SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH COMPLEX: APPLICATION OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STRATEGIES

Church complexes extend beyond the primary church building, incorporating a range of supporting structures such as administrative buildings, children department, cafeteria, residential facilities and other community-oriented facilities. In recent times, the design of church complexes has increasingly required the integration of contemporary architectural strategies to meet growing functional demands while preserving religious symbolism. This research focused on the Seventh-day Adventist Church, with the aim of designing a church complex that effectively applies modern architectural design strategies tailored to both spiritual and communal needs. The study evaluated the features of a church complex design, examined the use of contemporary architectural styles in church complexes and identified key architectural design considerations such as sustainability and flexibility. A sample size of 12 case studies of existing church complexes were selected through random sampling technique to provide a broad and unbiased data set. Data was obtained with an observation checklist, with specific variables mapped to each research objective. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented in figures, tables and charts. Findings showed that 25% of the sample size had an administrative building, 33.3% had cafeteria and 16.7% had a children department. While residential facilities were provided in 91.7% of the sample size, 33.3% had only chalets, 16.7% had only guest house and 41.7% had both chalets and guest houses. Furthermore, architectural assessment revealed that 66.7% adopted an open-plan layout design, 33.3% had headroom height less than 4m and 66.7% had headroom height greater than 4m which identified the design gaps for adoption of modern architecture. A prototype design was made with Revit Autodesk and Lumion12.0 to produce 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional drawings. In conclusion, the study established that features such as administrative building, children department, residential facilities, retail stores and cafeteria are essential in a church complex and recommended that future church complex projects should adopt modern architecture design strategies.