THE ARCHITECT’S KNOWLEDGE RESOURCE
In Search of the Masters of Light
Chair James F. Williamson, FAIA, shares lessons learned from IFRAA’s tour of Rome

In this illustrated article, James F. Williamson, FAIA, presents the findings of the nine-day Interfaith Forum on Religious Art and Architecture (IFRAA) conference, held in Rome in October 2008, devoted to a search for masters of light. Williamson reflects on two millennia of Roman religious architecture extending from the ancient pagan world of the Pantheon and the Ara Pacis Augustae; to the triumph of Christianity exemplified in the Baroque genius of Borromini, Bernini, and Michelangelo; to the existential search for meaning of Meier, Piano, and others in our own time. The author argues that we see in the architecture of the sacred a yearning for the divine expressed through the timeless power of space and light, the raw materials of architecture. Join Williamson, who also serves as professor of architecture at the University of Memphis, and the IFRAA knowledge community members on this architectural quest by visiting the AIA’s architect’s knowledge resource. (Pictured here is Borromini’s San Giovanni in Laterano. Courtesy of the author.)