Through a comparative analysis of selected modern and contemporary works, both religious and secular, a secular spiritualism is identified. The subversion of representation and suppression of a traditional sacred language, the revelation of the site and its phenomenal qualities, as well as the self-conscious manipulation of tectonics in terms of the relationship between light, material, and construction are the means for challenging the viability of this secular spiritualism at an urban scale. This thesis argues that such a spiritualism can be found in our secular world and proposes that the undefined residual spaces left by privatization become the neutral testing ground for a new urban prototype: the communal sanctuary.