Mapping Faith and Place: Exploring cultural values in the buildings of South Asian Faiths in Leicester

莱斯特市是英国除伦敦外种族和宗教最多样化的城市。除了已建立的基督教和犹太社区外，自1960年代以来连续不断的移民还建立了一系列信仰社区，包括印度教徒、锡克教徒、耆那教徒、穆斯林和较小程度上的佛教徒。有一些新建筑，但这些信仰的礼拜场所大多是通过重新利用早期建筑建造的，这些建筑通常是多余的其他信仰的礼拜场所，但也重新利用了工业和其他建筑。莱斯特总共有大约50座清真寺，10座锡克教寺庙或gurdwaras， 15座印度教寺庙或mandirs，一个佛教大厅，以及英国唯一的耆那教寺庙。这些地方越来越被认为是城市景观中重要的文化元素。该项目旨在确定这些信仰建筑在21世纪的文化价值。在某种程度上，它们可能被认为是“神圣的”建筑，但很明显，它们在重新定义城市形态方面也发挥了其他重要作用，创造了一种归属感（也可能是疏离感），并为其成员提供了一系列实用功能。已经确定了明确的目标。一组五栋建筑，来自上述所有的信仰团体，位于不同类型的社区，将形成关键的案例研究。通过访谈和观察，宗教团体的成员和非成员将被邀请分享他们对这些地方文化价值的理解；在专家协助下准备的计划和可视化将用于绘制内部和外部空间和特征的不同方面的相对重要性（目标1）。该项目旨在通过当地团体和学校传播成果，并通过在当地的外联、会议和研讨会向更广泛的学术界传播成果（目标2和3）。最后一个目标是开发一个现有的简单数据库，使其更新，并将其与莱斯特市议会正在开发的一个项目联系起来，该项目利用人口普查和警察数据以及议会收集的信息，为逐区分析城市的社会和经济提供了一个平台（目标4）。这个想法是从该市申请者早期的一些工作中发展而来的（见简历），这些工作帮助我们与信仰团体建立了良好的网络和联系。该项目的产出将反映这一动态的研究过程。除了学术分析之外，简短的指南和解释性文本将构成案例研究的具体成果。可视化将被创建，作为话语工具。开发的数据库将成为重要的新资源。通过对这项研究的分析，我们计划从一系列的角度来参与文化价值的识别。传统上，在规划和文化框架内，建筑物作为建筑具有美学价值；一套被认可的进一步标准，包括完整性、古典性和独特性，以及与特定事件或人物的联系，可以提高它们的价值。判断通常基于公认的专业知识，在这些结构的情况下，通常以牺牲“次要用途”为代价来强调“主要功能”；这本身就是对这些建筑的文化欣赏的一个潜在的严重限制。目前关于如何更广泛地评价文化的理论，例如，经常对“内在”、工具价值和制度价值进行区分，同样提供了一个相当扁平和限制性的框架。作为起点，我们的目标是扩展对价值的理解，包括情感、体验和表现等，这可能对案例研究更为重要；但我们期望在研究过程中会产生更多的品质。

The city of Leicester is the most ethnically and religiously diverse in the UK outside London. In addition to established Christian and Jewish communities, successive migrations since the 1960s have resulted in the establishment of a range of faith communities , including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Muslims and, to a lesser extent, Buddhists. There are several new constructions but places of worship for these faiths have been constructed mostly through the reuse of earlier buildings, often redundant places of worship for other faiths, but also reusing industrial and other buildings. In all, Leicester has about 50 mosques, 10 Sikh temples or gurdwaras, 15 Hindu temples or mandirs, a Buddhist hall, and Britain's only Jain temple. These places are increasingly recognised as an important cultural element in the urban townscape. This project aims to identify the cultural values of these faith buildings in the 21st century. At one level they may be considered as 'sacred' architecture, but it is clear that they also fulfil other important roles in redefining the shape of the city, creating a sense of belonging (and potentially also alienation) and serving a range of practical functions for their members. Clear objectives have been identified. A group of five buildings, drawn from all of the faith groups noted above, located in different types of neighbourhood , will form the key case studies. Using interviews and observation, members of faith communities, and also non-members, will be invited to share their understandings of the cultural values of these places; and plans and visualisations prepared with expert assistance will be used to chart the relative importance of different aspects of the internal and external spaces and features (Objective 1). The project aims to disseminate the results through local groups and schools, and to the wider academic community, through local outreach, meetings and seminars (Objectives 2 and 3). A final objective involves the development of an existing simple data base to bring it up to date and link it in to a project being developed by Leicester City Council, which provides a platform for social and economic analysis of the city on a ward by ward basis, using census and police data as well as the information collected by the Council (Objective 4). The idea has developed from some earlier work by the applicants in the city (see CVs), which has helped us to establish good networks and links with faith groups. The outputs from the project will reflect this dynamic research process. In addition to academic analysis, short guides and interpretive texts will form a concrete outcome from the case studies. Visualisations will be created, to serve as discursive tools. The developed database will serve as a significant new resource. Through the analysis of this research, we plan to engage with the identification of cultural value from a range of perspectives. Traditionally, within both planning and cultural frameworks, buildings have been valued aesthetically as architecture; a recognised set of further criteria, including integrity, antiquity and uniqueness, as well as association with particular events or people can enhance their value. Judgements are most usually based on acknowledged expertise, which, in the case of these structures, usually foregrounds 'primary function' at the expense of 'secondary use' ; this is in itself potentially a serious limitation in the cultural appreciation of these buildings. Current theories about how culture is valued more broadly, such as the distinction often drawn between 'intrinsic', instrumental and institutional value, for example, likewise offer a rather flat and restrictive framework. As a starting point, we aim to extend understandings of value to include such things as emotion, experience and performance, which may prove more significant for the case studies; but we expect that further qualities will arise during the research.