Ancient Ideas About the Architecture of the Universe, Their Modernization in Antiquity, and Archaization in the Middle Ages

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.211125.145How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Architecture; The Universe; Mythology; Cosmological traditions; The symbolism of forms

Abstract

The article describes in general terms the concept of the world that dominated the imagination and was embodied in the creative activity of man in ancient times. Emphasis is put on the biomorphism of the primordial beings that make up the Earth and Sky and on the most important mythological theme of their separation and distancing one from another, which required special supports. Thus, architectural attributes of the image of a great cosmic structure started to take shape, in which the Earth was seen as a flattened bottom and the sky as a vaulted shell floating above it. The vertical axis of the world, organizing the rotation of celestial bodies, acquired essential importance. Further, the author describes how the ancient natural philosophers saw at the heart of the structure of the Universe the natural distribution of the elements vertically - depending on their weight. At the same time, they recognized the fact that the surface of the Earth is not flat but convex. This led to the discovery of the spherical shape of the Earth and the sky. Aristotle’s geocentric model provided the basis for Ptolemy’s work, which had practical applications throughout the Middle Ages. However, the advent of the Christian era was marked by a sharp criticism of antique self-consciousness and a programmatic return to archaic cosmological views in their ancient formulation, which provided a basis for the typical features of Christian church architecture as a likeness of the God-created world edifice. Thus, the direct continuity of the development of ancient traditions of architectural forms, increasingly abstracted under the influence of religious creationism, was supported.

Copyright

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Igor A. Bondarenko
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/11/25
TI  - Ancient Ideas About the Architecture of the Universe, Their Modernization in Antiquity, and Archaization in the Middle Ages
BT  - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Architecture: Heritage, Traditions and Innovations (AHTI 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 10
EP  - 16
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211125.145
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.211125.145
ID  - Bondarenko2021
ER  -