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"Vāstu"
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Design and experience: a typo-morphological case study of Maharishi Vāstu Architecture in Perú
Along with Feng Shui, Vedic architecture from ancient India (also referred to as Vāstu architecture by theorists and practitioners in the West) has become a design and construction approach of interest to architects in western countries. The most widely applied version of this approach is Maharishi Vāstu Architecture (MVA) as realized in not only hundreds of homes throughout the world, but also in the design of university campuses, commercial buildings and retreat communities in India, Japan, Netherlands and the U.S., as well as in the design of an entire city in Iowa. However, while applied in countries as diverse as Brazil, Ireland, Malaysia, Spain, Thailand and United Kingdom, this approach to architecture has not been the subject of detailed case study analysis.
To rectify this situation, the present study investigates the application of MVA in Perú by examining not only the location, design and construction of two houses, but also the lived experiences of owner–occupants within them. The houses located in Cieneguilla and Pachacámac, the first two MVA urban developments in South America, were designed by this study’s second author, a Perúvian architect, and have been featured in arq: Architecture Research Quarterly, the preeminent architectural journal of Latin America. One house is oriented to the east, the other to the north; one is single story, the other two stories; one is a homage to tradition, the other more modern; and one includes local adobe materials, the other standard brick and render. However, both houses are consistent with the ancient Vedic precepts of architectural design (specifically the 3 × 3 Pīṭha diagram from the Mayamata) and the ancient Andean Chacana diagram.
Results of lived experience from semi-structured interviews, consistent with findings from a previous international study of 158 MVA home–occupants, indicate that owner–occupants in Perú report increased health, vitality and good fortune, a range of practical benefits, and improved quality of life as a result of owning and living in an MVA-designed home.
Journal Article
Scientific Substantiation of Vastu Shastra
Vastu Shastra, an ancient Indian science, intricately weaves together the art of construction and the orchestration of harmonious living spaces in consonance with natural laws and cosmic energies. It’s based on the belief that the laws of nature and the universe can profoundly influence the well-being, fortune and prosperity of individuals who live or work in a building. The principles of Vastu Shastra revolve around the five basic components of nature (water, earth, fire, air, and space) and the cardinal directions (north, south, east, west, and center). While this belief has been fervently embraced by some, others remain skeptical due to the dearth of empirical substantiation. This paper delves into Vastu Shastra’s essence, unfurling it under scientific scrutiny. By melding empirically validated proof, it compellingly supports Vastu Shastra’s core principles. Navigating architecture, cosmology, and well-being, it confirms how our surroundings intertwine with our lives. This scientific exposition not only illuminates the principles of Vastu Shastra but also offers pragmatic insights for aligning our homes with cosmic harmony. By merging ancient wisdom and modern empiricism, our living spaces will resonate with the universe, nurturing abundance and serenity.
Journal Article
Building Jaipur
Jaipur, in Rajasthan, is one of India's most famous cities, and is renowned for its palaces and museums, its craft traditions and its distinctive pink shops and houses. A planned city within walls, it was built in pre-modern times according to a distinctive Indian theory of architecture known as vastu vidya. As architecture subsequently developed in India, in response to British and latterly post-colonial policies, this system became increasingly marginalized and fragmented, decreasingly practiced and understood. Taking Jaipur as a test case, the authors use this lost tradition to explain historic Indian buildings according to the rationale of their original architects. The authors also examine the place of traditional architectural theory in a modern context – Post-Modern architecture in India has often sought to recapture a spirit of the past, and yet been reluctant to engage with traditional theory. By chronicling the gradual eclipse of Indian architectural theory, the authors explain how this reluctance arose; they also describe the need and the terms for a fresh engagement with it. The result is an architectural biography of a city, and a concise history of Indian architectural theory over the last 300 years.
eBook
Two Contemplation Models of Nāmamātra in the Yogācāra Literature
This article contextualizes the meaning of nāmamātra in the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya and explores the history of modifications of this term in the Yogācāra literature. The term already exists in the pre-Yogācāra literature, such as the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā and the Bhavasaṃkrāntisūtra, where it means name only. The chapter Bodhisattvabhūmi of the Yogācārabhūmi applies this meaning and explains how to interpret it to understand the true nature of the contemplative object; that is, what is named is nothing but a name, and what exists is the inexpressible thing (vastu). When people lack this understanding and regard for the expressed object as existent, they suffer subsequent afflictions and suffering. A similar but slightly modified explanation is also found in the Madhyāntavibhāgabhāṣya, where the author states that a single object has two intrinsic characteristics (svalakṣaṇas), the conventional and the ultimate, and that the former is expressed by a mere name and is non-existent, while the latter is ineffable and existent. However, the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya and Sthiramati’s commentary on it, the *Sūtrālaṃkāravṛttibhāṣya, insert another meaning of nāmamātra: there are only mental factors. They also describe two contemplation phases, whereby practitioners should first understand the non-existence of the expressed object before recollecting the term nāmarūpa in the context of the five constituents (pañcaskandha) and concluding that material and physical factors (rūpa) do not exist; rather, only the mental factors do (nāmamātra). Finally, this second meaning of nāmamātra should be further contemplated, and the mere mental factors should also be regarded as ultimately non-existent because the external objects causing them were already considered non-existent. This examination of various Yogācāra explanations of nāmamātra sheds light on the multiple phases of modifications of Buddhist terms that occurred in the Yogācāra literature during the systematization of Yogācāra contemplation.
