It is easy to see how much harm human activates do to the world. We can look at almost every product as bought at the price of environmental or human damage. If we aim to build architecture, which has a health giving influence, we need responsible foundations. Different climates require different building forms. Hot climates need shaded, airy spaces, such as verandas or courtyards. Different humidity, temperature and night / day variations have led to different traditional materials and natural cooling layouts which give raise to vernacular forms ranging from large ventilated roof spaces to high thermal capacity mud � brick buildings.
Traditional building forms are not to copy; copies are so dead. We need however to be sure that we have carefully thought about what previous generations took for granted before we depart too radically from them. For example, tables of comfort / temperature can take into account of whether heating is radiant � in which case the air should be cooler � or convected. Forced air convection may create the right temperature but not comfort, for duct friction can reduce the ionized content of air by upto 95 percent and adversely alter the balance between positive and negative ions. Many people experience headaches and lethargy when the ion content is low and positive ions predominate.
In ancient times, architecture was not only a creation of form to limit or define space, but was inherently a sacred form, a three dimensioned mandala. All cultures took into consideration their understanding of the varied subtle effects of the environment, both natural and built, on the human system. With this knowledge, termed Geomancy, our ancestors created forms that were in harmony with the laws of the greater creation that surround us; forms that live not in time, but outgrown time and live in eternity. Theirs was a magic of numbers, a sacredness of proportion and materials, a mysticism of harmonics and colors critical choice of right location and right moment in time, so that matter and form expressed in an infinite number of ways the cosmic truths, and made us experience the multiple attributes of the infinite.
Today, a branch of modern science known as Geobiology dedicates itself to the principles on which these laws were based. The initial conclusions reveal much about the formidable knowledge and mastery of the ancient geomancers in the Indian subcontinent and other civilizations.
In the already built environments, one can only study the different energy radiations, and find ways and means of harmonizing and neutralizing them. This is very much more complex and difficult as it is not normally possible to rebuild or reorient buildings. In a new structure a lot of things can be easily taken care of in establishing the right energy levels by the use of materials such as lime, sandstone, limestone, marble, etc. But, to be effective, these need to be fixed in limemotar instead of cement.
Steel reinforcements in columns, beams, slabs and walls create a sort of cage of Faraday. We could say that we are living in a highly charged environment between two plates of a condenser. To neutralize this it is necessary to establish good earthing for the steel reinforcements so that the ionization factor is neutralized, and the body therefore, not stressed.
The form of the building, its orientation, the symmetry of its door and window openings and their proper alignments, the layout of the different rooms, all these and more are factors that, if considered at the design stage, help the harmonization of energy fields and their effects on our body.
The subtle relationship that exists between the orientations and the different types of energy radiations that relate to the energy axis in our body is the key to understanding the relationship between the energy fields of man and buildings. Basically, the orientations of buildings according to their forms, materials used, proportions, etc., play a powerful role in creating either the right or harmonious environment, or a wrong and negative environment that affects us socially, psychologically, mentally and spiritually.
The form of a house / apartment etc., creates an energy field that is termed the Central Energy Point or Energy of Form which is a Cosmo-Telluric Energy Column, radiating in ten directions � east, west, north, south, north-east, north-west, south-west, south-east, nadir and zenith � all earth, environmental and cosmic energies coming through and existing in the place concerned. These directly affect the human body at the different points of our energy centers or charkas, being not necessarily the same for man and woman, from above the head to below the feet.
The form, proportions, materials used in the house or apartment create another set of energy fields that are complimentary to the Central Energy Column, and which affect the energy fields within the living space with respect to the six orientations and nadir and zenith at each of these eight orientation points.
The understanding of the effects of the various subtle energy fields with the energy axis of the body and with the ten orientations is the prime factor harmonizing us with our built environment.
We do not have then to worry about how to neutralize each radiation source separately; we have to only harmonize them by acting on the eight outward orientation points, and on the ninth, which the Central Cosmo Telluric Energy Column.