The sacred in-between : the mediating roles of architecture

Description

The sacred place was, and still is, an intermediate zone created in the belief that it has the ability to co-join the religious aspirants to their gods. An essential means of understanding this sacred architecture is through the recognition of its role as an 'in-between' place. Establishing the contexts, approaches and understandings of architecture through the lens of the mediating roles often performed by sacred architecture, this book offers the reader an extraordinary insight into the forces behind these extraordinary buildings. Written by a well-known expert in the field, the book draws on.  Read more... Abstract: Suitable for those interested in sacred architecture, this book offers an insight into the extraordinary buildings and the forces behind them. Examining the contexts, approaches and understandings of the architecture involved, it draws on a range of cases and focuses on their continuing significance and the lessons they can offer.  Read more... Content: Introduction -- The middle ground of interpretation. Phenomenology, hermeneutics, and the sensory experience of architecture -- Practices of connection. Applications of transcendentalist and Buddhist philosophies -- Mediating elements. Symbolism, religions, and the in-between -- Symbolic engagements. The media of architecture: Carl Jung's house in Bollingen: architecture as a medium of transformation -- Earth and sky. Place and primordial architecture: Native American earthworks, burial mounds, and effigy figures: cosmological orientations and mediations -- The sacred path and place. Spatial sequences and symbolic narratives: Tongdo Zen Buddhist Monastery, Korea: the path as a mediator -- Ordering the world. Means and meanings of proportion and geometry: Saint Benedict's Abbey, Vaals, Holland, by Dom Hans von der Laan: designing a middle ground -- Perfected worlds. Cosmograms and connections: the late works of the Ottoman architect Sinan: multitudinous contexts, packed agendas, and diverse interpretations -- Conclusions -- Closing thoughts. Personal experiences of place.