The Dwelling: The Temple of Self-sacralised Man

Abstract

In the contemporary West, the concept of the sacred has ceased to be defined through a religious/secular distinction, and as a result the traditional union between architecture and spirituality in the West has been severed. The sacred’s presence in the modern West has not diminished however; rather it has found alternative expression. This shift of the sacred has privatised the spiritual through the sacralisation of the individual and, in turn, has enabled the re-sacralisation of architecture. This work is therefore positioned at the intersection of architecture and spirituality and investigates the possible integration of both disciplines in the Western dwelling. Through explorations into the sacred, self and dwelling, it is established that domestic architecture has a critical role in assisting individuals to define self and thus develop an experience of the sacred. In order to articulate this union and ensure its recognition, this thesis investigates expressions of self found in dwelling, as well as the manifestation of the sacred’s universal techniques. By drawing upon personal interpretation of these expressions, the dwelling’s ability to explore the spiritual process of self-sacralisation by embodying the sacred and self is tested through a design application. It is then concluded that through architecture the individual process of self-sacralisation occurring in Western society can be articulated and supported. This thesis proposes that domestic architecture has an understated but vital role in the current need in the West for a personalised experience of the spiritual.