Tri-Faith Commons: A Case Study in Community Engagement
Tri-Faith Commons is an award-winning international model for interfaith learning, collaboration, and community-building. This unique project brings together a synagogue, church, mosque, and interfaith center on a 38-acre campus in Omaha, Nebraska. Using Countryside Community Church—the most recent architectural addition to Tri-Faith Commons—as a case study, discover how these diverse communities worked with the design team to find common ground to create a built space that unites populations that have been traditionally perceived to be in conflict. Through a conversation with Executive Director Wendy Goldberg, explore how the project evolved to create four distinct spaces that coexist within an intentionally-planned landscape.
This course is geared toward a general knowledge audience but may be of particular interest to architects working with worshipping congregations or other forms of community-engaged design practices.
Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the value of community engagement in the design process
2. Discuss how community spaces can serve as a means of encouraging social interaction between distinct communities.
3. Using Tri-Faith Commons as a case study, describe methods of engaging diverse communities to design built spaces that serve a variety of needs while still honoring and respecting the distinct needs and traditions of each population.
4. Describe the role that landscape design plays as a connective tissue between the different congregations and how landscape can be a thoughtful inclusion in designing community spaces