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Giving Architecture To Fire

A modern vision of the Fire Temple

Friday 3 November 2006, by Babak KHANDANI

A thesis submitted by Nawazish Godrej Nanji in May 2006 to the Faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture.

 

Nawazish Godrej Nanji introduces his work as this:

For centuries, fire has been a sacred symbol from the eastern cultures to western regions. As one of the four states of matter, fire represents the great essence in our daily lives as an energy source with its warmth, light and aura, kindling feelings of truth and spirituality within us. In his poetic verses, fire was venerated by Zoroaster who led mankind to believe that there is one supreme lord that we may follow; a being that can only be known by the quest for truth (Asha). For Zoroaster truth was symbolic with fire as it brought people together in prayer. With the passage of time fire became consecrated in different orders with the higher ones being placed within covered buildings for protection. These buildings became temples of fire or Fire Temples where an eternal flame was kept and looked after by a priest so as to keep alive the salvation of humankind and continue our journey towards righteousness with the blessings of the supreme. With this, faith stayed alive as long as the Fire burned.

Herein lies my celebration of fire where I announce it to the follower on the path to truth as an eternal flame burning, yet resting in a place worthy of all its glory; an ambience created to venerate the flame and reassure the traveller that its light has more to offer than meets the eye.

JPEG - 59.8 kb
Futuristic Fire Temple
Diagrammatic Sectional View of the Fire Temple proposed by Nawazish Godrej Nanji.

The thesis in PDF format:

PDF - 4.1 Mb
Part 1
PDF - 1.1 Mb
Part 2
PDF - 2.2 Mb
Part 3
PDF - 2.6 Mb
Part 4
PDF - 1.7 Mb
Part 5

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