A Study on Transition Between the Sacred and the Profane: The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels

Abstract

Can an ecclesiastic building designed in the 21st century introduce a new notion of transition between the sacred and the profane? As a part of a research focused on examining the threshold between the dichotomy, this study aims to elaborate on how the design of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels presents a gradual transition between the sacred and the profane. By analyzing the two prominent stages of transition – the plaza and the ambulatory – in the Cathedral, this paper illuminates that the transition between the sacred and the profane today can create an in-between and coexisting moment, where the two properties become less opposing.