The world mantel and the heaven tent: the canopy of the sky
When I was in college, I’d written a paper on the idea of cosmography in architecture — (kosmos + graphos, from the Greek) the idea that architecture is something — a design process — that symbolically presents a mapping of the metaphorical world, the cartography of the universe.
There are theories — ancient myths — of the world tree (axis mundus,) the tent of heaven (Himmelszelt,) the square of earth (templum sanctus,) the circling sky, and their alignment with the cosmical axis and the mapping of the stars and planets.
I find myself looking for places that suggest that holding — the level in which the idea of place suggests a higher magnitude of design. A space that becomes emblematic of other grander principles and symbolisms.
The pillars, the weaving of the warp and weft of being, the firmament of leaves, the passage of the sun, held in this framing.
Explore more, here: William Lethaby, Architecture, Nature and Magic. One copy, here:http://www.stoutbooks.com/cgi-bin/stoutbooks.cgi/74923
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COSMIC ARCHITECTURE AND THE SYMBOLISM OF PLACE
http://www.girvin.com/blog/?p=4181
(PEOPLE AND IDEALS: BRAND STORYTELLING: http://www.girvin.com/blog/?cat=8)