Architecture as Cosmology

Architecture as Cosmology PDF Author: John Shannon Hendrix
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9781433113161
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
Architecture as Cosmology examines the precedents, interpretations, and influences of the architecture of one of the great buildings in the history of architecture, Lincoln Cathedral. It analyzes the origin and development of its architectural forms, which were to a great extent unprecedented and were very influential in the development of English Gothic architecture and in conceptions of architecture to the present day. Architecture as Cosmology emphasizes the relation of the architectural forms to medieval philosophy, focusing on the writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (1235-53). The architecture is seen as a text of the philosophy, cosmology, and theology of medieval English culture. This book should be useful to anyone interested in architecture, architectural history, architectural theory, Gothic architecture, and medieval philosophy.

Architecture as Cosmology

Architecture as Cosmology PDF Author: John Shannon Hendrix
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9781433113161
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 380

Get Book Here

Book Description
Architecture as Cosmology examines the precedents, interpretations, and influences of the architecture of one of the great buildings in the history of architecture, Lincoln Cathedral. It analyzes the origin and development of its architectural forms, which were to a great extent unprecedented and were very influential in the development of English Gothic architecture and in conceptions of architecture to the present day. Architecture as Cosmology emphasizes the relation of the architectural forms to medieval philosophy, focusing on the writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (1235-53). The architecture is seen as a text of the philosophy, cosmology, and theology of medieval English culture. This book should be useful to anyone interested in architecture, architectural history, architectural theory, Gothic architecture, and medieval philosophy.

Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam

Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam PDF Author: Samer Akkach
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791483444
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
This fascinating interdisciplinary study reveals connections between architecture, cosmology, and mysticism. Samer Akkach demonstrates how space ordering in premodern Islamic architecture reflects the transcendental and the sublime. The book features many new translations, a number from unpublished sources, and several illustrations. Referencing a wide range of mystical texts, and with a special focus on the works of the great Sufi master Ibn Arabi, Akkach introduces a notion of spatial sensibility that is shaped by religious conceptions of time and space. Religious beliefs about the cosmos, geography, the human body, and constructed forms are all underpinned by a consistent spatial sensibility anchored in medieval geocentrism. Within this geometrically defined and ordered universe, nothing stands in isolation or ambiguity; everything is interrelated and carefully positioned in an intricate hierarchy. Through detailed mapping of this intricate order, the book shows the significance of this mode of seeing the world for those who lived in the premodern Islamic era and how cosmological ideas became manifest in the buildings and spaces of their everyday lives. This is a highly original work that provides important insights on Islamic aesthetics and culture, on the history of architecture, and on the relationship of art and religion, creativity and spirituality.

The Cosmic Web

The Cosmic Web PDF Author: J. Richard Gott
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691181179
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Semi-autobiographical discussion of astronomy and astronomers, and history of astronomy and cosmology.--

The Architecture of the Universe

The Architecture of the Universe PDF Author: Richard Blum
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781500631208
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
One of the most fundamental questions asked throughout human history is, “How did the universe come into existence?” Throughout the ages spirituality has provided answers to that question through various mystical cosmologies. Today, science has an answer—the Big Bang theory. But can scientific and spiritual explanations, which are normally considered to be incompatible, co-exist? Is it possible to construct a single comprehensive vision that unites these seemingly divergent approaches to knowledge?The Architecture of the Universe attempts to do just that by extending a contemporary mystical cosmology and merging it with modern-day physics. The result is a new theory of physics, which proposes something more fundamental to the universe than time and space: existence. Emerging out of nothingness, existence serves as the basic component of time and space. Time and space are viewed not just as containers for everything in the universe, but rather as the substance out of which energy and mass arise. This radical viewpoint opens new realms of understanding, shedding light on mysterious aspects of quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of relativity. At the same time the theory creates a vision unifying science and spirituality by linking the infinite transcendent reality with the finite physical universe.Simple explanations along with illustrations make this book easily accessible and an interesting and inspiring read for a wide audience.

