Files
Date of Award
2023
Document Type
Thesis
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/10365/33165
Publisher
North Dakota State University
Rights
NDSU policy 190.6.2
URI
https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf
Abstract
Every day, billions of tiny little miracles occur just to give us another breath. From a microscopic level of your heart getting the energy it needs to beat 100,000 times a day to the cosmic level of the rotation of Earth and its perfect distance from the Sun - that keeps us warm enough, but not incinerated - there is a chaos of neurons firing, stars exploding, and atoms colliding, yet in it is a harmony that allows us to go about our everyday lives. We are not independent of this cosmic song. Rather, we are inextricably a part of it, contributing to the attunement of the universe with each heartbeat. The ancient world recognized this universal harmony as an expression of divine intelligence, which constructed meaning in music and architecture. But with the rise of Positivism, our world view has shifted from a spiritual one of human experience to a secular one of scientific observation, resulting in disconnectedness. How do we recover an awareness of this harmony? In a world that no longer holds a common belief, there is a need to expand the definition of spirituality to be collectively understood by a modern audience. A common thread across all spiritual languages and beliefs emerges: poetic analogy. Through poetic analogy, this thesis proposes a series of architectural spaces that address our fundamental human need for spirituality. Acting as a gallery for cosmic interconnectivity, these structures are a programmatic sequence of musical, spiritual, and cosmic spaces that unfold across three sites: Dublin, Ireland, London, United Kingdom, and Boston, Massachusetts. Grounded by the narrative of Handel's Messiah and rooted in an endless narrative of cosmic harmony, these sites function analogically, as a symphony of their own: connecting things near and far, tangible and intangible, and the self with Otherness in a poetic quest to situate humanity between the earth and the heavens.
Recommended Citation
Rybacki, Anna, "Concertare: An Architectural Rediscovery of Spiritual Harmony in a Secular World" (2023). Architecture Theses. 717.
https://digitalcommons.ndsu.edu/architecture-theses/717