Did some reading a while back about the new smaller temple designs for other countries. Maybe here is USA. They will not have a sealing room and the endowment room will be used for sealings.
That make sense because when I attended the Houston Temple recently they had the lights in the room to dim. The used to have the lights on to high when you entered them dimmed for movies and then full brightness before going through veil.
No couples ever used the altar, except for the person giving the prayer.
So this makes sense. In new smaller temples the darkened room is endowment stuff. The sealing stuff is full lighting on and the couples get to use the altar. Can't have them use the altars in temple like they used to or the altar will not be special. Anything to save a buck.
That's why the older temples are fun. You get to go from room to room. In the Houston Temple they would turn the lights up when you got to part where you needed to go to new room. So you never changed room but changed lighting to let you know you have moved. Not with the new improved stuff. One room ,dark like a movie theater. If your in different country now that room will be lite up as a sealing room. 2 rooms for the price of one.

I'm surprised that the church didn't rebuild the temple as part of a floating pontoon boat. Looks like they learned nothing from Harvey or Ike.

Jaredite barge.

Ooo, Ooo. I want to see how they set it up so nothing gets tossed around, including the community bucket for those stormy days as you get driven deep into the waters.

I predict that the endowment ceremony will morph more and more into something very like the Catholic mass.

My wife and I were invited to a social function at a mosque. We watched a presentation on Mecca and socialized and had some great food afterwards. No pews or chairs. You could save a lot of money.

But the temple could be like a mosque or a Masonic lodge. They serve a spiritual purpose but they also serve social purposes.

You could use the instruction rooms for presentations on various things. Get rid of the fixed seating and have folding chairs available if needed. It would make the rooms more useful for various things.

I would keep the celestial room as a spiritual sanctuary. A place you can go and sit, relax and contemplate. Kind of what you see people doing in Catholic chapels.

I think they are going to have to change the temple but they just can’t change too quick. You shock the membership if you do that.

50 years ago the rumor in my neck of the woods was that every stake house would have a dedicated endowment/sealing room.

Guess the rumors were partially true.

They thought about putting ordinance rooms in stake houses. They also looked at putting a temple inside a ship and an airplane. Traveling temples that come to where you live. This is back fore the church had the money it has now.