Sacred Shift Project began in 2019 as an ongoing survey of sites of interfaith heritage through the lens of adaptive reuse.
Conceptually, Sacred Shift looks at sites of ritual reuse by different faith traditions as places of shared and contested material and intangible heritage, arguing adaptation and reuse are, in their own right, a form of heritage. In urban settings, many religious traditions and migrant communities have prioritized ritual over built form, making their legacies in many ways transient or easily erased. This can be informed by theology and belief (i.e..an emphasis on the spiritual and communal relationship over the built form) as well as from a point of financial and social access. Focusing a study on specific, individual instances of this phenomenon demonstrates both the benefits and tensions of community-led reuse and how this has been shaped by and has informed urban planning and heritage listing.
Sustainability for historic religious buildings remains in many ways elusive. Religious and community identity has been foundational to the built environment, often informing early urban planning schemes. Additionally, many religious buildings serving as key anchors within the urban landscape. As climate concerns drive impending need to address demolition and new construction through wider applications of adaptive reuse, a futurist lens suggests increasing densification and urbanization may be met with further tensions over identity and space. Applying principles for holistic sustainability, including heritage identity, to the adaptive reuse process demonstrates how religious communities can partner in the future sustainability of cities through exemplifying ways interfaith engagement has facilitated community-led reuse. These examples could act as guides and learning lessons for future adaptive reuse projects.
For more, see Rebekah Coffman, “The Sacred Shift: Architectural Conservation through Ritual Reuse,” (Master’s Thesis, NYU, 2018-2019), “Sacred Shift: creating, constructing, and conserving sacred space at 59 Brick Lane” (SAH Conference Paper, 2023), and Rebekah Coffman, “59 Brick Lane: A History of Adaptive Reuse,” Architecture and Culture (2024)
Rebekah Coffman is a historian, preservationist, and curator from Minneapolis, MN currently working in Chicago, IL. Her interdisciplinary work is at the intersection of religious identity and the built environment and explores themes of tangible and intangible heritages in material and visual culture through place-based, community-centered approaches.
In the 2010s, Rebekah started working in religious buildings in transition, recognizing both their importance as places of history and heritage while trying to understand the balance of preserving sacred and community use with long-term sustainability. This passion led to pursuing graduate studies in London in historical and sustainable architecture where she focused on the heritage identity and adaptive reuse of religious buildings. She continues this research as a way to give a glimpse into the multilayered ways community-led adaptions preserve what has come before, embody the present moment, and breathe new life into spaces for the future.