Architectures of Time

Architectures of Time PDF Author: Sanford Kwinter
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262611817
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
An exploration of twentieth-century conceptions of time and their relation to artistic form. In Architectures of Time, Sanford Kwinter offers a critical guide to the modern history of time and to the interplay between the physical sciences and the arts. Tracing the transformation of twentieth-century epistemology to the rise of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, Kwinter explains how the demise of the concept of absolute time, and of the classical notion of space as a fixed background against which things occur, led to field theory and a physics of the "event." He suggests that the closed, controlled, and mechanical world of physics gave way to the approximate, active, and qualitative world of biology as a model of both scientific and metaphysical explanation. Kwinter examines theory of time and space in Einstein's theories of relativity and shows how these ideas were reflected in the writings of the sculptor Umberto Boccioni, the town planning schema of the Futurist architect Antonio Sant'Elia, the philosophy of Henri Bergson, and the writings of Franz Kafka. He argues that the writings of Boccioni and the visionary architecture of Sant'Elia represent the earliest and most profound deployments of the concepts of field and event. In discussing Kafka's work, he moves away from the thermodynamic model in favor of the closely related one of Bergsonian duree, or virtuality. He argues that Kafka's work manifests a coherent cosmology that can be understood only in relation to the constant temporal flux that underlies it.

Cosmic Architecture in India

Cosmic Architecture in India PDF Author: Andreas Volwahsen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
In A Fascinating Investigation Andreas Volwahsen Reveals, How Hindu Priests And Mystics As Well As Indian Mandala Theory Were The Main Influences On Jai Singh`S Architectural Projects. The Maharaja`S Aim Was To Create A Representation Of His Own Earthly Powers And Ultimately Display His Own Superior Knowledge.

The Architecture of Matter

The Architecture of Matter PDF Author: Stephen Edelston Toulmin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226808406
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description
"Warmly recommended. It is that rare achievement, a lively book which at the same time takes the fullest possible advantage of scholarly knowledge."—Charles C. Gillespie, New York Times Book Review

Sacred Architecture

Sacred Architecture PDF Author: A. T. Mann
Publisher: Collins & Brown
ISBN: 9781843333555
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
From early astrological and mythical influences, which determined the location, form and function of early monuments, this book travels through history, showing how the reflection of images of earth and heaven in architecture has all but disappeared.

Architecture and the Unconscious

Architecture and the Unconscious PDF Author: John Shannon Hendrix
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317179269
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
There are a number of recent texts that draw on psychoanalytic theory as an interpretative approach for understanding architecture, or that use the formal and social logics of architecture for understanding the psyche. But there remains work to be done in bringing what largely amounts to a series of independent voices, into a discourse that is greater than the sum of its parts, in the way that, say, the architect Peter Eisenman was able to do with the architecture of deconstruction or that the historian Manfredo Tafuri was able to do with the Marxist critique of architecture. The discourse of the present volume focuses specifically for the first time on the subject of the unconscious in relation to the design, perception, and understanding of architecture. It brings together an international group of contributors, who provide informed and varied points of view on the role of the unconscious in architectural design and theory and, in doing so, expand architectural theory to unexplored areas, enriching architecture in relation to the humanities. The book explores how architecture engages dreams, desires, imagination, memory, and emotions, how architecture can appeal to a broader scope of human experience and identity. Beginning by examining the historical development of the engagement of the unconscious in architectural discourse, and the current and historical, theoretical and practical, intersections of architecture and psychoanalysis, the volume also analyses the city and the urban condition.

Chinese Architecture and Metaphor

Chinese Architecture and Metaphor PDF Author: Jiren Feng
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824861167
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Investigating the historical tradition of Chinese architectural writing from antiquity to the twelfth century, Chinese Architecture and Metaphor reveals significant and fascinating social and cultural phenomena in the most important primary text for the study of the Chinese building tradition. Unlike previous scholarship, which has reviewed this imperially commissioned architectural manual largely as a technical work, this volume considers the Yingzao fashi’s unique literary value and explores the rich cultural implications in and behind its technical content. Utilizing a philological approach, the author pays particular attention to the traditional and contemporary architectural terminology presented in the Yingzao fashi. In examining the semantic meaning of the architectural terms used in the manual, he uncovers a systematic architectural metaphor wherein bracketing elements are likened to flowers, flowering branches, and foliage: Thus pillars with bracketing above are compared to blossoming trees. More importantly, this intriguing imagery was shared by different social groups, in particular craftsmen and literati, and craftsmen themselves employed literary knowledge in naming architectural elements. Relating these phenomena to the unprecedented flourishing of literature, the literati’s greater admiration of technical knowledge, and the higher intellectual capacity of craftsmen during the Song, Architecture and Metaphor demonstrates how the learned and “unlearned” cultures entangled in the construction of architectural knowledge in premodern China. It convincingly shows that technical language served as a faithful carrier of contemporary popular culture and aesthetic concepts. Chinese Architecture and Metaphor demonstrates a high level of engagement with a broad spectrum of sophisticated Chinese sources. It will become a classic work for all students and scholars of East Asian architecture.