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About this book
An inspirational call for a return to the tenets of traditional architecture as a remedy for the dehumanizing standards of modern architecture
• Explains how modern architecture is emblematic of our current estrangement from the spiritual principles that shaped humanity’s greatest civilizations
• Reveals how the ancient laws of sacred proportion and harmony can be restored
The ugly buildings that characterize the modern landscape are inferior not only to the great cathedrals of medieval 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 harmonious 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 favor 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.
• Explains how modern architecture is emblematic of our current estrangement from the spiritual principles that shaped humanity’s greatest civilizations
• Reveals how the ancient laws of sacred proportion and harmony can be restored
The ugly buildings that characterize the modern landscape are inferior not only to the great cathedrals of medieval 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 harmonious 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 favor 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.
About the Author(s) of The Return of Sacred Architecture
Herbert Bangs was a designer for R. R. Buckminster Fuller’s architectural firm, Geodesics, and was the Baltimore County architect and principal master planner. He and his wife live in a solar home he designed and built in Ruxton, Maryland.
Praise for The Return of Sacred Architecture
“This book deserves to be on every architect’s bookshelf. It demonstrates that much of modern architecture has become divorced from the principles of proportion used by almost all important buildings in historical times.”
Robin Heath, author of Sun, Moon, and Stonehenge
Robin Heath, author of Sun, Moon, and Stonehenge
“. . . an excellent and precisely timed work that is encompassing, mature, and presented not only with sound reasoning but depth of feeling.”
Robert Lawlor, author of Sacred Geometry
Robert Lawlor, author of Sacred Geometry
“A superb clarion call for a restoration of beauty, integrity, and above all, sanity in modern architecture.”
Richard Smoley, author of Forbidden Faith
Richard Smoley, author of Forbidden Faith
