The world's first combo church-synagogue-mosque, in which adherents of all three monotheistic faiths will worship under one roof, is being planned for Berlin, the Independent reports. 
 
 
 
 Known as the House of One, the project already has an architect – chosen by competition – and a site: Petriplatz in the heart of Berlin. A crowd-funding campaign to raise funds for the project was launched last week. 
 
 
 
 The estimated cost of the building is 43 million euros, but construction will begin once the first 10 million euros have been raised. 
 
 
 
 The project is the brainchild of three religious leaders: Gregor Hohberg, a Protestant pastor, Rabbi Tovia Ben-Chorin and Imam Kadir Sanci. 
 
 
 
 "Berlin is the city of the peaceful fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful coexistence of believers from different faiths – they yearn to understand each other," Hohberg told The Independent. 
 
 
 
 For Ben-Chorin, the House of One will be a place to heal old wounds without forgetting them. "Berlin is the city of wounds and miracles," he said. "It is the city in which the extermination of the Jews was planned. Now, the first house in the world for three religions is to be built here." 
 
 
 
 Architect Wilfried Kuehn has designed a striking brick building, with a tall, square central tower for communal meetings and separate houses of worship for the three faiths. Each of the three areas in the House will be the same size, but of a different shape. 
 
 Kuehn said that each of the singular spaces is designed according the practices of each faith. 
 
 The location on Berlin's central Museum Island is rich with history. Petriplatz was the site of the first church in Berlin, dating back to the 12th century, which was badly damaged at the end of World War II and subsequently destroyed by the East German authorities. 
 
 
 
 When, six years ago, archaeologists uncovered remains from an ancient graveyard at the site, it was "quickly agreed that something visionary and forward looking should be built on what is the founding site of Berlin," Hohberg said. ||||| The unique project is called the "House of One", and its aim is to provide a place of worship and contemplation for adherents of the world's three main monotheistic faiths, although the building will also be open to all. It will house a church, a synagogue and a mosque under one roof. 
 
 "Berlin is the city of wounds and miracles," said Rabbi Tovia Ben-Chorin, one of the three behind the project. "It is the city in which the extermination of the Jews was planned. Now, the first house in the world for three religions is to be built here," he added. 
 
 The fundraising drive was launched this week, with a symbolic handing over of the first brick. The House of One's backers hope to raise the €43.5m (£35m) needed to construct the hexagonal-shaped brick building, on a site next to Berlin's central Museum Island, entirely through sponsorship. Anyone can donate money online. A single brick costs ¤10. 
 
 The idea was born in 2009, when archaeologists excavating a section of ground on Museum Island unearthed the remnants of Berlin's earliest church, the Petrikirche, and the city's Latin school, which dates back to 1350. 
 
 Architect Wilfried Kuehn with his model "We quickly agreed that something visionary and forward looking should be built on what is the founding site of Berlin," said Gregor Hohberg, the Protestant pastor who initiated the project. He was convinced that multicultural, multi-faith Berlin was the right city in which to open a house of worship for three religions. 
 
 "Berlin is the city of the peaceful fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful coexistence of believers from different faiths – they yearn to understand each other," he said. 
 
 Imam Kadir Sanci, the House of One's Muslim leader, said he wanted the project to encourage a conscious dialogue between different faiths and cultures, which would help prejudices against Muslims to evaporate. "We want our children to have a future in which diversity is the norm," he insisted. 
 
 Kuehn's model The plans for the House of One indicate that while the building will contain a separate synagogue, church and mosque under one roof, there will also be a large central area, in which members of the three faiths and others can meet and contemplate. Last Tuesday, the House of One construction site on Berlin's Gertraudenstrasse was still a vacant building lot, with little more to show than a recently felled plane tree and dirty, grey sand scarred with the tyre tracks of lorries and excavators. 
 
 However, the desolate scene did not deter the pastor, the rabbi and the imam from symbolically burying their shoes in the sand at the centre of the site. 
 
 "One has to have a great deal of faith in God to imagine that a wonderful building, unique in the world, will stand on this site in just a few years," Mr Hohberg told a congregation from different faiths at a service a little later. 
 
 He added that building work could commence in 2016, providing donations to the fund of €10m had been raised by then. ||||| Image copyright Getty Images 
 
 Berlin thinks it is making religious history as Muslims, Jews and Christians join hands to build a place where they can all worship. The House of One, as it is being called, will be a synagogue, a church and a mosque under one roof. 
 
