages interaction between people of the different religions who have different outlooks on life.

“The idea is that each temple is connected by a neutral non-religious space that is configured to encourage people to meet people [from other religions],” he said. “It is a suggestion to what a multi-faith temple could be, and what it can do for society.”

Brown, who is from Williamsport, said his original plan was to make an “ironic temple” that critiques other temples but through his readings and research, he said he “found that critiquing is the norm right now in society and it doesn't really do much of anything.”

“The thought came to my mind, ‘What can I do or say with my thesis that may have an actual impact?’” he said. “To me, I strongly view America as a polytheistic country, which is supported and protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. We have all religions represented here, and I don't suspect they will be going away anytime soon.”

The problem, according to Brown, is that the existing model for churches or temples is that they should be isolated, set apart from other faiths and often other cultures, which leaves Americans segregated from those with religious beliefs that differ from their own.

“We should normalize interfacing with other cultures and faiths, I think it is critical given recent world events,” Brown said. “And I think temples of this typology should have existed a long time ago.”

Brown said he drew inspiration for his project from other countries’ approaches to having multi-faith temples for their multi-faith societies. One such example is the Abrahamic House in Abu-Dhabi, United Arab of Emirates, by Adjaye Architects, which houses a mosque, a church and a synagogue — all of which sit upon a fourth secular space consisting of a forum and raised garden.

He was also inspired by the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Development on the University Park campus, which he says helped him understand how the programming of different faiths works.

“There are also some classic examples that helped me understand what space does for faith, such as the Hagia Sophia in Turkey and the Great Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba Spain. These examples show what happens when faith literally, physically intersects, which makes for interesting examinations,” said Brown.

Brown said he hopes his project will make an impact on how designers think about spaces and the divisions between people it has caused in the past.

“When we make a design in the world, we either mend these divisions or we enlarge them. It is my hope that others take on this mindset and want to do the critical, ethical thinking before they propose their next structure,” he said.

In announcing Brown as the winner of the award, the jury stated: “Taking on existential challenges that, through architecture, interface society and matters of spirit, the winning project has demonstrated not only attentive research and analysis, but equally a thoughtful response and complete execution of a capstone design project.”

Honorable mentions in the design competition went to Meisam Dadfarmay and Mengyao Zhang.

The jury for the Haider competition featured Brad Groff, 2002 architecture alumnus and founding principal of Groff Architecture, and Houman Riazi, a 2022 architecture doctoral alumnus who is a teaching assistant in the architecture department.

Now in its fifth year, the Haider Award for Design Excellence recognizes the most deserving master of architecture student for excellence in design, based on their culminating project/thesis. The award recipient is chosen by the head of the Department of Architecture upon recommendation by the faculty and the jury. The award was established in honor of the late Jawaid Haider, a long-time architecture professor at Penn State who died in 2018, with support from his family, friends and colleagues.

When asked what winning the Haider Award means to him, Brown said he is grateful that a design that addresses a problem in America can get the spotlight.

“I hope there is a larger audience that contemplates why temples don't communicate with each other,” he said.