Re‐Materialising the Geography of Religion: A ‘Triple‐I’ Framework of Infrasecularity, Iconicity and Infrastructuring

ABSTRACT Scholarship in the Geography of religion has expanded the study of religious space beyond formal places of worship to informal and temporary sites. This article reviews these developments while highlighting a persistent gap: the limited attention paid to the material agency of architecture. By revisiting debates on the ‘politics and poetics’ of religious space, the paper argues that architecture is often reduced to a symbolic representation of power or a passive container of practice. To address this, the article proposes an original framework that synthesises three established dimensions—Infrasecularity, Iconicity (and Iconic Aspiration), and Infrastructuring—to re‐materialise the study of religious buildings. Drawing on these extant concepts, the framework provides new tools to analyse how architecture actively participates in visibility and spatial negotiation. Applying this model to Sikh gurdwaras in Singapore and Italy, the article demonstrates how buildings act as catalysts in the material production of religious space and the assertion of a community's right to the city.