PROJECT_INDEX  
Building as Non-building Inspired by the fact that Jewish Identity is rooted in principals of place, rather than in buildings as objects of deity, we became intrigued with the idea of creating 'place' in the image of a non-building. Instead of crafting a building in the traditionla sense, we sought instead to architecturalize a landscape, to make minimal the prescence of architecture by rooting the building in the land rather than imposing it upon it.
Judaism's Pilgrim festivals Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot which are celebrated by the bringing the first crops of the season to the Temple, all were originally agricultural holidays. And Flemington, while in transition, bears evidence of it's beginnings as a farming community. The building's orientation and the disposition of the program elements creates a continuium from the west to east, that suggests the idea of pilgrimmage, the journey through the life and teachings of the Jewish people from childhood through adulthood.
The project, envisioned as a marker of Jewish presence on American soil, aims to create a place of memory where lives, work, beliefs and rituals are played out, retained and sustained, nurtured by the very land on which it is built.

Completed at John Nastasi Architects.
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