Last September, as Seattle’s summer slipped into the golden light of fall, a simple structure made from cross-laminated timber appeared at Seattle’s Northwest African American Museum. Called Night Chapel, it stood vigil in front of the historic brick building for three months as a space for contemplation, meditation, and communal gathering. Designed by former NFL player and Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett, Night Chapel was the first installment of his Building Motions initiative, which he describes as “an ongoing exploration of how architecture can move, heal, and serve.”

Most Seattleites know Bennett for his football career, where he played 11 seasons for five teams, including five years and a 2014 Super Bowl win with the Seahawks. After retiring from the NFL in 2020, he pivoted his focus, studying at the Seattle campus of the Heritage School of Interior Design before enrolling at the University of Hawai’i to study architecture. The same year, he founded his own design collective, Studio Kër.

“You know, dealing with all the things happening in America, or dealing with what it’s like to be Black in America—sometimes it gets heavy, and there’s no place to find refuge. But I want to create spaces where people can find refuge, and they can find moments to be with themselves.”

“When I retired, I realized how much everything is connected to design,” Bennett says. “Just the whole idea of how we interact with design every single day—and sometimes we don’t even know right away what it’s saying to us or how it’s impacting us. I really wanted to go down that path.”

With Studio Kër, which was solidified in 2021 after Bennett connected with the late industrial designer Imhotep Blot, furniture design became an exploration of personal and shared history and a celebration of Black cultural motifs. The studio’s first collection, We’ve Gotta Get Back to the Crib, was released in 2024 at Theaster Gates’ Rebuild Foundation in Chicago. The 11 pieces—sculptural works made from African Sapele wood, stone, and fiberglass—nod to objects or moments familiar in Black households.

“That furniture collection was deeply looking into culture from a position of love and family,” Bennett says. “I’ve always thought about African diasporic forms and languages, but also what it’s like to be a Black American.” He says he’s pulling from both experiences and using design as a unifying form of storytelling. (Bennett hopes to encourage more people of color to get into the design field, and in 2021, he and his wife established the Michael and Pele Bennett Scholarship at the Rhode Island School of Design.)

With Night Chapel, which is intended to travel to additional locations in the future, Bennett doubled down on the idea of sacred spaces, pushing back on the narrative that we must travel to see them. In a social media post coinciding with the exhibition opening, he asks, “What happens when sacred architecture can move, when it meets people where they are rather than waiting for them to come?”

There were no prescriptive instructions for Night Chapel. One could merely move through the humble form, watching the play of light and shadow through the slice down its middle; two people could sit inside for a chat. Each time a new visitor interacted with the installation, they imbued new energy, a fresh, personal meaning drawn from their experiences.

“I want to create spaces that allow people to just get away,” Bennett says. “You know, dealing with all the things happening in America, or dealing with what it’s like to be Black in America—sometimes it gets heavy, and there’s no place to find refuge. But I want to create spaces where people can find refuge, and they can find moments to be with themselves.”