Geomancy in Modern Architectural Theory

Abstract

Architects of the “Secessionist” movement, in particular, Hendrick Berlage and Peter Behrens, the mentors of Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, were deeply influenced by the romantic revival of the ancient science of Geomancy—man in harmony with nature—within the Wisdom Tradition implicit in the new syncretic religions of the late nineteenth century. Walter Gropius and the founders of the Bauhaus wanted to show that an understanding of the hidden, ancient, elemental paradigms was crucial if the true function of architecture was to be rejuvenated. But these paradigms, present in German philosophy and romantic thought, were undermined by the de Stijl group who then aided Gropius in establishing standardisation in architecture. Thus the ultimate tenets of Functtonalism, expressed in only intellectual terms, reduced architecture to purely mechanical concepts. The theory of Louis Kahn, emphasising the individual's private and public realms and their relationship to a spiritual existence rejuve...