Presentation Prep

Laid out below is the layout for my preliminary presentation to the Honors Committee following a capstone case study:

Research Question: How has the shift towards digital worship and congregations begun to challenge the architectural layout of the physical church?

• Changed necessity to layout
• Looking at the difference between an existing church vs a recently developed
• Storefront churches have been the recent trend - looking at how technology is now integrated

Motivation: Personal experience in different churches through my hometown, Arkansas, and travelling the world.  

• Many opinions on the lighting within worship spaces
• Covid changed how churches operate
• Tradition vs Modern

Theory: The Covid pandemic accelerated the incorporation of media technology in churches, fundamentally shifting architectural priorities from communal gathering spaces to technologically mediated worship environments.

• Testable; Many scholars have researched on this shift and how technology has been the biggest impact using Covid as the catalyst
• Can address visibility, acoustics, camera framing and usage, overall infrastructure in design
• Allows precedent studies, comparison between churches, comparison between pre-2020 and post-2020

Audience: 

Main Audience: Architects and designers interested/work on religious architecture

Secondary: Church leadership and planners

• Able to reach into the community, but also look the design side

Method:

Historical: Research on the background of why in-person congregations are meaningful.  Use this to guide modern day findings compared to before there was an online option.

Correlational: Interviews with people within a church community; looking at data on the usage of online congregations before Covid, during Covid, and after Covid - comparison

Case Studies: Compare Cross Church to an existing cathedral nearby.  See how the new Catholic Church near campus merges tradition with modern.

Impact: Able to identify both positives and negatives in the modern design of churches implementing technology.  Change the way in which technology is integrated into the religious space, creating a better community within the church.

Feel free to leave comments about how to strengthen/add to make the presentation stronger and more cohesive.  The order in which they occur will also be the order of the presentation.