The InSight Out Show: Bats, Almshouses & the Game of Telephone. When Sacred Designs Get Lost in Translation
What happens when the architecture of mercy becomes architecture of place?
In today’s show, we explore the story of Appleby Blue Almshouse in South London, an award‑winning modern almshouse for older people that flips the classic form on its head.
We then ask a deeper question: as physical steeples and chapels fade, what anchors do we lose in our communities and in our souls?
We explore:
- How Appleby Blue reimagines the alms‑house model to focus on communal gardens, shared spaces, connectivity rather than retreat.
- The origins of traditional alms‑houses: built by Christian guilds or churches, with U‑shaped courtyards and chapels designed to keep the vertical (eternal) front and center.
- What shifts when the “chapel” is removed and the “garden” becomes the focal point; what it means for places of care, but also for our own personal lives and our vertical relationship with God.
- A call to examine our own lives: What are the anchors we’ve quietly removed? Have we upgraded many things — but downgraded the holy?
Scripture (NIV):
Hebrews 11:10 – “For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
Colossians 3:2 – “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
💬 Conversation Starter
Where in your life has the “steeple” been removed?
Are you living more by the garden or by the chapel?
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