JMVRI Issue Number 13 is a Special Issue on Maharishi Vedic Architecture, the traditional science and art of design and construction of buildings, towns, and cities in Maharishi Vedic Science derived from that aspect of the Vedic Literature called Sthāpatya Veda (स्थापत्यवेदः). This Special Issue explores the application of the knowledge contained in Sthāpatya Veda from the perspectives of the fundamental theory and principles of Vedic Architecture, urban resilience, and creativity. Three papers respectively, explore the theoretical foundations of Maharishi Vedic Architecture, introduce adverse effects of rapid urbanisation and how they can be corrected through Maharishi Vedic Architecture, and, examine the impact of Maharishi Vedic Architecture on workforce creativity. This Special Issue is a response to a series of collaborative exchanges among international experts in Maharishi Vāstu Architecture and celebrates the March 2020 launch of Maharishi Vāstu Alliance, formed under the auspices of Maharishi Vedic Research Institute.
JMVRI Issue Number 13
JMVRI Paper 13.2
Strengthening Urban Resilience: The Case for Maharishi Vedic Architecture
Author: Neil Hamill
This paper can be downloaded via the following link:
Citation: Hamill, N. (2020). Strengthening urban resilience: The case for Maharishi Vedic architecture. Journal of Maharishi Vedic Research Institute, 13, 73-111.
Summary:
This paper introduces some of the adverse side effects of rapid rates of urbanisation as currently experienced throughout the world. Urban planners and ecologists have suggested that these problematic side effects have resulted not only from urbanisation, but also from the societal impacts humans have had on their natural and built environments and the changes they inflict on the biophysical cycles and ecologies of the planet. These impacts and changes suggest a need for a dramatic shift in human consciousness and the built form of towns and cities.
However, according to some social geographers, urban agglomerations are not necessarily a source of problems but offer the integrative geographic action platform for creative solutions and new opportunities. To that end, this paper briefly introduces Vedic Science as it has been presented by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and considers its important relationship to urban resilience, especially the integrative roles that Maharishi Vedic Architecture, Maharishi Vedic Garden Cities, and Maharishi Vedic Gardens might offer in restoring balance to our built environments and in developing urban resilience.
Such roles may be particularly important as populations rapidly expand and potential imbalances in nature and in human life pose existential threats to sustainable habitation, and thus may contribute directly to humanity avoiding what Yigitcanlar, Foth and Kamruzzaman call “urban ecocide” and what Pain refers to as “chronic urban trauma” and the need for a “post-traumatic city”.