In ten years, church buildings will need to be flexible, portable, or opportunistic to respond effectively to the culture. Maybe all three, according to designers at Beck Architecture. Beck, a big commercial design, construction and development firm headquartered in Dallas, interviewed ministry leaders (didn’t say how many) to learn what the culture might offer and how ministries could best equip themselves in 2022.
Their conclusions are posted at futurechurchbeck.wordpress.com.
It’s not long view thinking. In design and construction terms, 2022 is now, and one suspects that the calendar for implementing some of the more exotic concepts may slip a bit. But they’ve assembled some fine images of some inspiring ideas. You’ll also find a discussion of the technology that churches might employ.
Here are five “types” the folks at Beck came up with:
- Flexible Church: Low cost, adaptable, new construction that can be easily changed. Beck’s designers suggested a steel structure with standard bays that can be skinned and fitted out as needed.
- Found Church: Structures that are easily implemented in found outdoor space, broken down on a weekly basis, and stored in trucks when not in use.
- Global Church: An “affordable, secure, sustainable, and repeatable” building infrastructure that is drop-shipped by sponsor churches to Third World sites. Such a framework would be completed with indigenous materials.
- Rebirthed Church: A once-abandoned church that is refitted for increased sustainability and a “missional, rather than a simple attendance approach,” to ministry.
- Urban Church: A commercial structure re-purposed to meet downtown needs, with space that serves the church on the weekends and community needs during the week
Images at top by Beck Architecture from futurechurchbeck.wordpress.com
