Vastu Shastra
and Sthapatya Veda
The ancient Vedic architectural system. Study of five primary sources: Mānasāra, Mayamata, Vāstu Śāstra, Bṛhat Saṁhitā and Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra. Courses with Indian masters of the tradition.
Vitruvius,
Palladio, the classical canon
De architectura by Vitruvius is the foundation of the Western canon. Alberti and Palladio developed it into the order and the villa. Leonardo's Vitruvian Man and Ad Quadratum are graphic expressions of the golden ratio.
The twelve
Russian sazhens
Russian builders did not design with a single metre, but with a set of proportional sazhens. A. A. Pilecky and A. F. Chernyaev showed that the 12 sazhens form a two-row modular system based on the golden ratio.
The only Russian-language architectural practice
that synthesizes all three
Each of these traditions is a powerful instrument on its own. When they work together, the house receives what no single school can give alone: solar orientation from the Vedas, classical proportion from Palladio, and individual human scale from the sazhens. Architecture for the body, for the mind and for the connection with the cosmos, at the same time.
«No building can have correct proportions without symmetry and correspondence, exactly as in a well-formed human body.»Marcus Vitruvius Pollio · De architectura, ca. 15 BCE
Journal and essays
I publish long-form essays in the journal, unpacking the principles one by one: the Vitruvian Man and Vastu Purusha, sazhens and musical notes, and case studies from practice.