Journal Article
Managing the Built Environment for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention With Maharishi Vastu Architecture: A Review
Background and objectives
The evolution of healthcare from 18th-century reductionism to 21st-century postgenomic holism has been described in terms of systems medicine, and the impact of the built environment on human health is the focus of investigation and development, leading to the new specialty of evidence-based, therapeutic architecture. The traditional system of Vāstu architecture—a design paradigm for buildings which is proposed to promote mental and physical health—has been applied and studied in the West in the last 20 years, and features elements absent from other approaches. This review critically evaluates the theory and research of a well-developed, standardized form of Vāstu—Maharishi Vastu® architecture (MVA). MVA’s principles include development of the architect’s consciousness, universal recommendations for building orientation, siting, and dimensions; placement of key functions; and occupants’ head direction when sleeping or performing tasks. The effects of isolated Vāstu elements included in MVA are presented. However, the full value of MVA, documented as a systematic, globally applicable practice, is in the effect of its complete package, and thus this review of MVA includes evaluating the experience of living and working in MVA buildings.
Methods
The published medical and health-related literature was systematically surveyed for research on factors related to isolated principles applied in MVA as well as on the complete system.
Results
Published research suggests that incorporating MVA principles into buildings correlates with significant improvements in occupants’ physical and mental health and quality of life: better sleep, greater happiness of children, and the experience of heightened sense of security and reduced stress. The frequency of burglaries, a social determinant of health, also correlates. Potential neurophysiological mechanisms are described.
Conclusions
Findings suggest that MVA offers an actionable approach for managing a key social determinant of health by using architectural design as preventive medicine and in public health.
Journal Article
The principles of Vastu as a traditional architectural belief system from an environmental perspective
The shortage of technological discoveries in traditional architecture - which has now made it possible to warm and cool any area regardless of considering the proper direction or geometrical shape - used to lead the habitants to make use of natural phenomena to provide physical and emotional comfort. Therefore, traditional architecture is always accompanied with a set of rules and principles that are to some extent based on environmental criteria as well as the dominant belief system of the specific culture; these two variables seem to be inter-related and in some situations dominating one another. Although assigning auspicious directions, auspicious geometrical patterns in the plan configuration, the concept of concentric zones, elongation of the whole complex and the façade considerations seem to be religious in basis or due to cultural values, still a great amount of such principles in traditional architectural guidelines are derived from the environment; thus a number of common characteristics of vernacular architecture, such as the presence of vegetation in the buildings’ site, the use of local materials that create a micro-climate adaptable with human comfort and structural forms associated with the climatic positions, which can also be applied to other cultures with the same climate, are present as parts of all traditional structures. Vastu as one of the most ancient architectural belief systems, similar to other traditional architectural sciences such as Feng Shui, also deals with the principles designed to make the most use of the environment and more specifically climate as one of its dominant factors. Based on the knowledge of the Sun Rays, the Earth’s Magnetic Poles and the Geopathic Zones, many rules have been legislated in ancient Indian architecture dealing with environmental criteria that
Conference Proceeding
Archaeological landscapes and textual images: A study of the sacred geography of late medieval Ballabgarh
This study explores the disjunction between notions of religious space in the textual tradition and the construction of sacred geography on the ground. It does this by examining some elements that make up the sacred geography of medieval Ballabgarh, the northern segment of Faridabad which shares its northern border with Delhi. The paper argues that religious structures like temples and mosques which are generally regarded as constituent components of Hindu and Muslim sacred geography were not an integral part of village geography. Where they were present, the components of commemoration could be varied, animated by elements of local and clan history, rather than scriptural notions of cosmic space. Moreover, much of what was central to folk worship - open air village shrines, anonymous graves of pirs, 'miraculous' trees, a local goddess of the floods - is not textually imaged. Consequently, Ballabgarh's religious geography can be constituted only through the microcosm of archaeology and oral history.
Journal Article