To Design Temple, Architect Looks to the Congregants Souls
By JOAN ALTABE
Architecture writer
Sarasota Herald Tribune
April 22, 1990
A great building is not just a pretty face. It conveys an idea, says Sarasota architect Yehuda Inbar, designer of a forthcoming temple for the 150-member B nai Torah congregation on Bee Ridge Road. What s more, the idea comes first, he says. The form of the building comes from the idea.
Where does the idea come from? “I look for something that people who will use the building feel strongly about,” Inbar answers. In the case of temple B nai Torah, the congregants share a collective biblical memory of their ancestors crossing a harsh, canyon-ridden terrain on their exodus from Egypt to Israel, and receiving the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai on the way.
“I wanted to convey that experience in the building,” he said. “One of the most significant events in Jewish history is the deliverance of the commandments. I felt it necessary to bring the awesome beauty and scale of the Sinai, where this event took place, into the temple.”
Accordingly, the shape of the temple resembles the tablets on which the commandments were written. And to enter the structure, one will walk on stone through 35-foot-high, 6-foot-wide stone walls reminiscent of canyon walls. “The tall walls also make a strong transition from the outside world,” said Inbar. “They help change the mood of everyday life into one of quiet.”
And although the canyon-like stone walkway will be covered for protection from rain, the covering will be clear glass to allow a sky view, as in natural canyons. The walkway walls will be made of Jerusalem stone, a white-ish, marble-like stone carved out of the mountains of Jerusalem.
“Jerusalem is not only a physical entity in the world,” says Inbar, “but also a constant entity in the prayers and spirit of the Jewish people. The materials and spaces of the temple, then, need to reflect that – from the Jerusalem stone to the high-walled courtyards found in the old city. I want the physical and spiritual character of Jerusalem to be experienced by the congregants.”
The experience starts at the front gate leading to the stonewalled, stone-grounded courtyard. But it doesn t stop there. The wall and floor also will span the building where the sanctuary – facing east toward Jerusalem – is planned. Frameless glass walls, enclosing the building itself and allowing a view of a temple garden, will meet the floor, so the experience of stone is ongoing.
Temple B nai Torah, then, will have a heavy and strong air in the front, and a gentle, back-to-nature air in the rear. “We bring back nature,” says Inbar, “because that s what God provided us, and which we seem to pave over so much. Here, we bring it back and protect it by a wall.” All told, B nai Torah will have meaning as well as good looks, the architect says.
The architect also gave the temple a pyramid form to resemble the ziggurat, ancient expression of religious feeling used in Sumerian temples.
“I tried to bring the pyramid idea in, to evoke going up to a high mental state to meditate,” said the architect. “When we build for people, the structure should respond to their mental needs, not just their physical ones.”
Inbar also is designing a Baptist church with the same approach: “trying to get to the core of the people who are building-it, and to create a religious feeling and quiet atmosphere in which to meditate.”