1.0 | ABSTRACT “At its highest, Architecture has the ability to turn geometric proportions into shivers, stone into tears, rituals into revelations, light into grace, space into contemplation and time into divine presence.” - Julio Bermudez | Transcending Architecture Sacred Architecture has the ability to help its users transcend physicality. But what is this character of Sacred Architecture that Transcends the sense of Physicality and immerses itself in the realm of the intangible? To better understand this, it is imperative to understand the idea of spirituality and transcendence. Spirituality is often not about the divine, it is about perceiving the process of life at its fullest prosperity. It is not about the physicality or the mentality of the process but rather for seeing it for what it truly is. It is like realisation. To realise is not to find something new but rather to finally see what has always been present. Spirituality is to see something for exactly what it is and not a version envisioned in your mind. Realisation empowers you and the same applies for Spirituality. Transcendence is the ability to go beyond the range of limits of a field (of act or conceptual sphere). The ability to transcend is to elevate yourself beyond the physicality of this realm. Now to combine these two thoughts. Sacred Architecture allows you to feel this Spirituality and hence allows you to Transcend the physical Realm. The true character of Transcending Architecture is its ability to change your emotion to that of a pleasant one. This mood or emotion you feel is what allows you to imbibe your surroundings, allowing you to perceive what truly exists and hence facilitates the notion of Spirituality and Transcendence. Today, we have made a shift from Sacred architecture being about the character that defines a space into the aesthetics that can only be seen rather than felt (i.e. the idea of an Art Gallery). To reverse this process means to go back and understand how Sacred Architecture was truly created and how it is perceived in the eyes of the New Age. This form of Architecture is the tangible means to see, feel and experience Sacredness and Transcendence.
2
