In this thesis, I assert that the mikvah, a Jewish purification ritual, can be understood as a queer ritual in that it has the potential to destabilize the knowledges and structures that it has traditionally been understood to uphold. I draw on queer theory in order to establish Victor Turner’s liminality as a productive analytical tool and then utilize this new queer liminality to illuminate the mikvah’s latent potential for producing new meanings and modes of resistance for its participants.

Diploma thesis deal with an architectural study of the New Synagogue in the city of Trutnov. The main aim of the thesis is the design the synagogue with the base of the Jewish community, a museum of a small size, a kosher restaurant and a mikvah for a religious ceremony. The main idea was to design a space used by members of the Jewish community in Trutnov. The synagogue is placed on the site of the former synagogue. The whole complex is divided into two objects. In the front part of the plot, there is an object set in the terrain, in which there is placed a stacker for cars, technical facilities, kosher restaurant, facilities of the Jewish community and museum. In the upper part of the plot there is a synagogue decorated by orthodox elements, beneath the synagogue is located the prayer hall with a mikveh rooms and technical facilities. Both buildings are integrated into the landcaping park. The layout of the buildings on the plot is designed to create a comprehensive environment, which is divided according to the individual operations serving the Jewish community and the public.

The subject of this diploma project was to design an architectural proposal of The New Synagogue and Jewish Community Centre in Teplice, Czech Republic. The main goal was to design a complex of buildings which would be used not only for the worships but also for cultural and educational purposes. The proposal consists of the design of 3 buildings connected to each other by a cen-tral courtyard. The form is based on the traditional values set into contemporary de-sign shaped by demands of current generations. One of the main design elements - the beam structure above the courtyard implies a symbol of The Star of David as the symbol of Judaism as we know today. The building of New Synagogue represents the first, three storey building on the north part of plot. The second, east part, is building consisting of cultural centre, info centre, museum, gallery and spaces for workshops with it's technical and sanitary facilities. A Kosher Restaurant will be located into the third and last two-storey building. An undeground parking will be used by the staff and visitors of the whole complex.

The thesis deals with European sacral architecture of the twentieth and the twenty-first century. Particularly, it refers to Judaic, Roman-Catholic and Islamic buildings. The second part puts into historical context the sacral constructions of individual religions including their function, characters and typology. In the third part of this thesis the representative sample of significant modern sacral constructions is selected, always under circumstances regarding their creation, the urban description and the setting in a specific location as well as the architectural layout, the interior arrangment and a possible use of special technological procedures at their construction. The mutual comparison and the evaluation of the modern European sacral architecture development are carried out in the fourth part. This section notices the function and the usage of light and presents some extraordinary buildings from this point of view. The final fifth part tries to answer the question, how a modern temple should look like.