- Paperback: 1 pages
- Publisher: INNER TRADITIONS INTL (Dec 12 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1594771324
- ISBN-13: 978-1594771323
- Product Dimensions: 23.8 x 19.1 x 1.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 363 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #633,769 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
There are a few books that everyone should read, regardless of their discipline or degree of interest in esotericism--[This book] is one of them. . . . End the madness of modernity. Buy this book, give it away to everyone you know, and hope, pray, that its seeds will take root, and one day we can begin to build a world that reflects our vision of heaven as did our ancestors.
Product Description
This book explains how modern architecture is emblematic of our current estrangement from the spiritual principles that shaped humanity's greatest civilisations. The ugly buildings that characterise the modern landscape are inferior, not only to the great cathedrals of mediaeval Europe and the temples of ancient Egypt and Greece, but even to lesser buildings of the more recent past. The great masterworks of our ancestors spoke to humanity's higher nature. Architect, Herbert Bangs, reveals how today's dysfunctional buildings bring out the worst in humanity, reinforcing that which is most base within us. He shows how, through the ancient laws of proportion and number, architecture once expressed the sacred relationship between man and the cosmos. In early times, the architect worked within a sacred and esoteric tradition of creating structures through which human beings could gain insight into the nature of the divine reality. Today, that tradition has been abandoned in favour of narrowly defined utilitarian principles of efficiency and economy. In "The Return of Sacred Architecture", Bangs provides the key to freeing architecture from the crude functionality of the twentieth century: the architects of the modern human landscape must find the deep-felt connection to the cosmos that guided the inner lives of those who built the temples of the past. The form of their buildings will then reflect the sacred patterns of geometry and proportion and bring forth greater harmony in the world.
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5.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enlightening & Comprehensive Overview of Art & History of Sacred Geometry in Architecture, Mar 14 2007
By Cynthia Sue Larson "Author of Reality Shifts" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Return Of Sacred Architecturre (Paperback)
Herbert Bangs brings extraordinary insights into his scholarly yet impassioned exploration of sacred architecture, which is a relatively new and vitally important subject. Bangs presents illustrations and historical accounts of a wide variety of architectural structures, letting the stories of each example demonstrate the points he makes regarding archetypes of shelter (cave, clearing, garden, water, elements), archetypes of design (duality, hierarchy, materials), and resolution of form. Bangs enthusiastically praises those architectural masterpieces which prove themselves to be aesthetically pleasing and livable, and denounces designs which may have been lauded by others, yet actually are tolerable by few. There are reasons why some spaces can lead people to feel relaxed and refreshed... or confused and stressed... and Bangs brilliantly describes the architectural principles and qualities that create these results. THE RETURN OF SACRED ARCHITECTURE is a clarion call for adopting a more intuitive approach to design and a better appreciation for the sources of divine inspiration. I give this book my highest recommendation to everyone, since all of us are at some point involved in designing, buying, visiting, and living in architectural structures.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Especially recommended for any college-level architectural library., Feb 2 2007
By Midwest Book Review - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Return Of Sacred Architecturre (Paperback)
Both architecture and spirituality collections will relish Return of Sacred Architecture: The Golden Ratio and the End of Modernism: it contrasts and modern religious architectural structure with the grand monuments of the past, revealing how modern dysfunctional buildings bring out the worst in humanity and how ancestral masterworks focus on the best. Architecture once was closer to expressing the sacred between man and cosmos: THE RETURN OF SACRED ARCHITECTURE focuses on the elements of this expression and is especially recommended for any college-level architectural library.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Therapy?, Nov 10 2009
By Patrick Curren "The no self" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Return Of Sacred Architecturre (Paperback)
The author does a very good job of describing the pathetic state of contemporary architecture to include all the isms. He starts with the school of the Bauhaus and continues with the concepts of machine age architecture or what was termed the international style and then classifies those associated with the modern movements as "materialists". The author covers interesting flaws associated with celebrated architectural works by famous architects such as Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Gehry. A sampling of his humor is his reference to Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain of which he terms this building "hidiotic", a combination of hideous and idiotic. The intent is to drive home just how inhuman machine architecture "is". I especially enjoyed the spiritual references to Zen and Gnosticism as well as references to Carl Jung's archetypes. The author touches on four archetypes of great architecture such as the cave, the clearing, the garden and water and the associated balance and harmony needed to successfully experience these archetypes in great architecture. Mathematical symbolism is discussed along with the Golden Ratio and two small modern examples are analyzed. Of interest to note is that this book does not contain any architectural gibberish. While I can't say I agree with everything in it, it is easy to comprehend. Andrea Palladio's proportion concepts are covered as architecture as frozen music. I admire the author for having the courage to create such a work. The author has convinced me that architecture has taken a detour towards the "ego" or mind (logic) and has ignored the architecture of the heart/spirit/intuition. Great architecture combines the mind and the heart and thus becomes wholehearted. After living in the contemporary world of "ego architecture", it is refreshing and therapeutic to learn there is another like me in this world.
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