Demographics Drive Church Design
As published in Worship Facilities, Sep/Oct 2006
Demographics – the characteristics such as age, race, sex, and income that serve define a group of people – play a significant role in the look and layout of today's worship facilities.
Both the demographics "inside the church" (i.e., those of the congregation) and those of the geographic area surrounding the facility impact design decisions, according to David Evans, president of Kansas City, Missouri-based Mantel Teter Architects, a planning, architectural and interior design firm that specializes in commercial, religious, educational and civic projects.
Internally, the age of the congregation greatly influences how worship space and indeed the whole church campus is laid out, he notes.
"An older congregation is often more traditional in its beliefs and values, and they want a more formal, ‘high' facility that reflects that, with design elements such as stained glass windows, organs, and steeples," Evans says. "They will often prefer a more formal, ordered, ‘colonial' style of exterior architecture, the red-brick-andwhite columns look," he says. On the inside, meanwhile, "Their preference is often for more traditional pew seating, as opposed to a more contemporary worship space filled with theater seating."
Younger congregations, meanwhile, typically prefer more contemporary/less-ornate design features, notes Evans.
"The buildings themselves will often be more contemporary in nature, with few or none of the typical symbols we expect to see on a church. There are usually no stained glass windows, and there may not be any crosses, towers, or steeples," says Evans. At the same time, "The church campus often includes cafes, bookstores, and other elements not traditionally associated with a church, as well as very elaborate youth centers that use color and props to reinforce the themes of the youth ministry."
Theatre seating is more the norm in contemporary churches, he notes. Meanwhile, finishes and colors "are more contemporary, creating an interior environment that speaks to a younger culture – which these days means a lot of warm earth-tone hues, with browns, richer oranges, and deep yellows especially popular now."
On the Outside
The demographics of the area surrounding a church can also have a large influence on design, according to Evans.
"A church locating in a rapidly growing area may want to modify its design plan in order to be make sure it has space to take care of increasing numbers of people that could be attending in the future," says Evans. Meanwhile, a church locating in a lower-income area may find a less flamboyant design most appealing to potential congregants, he notes; people in these areas might view an ornate, lavishly appointed church "as a place that is going to want a lot of money from us."
Evan's firm recently served as architect for Sheffield Family Life Center, located in downtown Kansas City. Mantel Teter oversaw construction of the church's new 132,000 square-foot, 3,500-seat Worship Center – a structure where the demographics of the surrounding area had a number of implications for design.
The church's location on an inner-city site surrounded by a relatively high-crime/ high-vandalism neighborhood resulted in the very limited use of glass in the center's design, "and when we did use it, we used a very special, very durable glass," recounts Evans. Also, the exterior skin of the structure was done in precast concrete, "which is a material that is not easily defaced."
Race/Ethnicity
Along with age and income, the racial/ethnic composition of a church congregation has its impact on design, according to Todd Phillippi, president of Penndel, Pennsylvania- based WPH Architects for Ministry, a company devoted exclusively to serving Christian churches and ministries through master planning and architecture. Hispanic churches place a high premium on designing space to accommodate a Sunday packed with a variety of activities that involve the entire congregation, notes Phillippi.
For example, "A Haitian congregation spends all day Sunday at church. They start the day off with Sunday school classes; then there is a worship service that everybody attends – there are no multiple services at different times," Phillippi explains. And after services, the congregation joins together for a meal and fellowship.
A Haitian congregation's church is truly a "house" of worship, says Phillippi. "And the primary components of that house are classrooms for Sunday school; an area in which all members of the church – including the kids – meet and worship; and a fellowship hall where everybody eats together."
African-American congregations, meanwhile, often place more emphasis on the musical aspects of the worship service, according to Phillippi. "From a design stand-point, this means that you want the worship room to be able to accommodate a large choir, as well as concerts and other events."
An example of this design concept in action is Sharon Baptist Church in Philadelphia, a recent project by WPH. Here, some 59,000 square feet of new construction incorporates a 3,000-seat worship center with state-of-the-art lighting, audio and video; and a 250-seat choir platform on motorized/retractable risers, "so that the church can set up for the choir on Sunday morning, and if there are other types of events set for later in the day, they can quickly create a platform for them."
Generational Differences
Citing concepts found in the "Millennial Matrix," a model of communications formulated by Rex Miller, Phillippi notes that there are some specific preferences for varying types of worship area design among Baby Boomers, which the U.S. Census Bureau defines as members of the generation born in 1946 through 1964; and the Baby Busters/Gen. X cohort, born 1965 through 1976.
While their parents relied on print media for getting the vast majority of their information about the world, "THE BOOMERS ARE THE BROADCAST CULTURE GENERATION, RAISED ON GETTING THEIR INFORMATION FROM RADIO AND TELEVISION," SAYS PHILLIPPI. As a result, the worship center this group typically finds attractive "is very theater-like, bright and open with white walls, stage-focused with the latest in video and audio technology, and utilizing comfortable, individual theater seating."
The Busters, meanwhile, don't demand quite as high a degree of "polish" in their worship space, according to Phillippi. "This group puts less emphasis on the material," he says. "It likes everything in their worship space to be very high-tech – and like the Boomers, they want the best in audio and video, but it's built into the space in boxes with wires hanging out."
There is a distinct trend among the youngest groups of Busters that Phillippi describes as "a return to more mysticism" in the worship experience. The worship spaces in these churches incorporate incense, candles, "and different icons, images, and liturgies from the past – all expressed in a fully high-tech fashion," he says. Members of this demographic segment "may think that stained glass is cool – but they use video projectors to project images of stained glass on the walls of their worship space, which they also often utilize as a blank canvas for their own artwork."
Digging Out the Data
The ultimate source of demographic data is the U.S. Bureau of the Census. There are, though, a number of companies that add value to the raw numbers through various methods of presenting the information.
One of these companies is Rancho Santa Margarita, California-based Percept, a provider of demographic data and reports. This group's primary church information product is the "Ministry Area Profile" (MAP), according to Tom Hoyt, vice president, marketing communications.
The MAP incorporates data from the U.S. Census Bureau; Claritas, Inc., a leading supplier of demographic information whose products include a variety of specialized products designed to define and segment demographic characteristics, lifestyle behaviors and consumer preferences; Global Insight, Inc,, a worldwide economic and market forecasting firm; and Percept's own Ethos data base.
Claritas combines geographic data with Census data, combining this further with data from Global Insight, "to provide an integrated demographic profile of any area in the U.S., from the block to the national level," says Hoyt. Ethos, meanwhile, "originates from the largest survey database of religious attitudes and behaviors in the United States, exclusive to Percept, and is only available in Percept information products."
Those purchasing the MAP get a 27-page report on their particular geographic area of interest. It is capped off with Percept's proprietary "Compass Report," a data product that indicates likely preferences, for both the population within the study area and the U.S. as a whole, for various church-related programs, features and facilities.
Q U I C K - L I N K S
Mantel Teter Architects
Architecture, interior design
(816) 931-5600
www.mta-kc.com
Percept
Provider of demographic data and reports
(949) 635-1282
www.percept1.com
WPH Architects for Ministry
Growth planning/master planning/architecture/interior
design/landscape design
(215) 741-3200
www.churcharchitects.com
Claritas Inc.
Provider of U.S. demographic data and target marketing
information
(800) 866-6520
www.claritas.com
Global Insight Inc.
Provider of economic and financial information on countries, regions and industries
(781) 487-2100
www.globalinsight.com
U.S. Census Bureau
Data resource on U.S. people and economy
(301) 763-INFO (4636)
www.census.gov
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