Expressing the Liveliness of Matter

1 C. Alexander p. 15. 2 Ibid. p. 52. 3 Ibid. p. 16.

The panpsychic and pantheistic cosmologies we have presented previously portray a fractal disposition of matter, and in Hindu temple architecture this is represented by the use of various dynamisms. For us to make a morphological translation from theory to structure, we thus decided to look into different ways of working with fractal geometry and the various processes giving rise to selfsimilarity in Hindu temples.

Simultaneously we searched for what is needed to make our structure emanate life – what kind of properties, be they textural, or geometrical, or something else, are necessary to make feelings of relatedness emerge through architecture? In The Luminous Ground, Alexander articulates that an adoption of a new notion of the Divine, implying the understanding of yourself as a part of a larger system of interrelated things, is necessary for an emergence of a new, “living” architecture. The new world-view he proposes is one that understands and recognizes the inherent connection between all things.1

The core of what I intend to prove is this: Each of us, as we are, is connected to the world. We are connected to it in a concrete way. The character of this relatedness is not invented or concocted in our minds, but actual. I seek to demonstrate that the tree which stands is entangled with myself, and I am entangled with it. This entanglement exists in a fashion which – when I understand it thoroughly – will forever change my conception of my place in the world. Once we understand it, it will change our conception of the universe and our conception of the matter of which we are made.2

Alexander points out, that scientific attempts have been made, with the development of chaos theory, the theory of complex systems, and fractals, to name a few, to approach a cosmology contemplating the interdependency of all things.3 This is in consonance with the expression the liveliness of matter that we touched upon previously, and made it increasingly interesting for us to investigate the possible application of fractal geometry in architecture.