Use of Darkness in Religious Places. A Study of User Perception on Use of Darkness for Enhancing Sense of

Abstract

Architecturally we can control the sense of place by using darkness. Most of the time people turn into darkness when people want to live in their own thoughts. Religious places are places which has a huge relationship with human thoughts because it cures human mind and people usually look for the truth and inner peace. Identified matter was, there is a dark chamber in every religious place. Hindu kovils has chamber where the god lives. Catholic churches have altar space which covered from outside and light up only the god. Buddhist temples has buddha chamber which is dark inside. The question identify was why all religious chambers are dark? Does it give some kind of a spiritual feeling to the pilgrims? Does darkness can enhance the spirit of place? If the darkness can treat the human mind then as an Architects, we can use it to enhance the spirit of place. Then it will help people to create inner peace in their own places. This research focuses to identify how darkness affect pilgrim’s thoughts and how feels the sense of place with darkness. Developed a questionnaire to identify the participant’s perception about being dark the worship spaces and they got many different answers with equal base. All comments relate the darkness helps to concentrate their mind and helps to create a virtual gap with the outside busy world. After doing a survey test it proves that darkness helps people to concentrate their mind and calm down inner thoughts. Finally, architecture can use darkness for spaces that need relaxation