 An architecture competition has been held and the winner chosen. The striking design is for a brick building with a tall, square central tower. Off the courtyard below will be the houses of worship for the three faiths - the synagogue, the church and the mosque. It is to occupy a prominent site - Petriplatz - in the heart of Berlin. 
 
 The location is highly significant, according to one of the three religious leaders involved, Rabbi Tovia Ben Chorin. "From my Jewish point of view the city where Jewish suffering was planned is now the city where a centre is being built by the three monotheistic religions which shaped European culture," he told the BBC. 
 
 Can they get on? "We can. That there are people within each group who can't is our problem but you have to start somewhere and that's what we are doing." 
 
 The imam involved, Kadir Sanci, sees the House of One as "a sign, a signal to the world that the great majority of Muslims are peaceful and not violent". It's also, he says, a place where different cultures can learn from each other. 
 
 Each of the three areas in the House will be the same size, but of a different shape, architect Wilfried Kuehn points out. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images 
 
 "Each of the singular spaces is designed according to the religious needs, the particularities of each faith," he says. "There are for instance two levels in the mosque and the synagogue but there's only one level in the church. There will be an organ in the church. There are places to wash feet in the mosque." 
 
 He and his team of architects researched designs for the three types of worshipping place and found more similarities than expected. 
 
 Find out more You can hear Stephen Evans's radio report on the House of One on the Sunday programme at 07:10 BST on 22 June on BBC Radio 4, or catch up later on the BBC iPlayer 
 
 "What's interesting is that when you go back a long time, they share a lot of architectural typologies. They are not so different," Kuehn says. "It's not necessary for instance for a mosque to have a minaret - it's only a possibility and not a necessity. And a church doesn't need a tower. This is about going back to the origins when these three faiths were close and shared a lot architecturally". 
 
 In the past, different faiths have used the same buildings but not usually at the same period. Mosques in southern Spain became cathedrals after the Christian conquest. In Turkey, churches became mosques. In Britain old Welsh chapels have sometimes become mosques as areas change - and Brick Lane mosque in the East End of London started as a church in the 18th Century, later became a synagogue before turning to Islam, and has now become a place of worship for the newly arrived Muslim community. 
 
 But that's different from the three faiths worshipping as neighbours under one roof. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images 
 
 The idea came from the Christian side of the triangle. 
 
 Pastor Gregor Hohberg, a Protestant parish priest, says it will be built where the first church in Berlin, dating back to the 12th Century, was once situated. St Petri's Church was badly damaged at the end of World War Two as the Red Army liberated Berlin. What remained was destroyed in the period after the war by the East German authorities. 
 
 Then, six years ago, archaeologists uncovered remains from an ancient graveyard and it was decided that something should be done to resurrect a community and its place of worship. The project expanded and changed from a single-faith building to the present three-faith plan. Money is now being raised to turn the architects' plans into bricks and mortar. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images and AP Image caption St Peter's Church in 1850, and graves being excavated in 2008 
 
 Each faith will keep its distinctive ways within its own areas, Pastor Hohberg says. 
 
 "Under one roof: one synagogue, one mosque, one church. We want to use these rooms for our own traditions and prayers. And together we want to use the room in the middle for dialogue and discussion and also for people without faith. 
 
 "Berlin is a city where people come together from all over the world and we want to give a good example of togetherness." 
 
 It was not always the Berlin way. 
 
 You can hear Stephen Evans's radio report on the House of One on the Sunday programme at 07:10 BST on 22 June on BBC Radio 4, or catch up later on the BBC iPlayer 
 
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– A pastor, a rabbi, and an imam walk onto an empty lot, and ... bury their shoes. Why? Because they plan to build what may be the world's first interfaith facility with separate houses of worship for Christians, Jews, and Muslims, the BBC reports. Dubbed the "House of One," the downtown Berlin project will include separate designs for each building—with an organ in the church, a foot-washing area in the mosque, and two levels in the mosque and the synagogue (but just one in the church). It will also offer shared space where worshipers can mingle and contemplate, notes the Independent. So can they all get along? "We can," said Rabbi Tovia Ben Chorin, one of the leaders involved. "That there are people within each group who can't is our problem but you have to start somewhere and that's what we are doing," he added. They've already found an architect and launched a crowd-funding campaign; construction will start once $10 million is in the bank, Haaretz reports. The site once housed St Petri's Church, Berlin's first, which was built in the 12th century and destroyed by invading Russians during World War II. When archaeologists discovered an ancient graveyard there 6 years ago, it led to talk of a new place of worship and eventually the "House of One." Says Im am Kadir Sanci, the project's Muslim leader: "We want our children to have a future in which diversity is the norm."