Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

A new body of research shows that residents of communities that suffer from high levels of gun violence experience post-traumatic stress disorder at rates equal to military veterans. Religious participation in the U.S. has also plummeted, and churches, once the center of the communal domain, are losing their value as support systems. These structures must become a new type of sanctuary for communities dealing with pervasive, gun-related trauma. The decaying Bethel Holy Temple Church in North Philadelphia is surrounded by five vacant lots in a neighborhood plagued by gun violence. The church’s traditional religious role – as a healing space for both the community and the individual – will inform its secular reuse as a “public library of everything.” There, the community will borrow far more than books. An expecting mother can check out a car seat; an aspiring maker can learn to use a 3D Printer; a traumatized teen can find new meaning by tending gardens. The site will be sequenced gradually between the collective and the personal. By opening sightlines through the building and to the outside, the reimagined typology will prioritize progressive, sustained benefit over revelatory moments of transcendence. Together, these design elements will mutually reinforce one another in the healing process, and become a model for the positive reuse of church buildings nationally. For North Philadelphia and other communities besieged by gun violence, the “public library of everything” will be emblematic of new possibilities, and a crucial step in mending a frayed social and urban fabric.