INTERFAITH PROJECT PRESENTATION Title : Multifaith Centre Building and Design - Introduction to Asian Culture and Religion (Bahai) Presented by : Chuen-Tat Kang (江俊达) July 2011

Purpose of the Project Propose the typical design for multifaith centre development in Australia Assist the understanding of the culture and religion of Asian countries in the aspects of religious centre development Design interfaith activity education program in the state of Victoria in Australia

BAHAI TEMPLE ESTABLISHMENT The temple or houses of worship of the Bahai Faith or religion are open structure, being designed to demonstrate the principle practicality about Bahai’s commitment to unity in diversity. The temple is also filled with light, as a part of expressive of the attitude the Bahai religion takes towards its relationships with all parts of the human based civilized society. 2. The houses of worship are not only serve for Bahai community services but also opened as places where anybody with any faiths or no faith meet to worship in a building with a side and a dome, symbols of the acceptance of all religious traditions. The services inside Bahai sacred spaces are non-denominational without any sermon or other attempts to cast these teachings in a mould of Bahai interpretation specifically. 3. The service participants may enter the temple by any door to experience the readings and prays from world’s faith scripture in assemblies to recognize one Creator. The spirit of optimism of Bahai temple could be proven in the integration of diversified architectural traditions, design openness with Bahai services free from sermons and ritual. 4. Temple has played a central role in Bahai community life, where other agencies, such as colleges or schools, hostels, home for the aged and administrative centers will be constructed in time around the Bahai temple.

BAHAI TEMPLE ESTABLISHMENT 5. The music inside Bahai temple are selected with set of music sung by a trained Capella choir. 6. An example of typical Bahai temple, located in Wilmette, Illinois in United States of America (USA), named “Mother Temple of the West”, is able to integrate several major architectural traditions and wove together various religious symbols in a single building. 7. According to Louis Bourgeois in un Homme et son oeuvre : “…When man-made beliefs are rooted out of all religions, we find only harmony. Today, however, religion is foundering so such in superstitions and human theories that it has to be defined in a new form in order to become pure and spotless once more. It is the same in architecture… Now, in this new concept of the Temple is woven, in a symbolical form, the great Bahai teaching of unity, unity of all religions and all mankind. We find these combinations of mathematical lines symbolizing those of the universe and in their complex merging of all religions into one.” Reference : Hatcher WS, Martin JD : The Bahai Faith – The Emerging Global Religion. Harper and Row Publisher, 1984, San Francisco in United States of America (USA), page 169-171.