Beauty, Neuroscience, and Architecture: Timeless Patterns and Their Impact on Our Well-Being

I begin with a Turkish Proverb ~ “A heart in love with beauty never grows old.”“Beauty, Neuroscience & Architecture” Is just that. Few things that are self-identifying are self-defining. Don H. Ruggles book, though, does not just do that. It is beyond inspecting expectations. It is beyond setting up society for success. It builds back in upon itself in healthy ways. Here is a book on beauty, that is itself beautiful. It’s apple did not fall far from its tree. Ruggles quiet elegance in his own architectural work consistently expresses strength confident enough to be comfortably gentle.Architecture. The classic Greek roots are Arche and Techne. Arche, the 1st spark, the inception, the idea. And, it is formless. Techne, the making, the putting together of the idea, the conception. It gives form to the formless. All that beauty of the whole process of like lives in the single word, ‘Architecture.’ All that beauty as well lives in this book.Here is a beautiful work that engages one of the most crucial facts of life. We need beauty. The inner ablution pools that spill some beauty when we hear an inspiring voice. The sacred adornments of tears that beautify our faces when we connect. It feels to me that “Beauty, Neuroscience & Architecture” presents itself from Ruggles’ naturalized, perennial architectural garden. His work speaks volumes, and this work does not stand side by side with Vitruvius or Ronchamp. It nestles into Chartres to emerge at the end like a Crown Chakra cloister opens up at the top of Mont St. Michel when you arrive at that zenith that gifts a freedom of Self.“Beauty, Neuroscience & Architecture” strongly allies with and sidles up to Carl Jung’s work. This books occupies the sandbox like a big cat with expert skill in play. Is this review skipping stones and not dropping in? No. I started with the cartoon of its cross-section where beauty comes from the Yoniverse, that from which all else emanates. Though this book came from the same Place of Creation we all did, it shines its depth and light differently in full balance as a valuable gift to humanity. The dark and the light are one here. No bluster. No preaching. Here is the utmost, necessary rite: to initiate with Beauty.“... is a nontrivial departure from the idea that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’ It turns out that beauty resonates in all of us uniformly due to our common evolutionary history originating in the Pleistocene period.” “The primacy of our pursuit...,” the many responsibilities during a project,” in a Both~And mode of being rather than an either/or life limiting choice. “We will all be the better for it.” Prescient words, as we will, and with this work have another living component of what we are.In an evolved world we become besties with our inner beasties as they both message beauty in naturally different ways. Here is a book that speaks with a fluid fluency in a beautiful language that transcends its innate structure. Some hearts are weighed against a feather. This book? Maat may need a lighter feather as the heart of this book can fly. This is a book that, possibly contrary to the scope of its intent, maybe more likely not, conveys the biographical rite of the discipline of the ritual from a man who plays his work out over untinterrupted decades. This is an expression of Architecture we can all use to find the ultimate beauty more fully. Self.There are few “musts” in life, things our life force requires we can do no other than do. “Beauty, Neuroscience & Architecture” is one of those few. Beyond a must-read book, here is an experience clothed between two covers, a geode even attractive on the exterior. Crack this baby open, and it resonates. You’ll thank yourself when you do. Discover Ruggles’ geode with no cloak here. Like the nudity of a star that needs no veil, “Beauty, Neuroscience & Architecture” is honest and forthright and most of all, natural.Genuine structural integrity, like our skeleton, is often a hidden bridge that we utilize every day without even a thought. Ruggles’ work, like Edward Hopper’s Paintings, “is powerful and difficult to ignore once you discover it.” Spill a little beauty when you open this book, the mess that does not need to be cleaned up. The inner and outer worlds are not so startlingly divergent are they? They are not mirrored, but embody the educated symmetry of connection, two differences with one on either side of the axis. Reasons are unreasonable here, truth possibly stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense. And, more than sense it made here. Here is a book about the DNA that pulses as the heartbeat in each of our connections in every space and place we live. Here is a beautiful book about beauty. Sound cliche? I’d say this book is about as cliche as breath.Find your nine here. The Nin. The 9th Japanese Kanji whose color is white light, whose hands form the circle to focus the Moon. The concept of the Nin is Tao. Ruggles’ has assembled the gas in the tank of Tao for the serendipity itinerary roadmap synchronicities of life. Valuable discoveries are treasure and have one thing in common. Beauty. Beauty is not a luxury. It is a chief necessity. Your Life, Your Way. Enjoy a beautiful journey with this book as your guide. I gather you will thank yourself during and after. And, when you experience it the second time, you may just begin to enter into a deeper relationship with your own beauty. Steep in the ablution pool of this book, and you may find your own Architecture of Well-Being hydrated from deep wells.I feel that the Initiation well in Sintra, Portugal, the inverted tower of Regeleira, nods in reverence to welcome this book into the world, and The Temple of Luxor at Karnak concurs.. I recommend to welcome this beauty into yours.Jordan HoggardAuthor: Tarot in the Land of Mystereum, Schiffer Publications, 2011Founder: Kintsukuroi of Self ~ Tarot for the Architecture of Your Well-Being

This book is relatively short and beautifully illustrated. And it puts forth an intriguing idea that we are hardwired to appreciate beauty and that there are natural forms that appeal to us. It provides a framework for architectural design that promises to make architecture people will enjoy and that will give them comfort. It would have been nice for the book to explore the tradeoffs between when to use designs that are exciting and when to use designs that are comforting. Maybe in a sequel.

This is an exceptional book on architecture. I recommend it to developers and investors in real estate. It opens many important questions about our individual and collective interpretation of: What is beauty? What is our well-being and how it relates to architecture? For me it opens the door to further questions on words like: Lifestyle, Authenticity Experiential and Genuine and how they relate to architecture. Don's book is one of the first that I've seen that makes a positive connection between neuroscience and architecture. A very enjoyable, well-written book.

Enjoyed reading every page from cover to cover. Every page is filled with step by step explanations of why humans need classical and beautiful architecture with easy to understand diagrams. Photos of what are considered the most beautiful buildings in the world explain the 9 square pattern that infants see at birth and how it impacts our lives. Fascinating and inspiring!

An antidote to disposable architecture. Beautiful architecture is architecture worth holding onto across generations. That architecture is the most sustainable.

Interesting take on architecture.

A friend recommended this book, and rightly so. It's interesting, informative, and beautiful! He perfectly blended neuroscience and architecture, which is amazing! I loved it so much that I gave it as a gift...now I need to purchase another for myself :-)

Very interesting and informatively, nice photos

Não é muito grosso, mas é muito bonito, pode servir até como decoração