Abstract

Architects must be part social scientists, considering how the dimensions and availability of living space will impact upon the living culture, customs and interpersonal relationships of the resident community. They must also be part psychologists, taking account of how their designs will affect the character, nature and mood of their users. The core historical theoretical and conceptual preoccupations of the study is to expand current conceptions of architectural history and theory through an exploration of the notion that architecture is in some sense co-originary with humanity itself, both emerging in the first social organizations and settlements. The emphasis will be on the belief that new trends in architecture must borrow at least one leaf from the pages of the past, in that they continue to harmonise, stimulate, enhance, interpret, and lend new meanings to what is already there. So when humans build, whether a simple dwelling or a vast sacred complex, they do so for a number of identifiable and meaningful reasons. The raison d’être for a culture’s architecture ranges from the practical to the metaphysical, and only together can the multitude of reasons for its construction and use be completely explained. However, this research aims to explain the symbolic and ritual role of architecture and the relation between form and meaning, or the physical and the spiritual. Sacred Geometry is a key knowledge for any architect to understand and practice building design. Saint Augustine’s book De Civitate Dei and Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy elucidate the secrets of numerology and form in the medieval period; the structure of the earthly City and the City of God. Consequently it can be demonstrated how the Temple of Solomon and Noah’s Ark had been designed according to divine measurements and to articulate the order of the universe.