sacred form
Architecture is an ideal medium to realise the sacred into physical form. We create sacred form to facilitate relationships with wholeness. Sacred form is form that is reflective of wholeness. Reflective of wholeness as wholeness is something we aspire towards. It is where the physical form is aligned and resonates with the purposeful and heart-centred potential of people and place. To achieve reflective wholeness requires both the mind and the heart at play and the inherent premise that we are nature. When we act within this premise, we can accept our sacred role as part of nature and re-learn to follow the natural laws of co-creative existence. Indigenous wisdom opens the door to re-learning the natural laws and accessing the sacred form.
Sacred form is one of the foundations that guide our work
In all projects we look at what is the energy behind the project. This energy is the unseen. Part of the process is to acknowledge the unseen. Acknowledging the unseen is done in simple ways that people have found to be both enriching and meaningful. When we acknowledge the unseen, we activate consequence, cause and effect. Being attuned to this we can respond to what arises which ultimately strengthens the alignment of potential purpose.
We take the time to connect to the language of the landscape. In doing so we look at what is emerging. We work from the premise that we all have a unique vibrational essence and that there are sacred patternings for all creation. With this understanding, we observe and uncover the unique vibrational essence, the mauri*, or life-essence of place which shapes and informs the intent, design and decisions along the way.
When we approach what we do holistically, balance is innate. We work concurrently with the physical and etheric to activate and clear energetic pathways to allow the mauri to evolve.
Nothing can come into being without a design or template. Hidden Nature
The impulse, which is the motivator to create, is an unseen energetic process. The clearer the 'mind pictures' or visualisation of how we are going to actualise the required actions, the more successful will be the outcome. We walk our way through the entire project and visualise each stage of the process from design through to hand-over.
All matter/material is made up of energy. All energy is in motion and has a vibration or resonance. Through intent and right practice this can be structured to vibrate in a way that serves a building's potential. Beauty, colour and the arrangement of form also influences vibration and touches all those who experience it.
Often at the start to the project a place has disharmony or dissonance. Our role is to unlock the cause of the disharmony and transmute it into harmony. Through reverence the project is realised in a balanced and holistic way, and through reverence, we work towards wholeness rather than dissonance. Done this way, living architecture is created....places with soul.
mauri - is a special power possessed by Io which makes it possible for everything to move and live in accordance with the conditions and limits of its existence. Everything has mauri, including people, fish, animals, birds, forests, land, seas, and rivers; the mauri is that power which permits these living things to exist within their own realm and sphere. No one can control their own mauri or life-essence...While a person cannot control their own mauri, it is possible for someone to establish a mauri for some creation, such as a house. When a house is built, the mauri is established as the sacred heart of the building. This mauri is the power obtained through a covenant with the gods to take care of the house and to fulfil the wishes, desires, and hopes of the people who will use it for noble purposes" Extract taken from 'Tikana Whakaaro - key concepts in Maori culture' written by Cleve Barlow, a descendant of the Hikutu sub-tribe of Hokianga, Te Ramaroa.