The Return of Sacred Architecture: The Golden Ratio and the End of Modernism

An inspirational call for a return to the tenets of traditional architecture as a remedy for the dehumanizing standards of modern architecture • Explains how modern architecture is emblematic of our current estrangement from the spiritual principles that shaped humanity’s greatest civilizations • Reveals how the ancient laws of sacred proportion and harmony can be restored The ugly buildings that characterize the modern landscape are inferior not only to the great cathedrals of medieval Europe and the temples of ancient Egypt and Greece, but even to lesser buildings of the more recent past. The great masterworks of our ancestors spoke to humanity’s higher nature. Architect Herbert Bangs reveals how today’s dysfunctional buildings bring out the worst in humanity, reinforcing that which is most base within us. He shows how, through the ancient laws of proportion and number, architecture once expressed the harmonious relationship between man and the cosmos. In early times, the architect worked within a sacred and esoteric tradition of creating structures through which human beings could gain insight into the nature of the divine reality. Today, that tradition has been abandoned in favor of narrowly defined utilitarian principles of efficiency and economy. In The Return of Sacred Architecture, Bangs provides the key to freeing architecture from the crude functionality of the twentieth century: the architects of the modern human landscape must find the deep-felt connection to the cosmos that guided the inner lives of those who built the temples of the past. The form of their buildings will then reflect the sacred patterns of geometry and proportion and bring forth greater harmony in the world.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by John Anthony West Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: A Radical Revelation 2. The Scientific Architecture of the Twentieth Century The Architectural Revolution The Wasteland The Architecture of Alienation 3. Making the Modern Architect The Failure of the Schools The Plight of the Practicing Architect 4. The Materialist Paradigm A New Model of the Cosmos Nihilism, Despair, and the Decline of the Arts 5. The Return of the Spirit The “Other Tradition” The New Physics The Mystical Vision 6. Intuition and the Creative Mind The Mind and the Unconscious Mind The Practice of Intuition The Theory of the Archetype 7. Archetypes of Shelter The Cave The Clearing The Garden The Presence of Water The Four Elements 8. Archetypes of Design The Principle of Duality Hierarchy The Nature of Materials 9. The Resolution of Form Form and Function The Search for Form The Mathematical Basis of Architecture 10. Geometry and Number Recovering the Ancient Tradition Principles of Sacred Geometry The Meaning of Proportion Architectural Examples 11. Architect and Cosmos Anthropocosm Magic and Symbol The Parameters of Inspiration 12. A Time of Transition Principle and Process Architect and Society The New Architecture Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Herbert Bangs was a designer for R. R. Buckminster Fuller’s architectural firm, Geodesics, and was the Baltimore County architect and principal master planner. He and his wife live in a solar home he designed and built in Ruxton, Maryland.

Review :
“. . . an excellent and precisely timed work that is encompassing, mature, and presented not only with sound reasoning but depth of feeling.” “This book deserves to be on every architect’s bookshelf. It demonstrates that much of modern architecture has become divorced from the principles of proportion used by almost all important buildings in historical times.” “A superb clarion call for a restoration of beauty, integrity, and above all, sanity in modern architecture.” “This brave and perceptive work explores the debacle of modern architecture and points the way to a healthier new architecture, based on proportion and sacred principles, which reveres ecology and the cosmos.” “. . . captures truths that we intuitively know, but haven’t the training and background to articulate and illustrate as fully as is done in this fine work.” “This is a significant and important book that expresses the perennial wisdom that has been the basis of covert mystery school teachings throughout the ages. It is most pertinent for society at large as well as all students of the Arts and Architecture who are searching for the knowledge, understanding, and meaning of Plato’s concepts of Goodness, Beauty, and Truth.” There are a few books that everyone should read, regardless of their discipline or degree of interest in esotericism--[This book] is one of them. . . . End the madness of modernity. Buy this book, give it away to everyone you know, and hope, pray, that its seeds will take root, and one day we can begin to build a world that reflects our vision of heaven as did our ancestors. "Herbert Bangs brings extraordinary insights into his scholarly yet impassioned exploration of sacred architecture. . . . THE RETURN OF SACRED ARCHITECTURE is a clarion call for adopting a more intuitive approach to design and a better appreciation for the sources of divine inspiration. I give this book my highest recommendation." "The thesis is well presented, enhanced by numerous illustrations and examples and enlivened by personal glimpses of leading designers and architects. Such clear-sighted candor and spiritual solutions are overdue, refreshing, and very encouraging."