The design for the new Baha’i Temple in Santiago has just been approved. We Baha’is don’t build many temples - this will be the eighth in the world, and the first in South America.
Baha’i Temples have nine sides, being the numerical value of the word Baha. They are open to anybody, and no sermons are preached within, only readings from holy scriptures spoken or sung. There are no particular rituals associated with them, they are purely for worship.
This new one is utterly extraordinary - I don’t think I’ve ever seen a building quite like it. It combines wood, glass and alabaster (lots of alabaster, over a steel frame) into something simultaneously familiar and otherworldly.
That’s extraordinary!
I visited the one in Delhi in 1997, which I think was the newest one at the time (correct me if I’m wrong), and was heartily impressed. They’re very beautiful buildings.
I just realised what this one reminds me of, although it is admittedly only a model: you’ve seen Krull, right?