Spiritualibrium (Spiritual-Equilibrium) in Architecture
Spiritualibrium is an acronym that consists of two concepts, "Spirituality" and "Equilibrium". Spiritual etymologically comes from the Latin term "spiritus", which means "spirit, soul, life-making energy". Philosopher such as Hegel (Giovanni, 2009), among other things, connotes "spirit" with the power that gives energy to the cosmos. The concept of spirituality is often measured by connectedness, wholeness, meaning, and balance (Joelle & Coelho, 2019; Liu & Robertson, 2011). The concept of "equilibrium" is widely developed in the fields of economy, social (social-equilibrium) (Fararo, 1993), and environment (ecological-equilibrium) (DeAngelis & Waterhouse, 1987). Recently, many have been developed in the spiritual field (Nornajwa, 2019). Combining the two concepts into spiritual equilibrium means that individual spirituality can affect environmental equilibrium, on the other hand, environmental equilibrium can affect individual spirituality. The concept of spiritualibrium is necessary to build a life that is purer and more harmonious.
Pure life is in a development cycle with null residues. A balanced soul can affect the environment balance, otherwise, a pure environment is often medicine for the soul. In many places in the world, plants, places, and natural people, away from exposure to pollution become medicine and provide positive energy for humans and other environments. These plants are widely available in mountains, forests, and inland. In the rural environment, virgin forests, far from exposure to pollution, become a counterweight to other environments. Likewise, good humans often provide positive energy and environmental peace, in both physical and social environments. Conversely, plants, the environment, and people who are exposed to a lot of pollution will affect and can give negative energy to themselves and other environments. Living in harmony is a life that provides inner peace, social peace, and ecological peace (Ims & Jakobsen, 2017).
Spiritual is immaterial, while architecture embodies it in matter. Architecture as a place of essential things (spirit) consists of interconnected micro and macro systems. The soul environment and the relationship between the two are in a state of change toward equilibrium. Change can be both positive change (growth) and negative change (decrease) in an equilibrium cycle. When changes occur, environmental resources are partially reduced, and some are added and form a new balance. Small-scale changes such as flowing water that can easily predict where it will go. Changes on a large scale and dynamic have a bigger impact and are difficult to predict.
Architecture as a spiritual space is different from religiosity space because the concept of spirituality is different from religiosity. Religiosity is related to faith and obedience to God, while spirituality is related to something good, transcendence (sacred). Spiritual spaces in general are spaces for religious worship. Religiosity space can be a way to achieve something transcendence(McCarter, 1998), but spiritual spaces are everywhere and not always in spaces for religious worship. Religious cities are cities that are widely used for religious worship activities, while spiritual cities are cities that have many places for connectivity, self-balance, and finding meaning in life.
The God in many religions is believed to be the Most Holy, so to connect with God, humans need to cleanse themselves both physically and spiritually. The body is related to the body while cleansing the spirit is related to unwholesome qualities such as greed, arrogance, anger, and building good qualities such as caring, loving, and helping. Religious places are places that are widely used for religious worship activities, while spiritual cities are cities that have a lot of available space for connectivity, self-balance, and finding meaning in life.
Building a spiritualibrium in architecture starts from understanding the dimensions of spirituality consisting of connectedness, balance, and wholeness (Joelle & Coelho, 2019; Liu & Robertson, 2011). Spirituality is related to a sense of connection and community, meaningful life, alignment with values and opportunities for the inner life, emotional balance, and inner peace (Ashmos & Duchon, 2000). A sense of connection and community is a feeling of connectedness involving connectedness with other people, the natural environment, and God. The meaningful life dimension includes doing meaningful activities, thinking about other people, and being involved in the community context. A meaningful life is a dimension related to meaning and purpose. Meanings often serve as sources of purpose, ownership, and identity. The dimension of alignment with values is the relationship between personal values and the environment. The dimensions of alignment with values are related to perceptions of the future of the community, respected ways of inner life and peace, and attitudes toward society. The opportunities for the inner life dimension measure the extent to which the environment respects spirituality and individual spiritual values. The emotional balance and inner peace dimension relate to the balance between work and life, welfare and quality of life, and work-family balance.
Architecture is not only to fulfill housing needs but also to express their values, strengths, and aspirations. Meaningful architecture is seen as a way to bring harmony, balance, life, value, value, and benefit. A quality life is done by maintaining this balance, and away from the spirit of exploitation, both physical, psychological, social, and external physical environment (Ims & Jakobsen, 2017), as well as maintaining the quality of the relationship with the Creator.
Architecture is not only related to building blocks, walls, and technology (Karassowitsch, 2015), but also involves broader resources such as wind, light, water, plants, emotions, and spiritual energy (Finlayson, 2012). The spiritual energy in the environment can increase or decrease, and form a new balance. When interacting with the environment, individuals absorb and remove energy (positive and negative) from the environment. When absorbing positive energy and removing negative energy from the environment, the role of spirituality (life energy) increases. Conversely, when absorbing negative energy and removing positive energy from the environment, the role of spirituality decreases.
Architecture is like the human body which has capabilities. These abilities consist of basic abilities that are difficult to develop, while other abilities can be improved (upgrade, install, combine, delete, blended) as needed, such as smart architecture, green architecture, sustainable architecture, inclusive architecture (architecture for all), and child-friendly architecture. Innovations and technology are often like drugs that have benefits in increasing capacity but also come with side effects. The concept of smart architecture provides the potential for efficiency. However, the concept of smart architecture still has weaknesses in terms of overcoming social and environmental problems that arise ("post-smart"), such as increasing exclusive cities and inequality, resilience and mental health (for example digital detoxification), consumptive culture, congestion, pollution, waste, and increasingly limited agricultural land. It is not enough to focus on technology or environmental sustainability alone; on the contrary, these dimensions need to be integrated with other approaches than those involving economic, social, intellectual, cultural, and even spiritual values (Coca-Stefaniak, 2020).
Spiritualiberium has the potential as a component to build quality architecture. Spirituality gives the capacity to manage balance-imbalances (body, psychic, social, changes in the external environment) to be adaptive, caring, and even innovative in capturing changes in the balance of the external and external environment. The architecture of spiritual space is a deep human psychological need such as holistic personality development and the expansion of human virtues such as compassion, trust and faith. On a broader level, spiritual space inspires a person to start looking for the true essence and purpose of human life (Duffy, 2010).
AUTHOR
EKO HERIJANTO
References:
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