A pair of architects in Belgium have created an unusual structure–a see-through church.  It’s not a functional building, but rather a piece of public art that stands ten meters high. The design consists of 100 stacked layers and 2000 columns of steel plates. From some angles it looks like a traditional church with a steeple. But change your location and the solid walls become so thin they disappear in the sunlight.

Take a look at more photos here.

The architects said they were motivated by the growing number of abandoned churches in Belgium, and the declining role of religion in the highly secularized country. They have titled their structure “Reading Between the Lines” because it “extends this idea of transparency onto the church and equally onto the…

For years I’ve been trying to help people see that popular consumer culture is a form of religion. It offers us a sense of value, identity, and context that traditional religions once provided. Similarly, pop culture has sacred symbols. How do I know this? Because when one of these symbols is altered the faithful will rise to protest the act of irreverence.

The Coca-Cola Company learned this lesson in 1985 when they released New Coke. And earlier this year when Gap changed their logo, hoards of angry white females rioted via social media. Gap relented and the retail deity’s image was restored.

The latest victim of pop-culture blasphemy: Superman. Photographs have leaked from the production of Warner Brothers’ new film Man of Steel showing actor Henry Cavill wearing…

“Slug Bug!” WHACK!

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about cars and design on this blog, but an article about the redesigned 2012 VW Beetle caught my attention yesterday. Paul A. Eisenstein shares a brief history of the iconic automobile originally designed by Ferdinand Porsche in the years before WWII. As Germany sought to rebuilt its industrial base following the war, the little Beetle became an affordable, utilitarian workhorse for the masses.

Eventually the Beetle’s appeal became global and sold over 23 million units. Although the last original Beetle was sold in the United States in 1979, the car remained in production in Latin America until 2003.

In the 1990s American designer J Mays developed a modern re-interpretation of Porsche’s original Beetle design. The car entered…

Today I visited Ground Zero for the first time. Despite the ongoing construction of the Freedom Tower and memorial, it’s hard to absorb that 10 years ago it was a scene of chaos and carnage. This afternoon, like September 11, 2001, was a clear and warm day. I walked though the canyons of Lower Manhattan trying to imagine what it would have been like on that history-changing morning. I couldn’t.

I hadn’t planned to visit Ground Zero on my quick trip to New York. But yesterday I got an invitation from Greg Wheatley at Moody Radio to be part of a panel discussion on his program, Inside Look. The special episode will air around the anniversary of 9/11, and will focus on the events of that day…

I like airplanes, and given the amount I travel that is a good thing. Seeing these incredible machines–aluminum and composite monuments of human ingenuity–makes the atrocities of most American airports almost bearable. (My genetically tanned, ambiguously ethnic appearance must scream “al-Qaeda!” I get patted down more than Donald Trump’s mane on a windy day.)

Modern airliners, as one author put it, are “the most complicated machines man has ever built.” But they are still regarded as the safest form of transportation. There are over 20,000 commercial flights every day in the United States. If you were to drive rather than fly one of those routes, you would be 65 times more likely to be killed. Perhaps more surprising, since 1980 the number of airplanes, flights, and passengers has…

Today the world’s tallest building is opening in Dubai. There have been a number of “world’s tallest” titles handed out in recent years. Some of the titles have been contested on technicalities…apparently antennas don’t count but spires do. But there is no question that the Burj Dubai deserves to be called the world’s tallest. It has 160 floors and reaches an amazing 2,717 feet up.

But what does this new record holder mean? What does it symbolize?

A brief history of the record holding structures reveals the economic, political, and cultural shifts of the last 200 years. Consider that for most of recorded history the Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt, was the tallest structure. It was not surpassed until the Lincoln Cathedral was built in the UK…

I shared my affection for Honda’s on this blog in the past. The automaker’s “man-max, machine-min” engineering philosophy helped me rethink my own understanding of church programming. How many car companies have inspired your ecclesiology?

In high school I worked at a Honda dealer as a porter. My first car was a Honda Prelude. And in the years since I’ve owned six different Hondas-from a sports car to a minivan; an SUV and a scooter. So, yes, I’m a fan of the fuel-efficient, ergonomic, and very reliable vehicles.

But lately I’m beginning to wonder what they’re smoking over at Honda’s design studios. Honda has never been known as a cutting edge design company. They’re notoriously conservative. That means they’ve never produced anything as…

Last time we looked at the 2016 Summer Olympic candidate city’s logos. Now we turn to the other unifying element of each bid-the city mottos. I admit up front that Olympic mottos tend to be both corny and forgettable. But they may indicate something about each city’s tone, as well as the themes we might see expressed in the opening ceremonies and marketing of the games. As with the logos, here are the mottos and my comments.Chicago“Let Friendship Shine”Sappy? Yes, but it could be worse. I do like the notion of friendship. It communicates the warmth of the city and the hope that athletics can bring diverse people together and bind them in friendship. It may also be a useful value to

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In just a few weeks, on October 2, the International Olympic Committee will select the host city for the 2016 summer games. The four finalists are Madrid, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, and Chicago.Living in the Chicago ‘burbs, and having been born and raised here, it’s obviously a big deal to think that the Olympics may be coming here. In the weeks leading up to the final decision, I want to spend a little time comparing the four candidate cities and their bids for the games. There’s nothing deep, theological, or even informed about this analysis. Just my opinions with a heavy bias in favor of Chicago.This week we start with each city’s logo design.ChicagoThe US bid city has gone with an unconventional design. Most stay away for

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