Statement

The metaphysical function of certain kinds of buildings is to convey transcendence, spiritual exaltation, serenity, et cetera. This is most potent when there is an inter-relationship with music or the airy element, appearance and disappearance or extreme drama, as in monasteries, cathedrals, temples, tombs, and theatres. Even more than in such intentionally metaphysical buildings, certain mundane physically functional architecture carries a strong other-worldly poetic charge - all the stronger perhaps for being an unintentional by-product of the physical function, as in, for example, lighthouses, windmills, telescopes, bridges, boats, dams. It is the dangerous elemental relationships which make precision engineered buildings such as these breathtaking. A third strand of influence comes from the dramatic architecture created by the elements in nature: such as, to mention just a few examples from geology - mountaintops (Ziggurat towers, pyramids), cliffs, chasms, and waves.

[top]

Images