Karin Ferrari

With support of the benno barth award, Karin Ferrari developed a new analytical lense for pseudo-sacred architecture. Her work connects commercial buildings which resemble ancient sacred architecture with research into the histories of vernacular architecture, finance capitalism, and cultures of consciousness. Ferrari went on a research trip to the United States to visit and document these strange hybrid dwellings: a wellness pool in a luxury hotel resort in Las Vegas appears as if consecrated to a Neptunian cult. Memphis, Tennessee, is home to a pyramid-shaped shopping mall larger than any pyramid in Egypt. And New York’s towering banks resemble ancient Greek temples, re-establishing the original connection between debt and faith, where the root of the word “credit” is the same as for “to believe”.

During her research, the notion pseudo-sacred architecture grew more complex. The religious roots of capitalism as a financial imaginary, and architectural fringe phenomena such as mega churches in abandoned shopping malls let a different story of commercial architecture unravel a mighty narrative. Needing to specify a new boundary object between the mundane and sacral, Karin Ferrari discovered a peculiar manifestation of this phenomenon in New York City: rooftop temples. What is dismissed as mere utility – water tanks, cell towers, or elevator machine rooms – might actually be sites of worship hidden in plain sight. She developed a morphological index of rooftop temples that establishes visual and theoretical connections between sacred architecture and urban infrastructure. Archi_Fictions of Ekstasis develops a new vocabulary to describe sacral-institutional-mythological manifestations in the urban environment.
Text: Bernhard Garnicnig