Mythology Archives - The Architectural Mythologems

Manifesto Against Reduction

Luka Stojanović — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 10:45:45 +0000

This is a manifesto for an architecture that refuses reduction.

It refuses to reduce space to function, beauty to appearance, myth to fiction, or the human being to what can be measured.

The Architectural Mythologems begins from another premise: architecture can question, reveal, disturb, and transform.

What follows is not a statement of style.

It is a declaration of position.

The Architectural Mythologems is not for those who…

…ask architecture only to be beautiful.

…think dreams are merely meaningless by-products of sleep.

…think a symbol is merely decoration.

…think art is irrelevant.

…think myth is a lie.

…think an archetype is merely a Jungian term.

…think a book is just fiction.

…think architecture cannot be an intellectual provocation.

…want architecture to confirm their persona.

…have never tried to understand their own dreams.

…want architecture to conceal what they refuse to see in themselves.

…think a mirror is useful only when it reflects a face.

…have never encountered their own shadow.

…think introspection is a waste of time.

…believe comfort is the highest purpose of space.

…think every form of discomfort should be eliminated.

…think art must always be pleasant.

…think aesthetics begin with the choice of materials.

…think fiction is an escape from reality.

…think style can replace an idea.

…think originality means creating something that has never been seen before.

…think tradition is the same as nostalgia.

…think the past should either be copied or rejected.

…think history has nothing to say to contemporary architecture.

…think an invented story cannot reveal truth.

…think metaphysics is useless because it cannot be measured.

…recognize only what can fit into a table.

…think rationality is the only legitimate form of knowledge.

…think everything of value can be explained through function.

…think that what never happened cannot be true.

…think space has no psychological reality.

…think human beings inhabit only square metres.

…think function comes before meaning.

…think philosophy and architecture have nothing to do with one another.

…dismiss philosophy as mere “philosophizing.”

…have never seriously considered what good means.

…think the invented is the opposite of the true.

…have never confronted the problem of ethics.

…think truth is merely a matter of perspective.

…use relativism as an excuse never to take a position.

…think piety and religiosity are the same thing.

…think spirituality begins where reason ends.

…think psychology exists only to treat problems.

…think individuation is simply another name for “self-improvement.”

…think a person should merely become a better version of their persona.

…think architecture should speak about the architect.

…think space is merely the background of life rather than an active participant in it.

…ask nothing more of a house than shelter.

…never want space to call them into question.

…think truth exists only in facts.

…think fiction has no value as a form of knowledge.

…think language is learned like any other skill.

…think a story can never be truer than an event.

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Thesis and Anti-thesis | Interpretations of Basic Mandalas

Luka — Fri, 03 May 2024 16:07:46 +0000

Audio Essay: Thesis and Anti-thesis

Freedom vs. Destiny

It’s easy to fall into the trap and assume that the opposite of freedom is an empty lack of freedom or imprisonment.

“The soul is free when it is educated.” – M. Eckhart, Goethe

On the opposite side of freedom lies a choice. The Choice is what ends freedom and reduces it to actualization. Freedom is potential (numerous) choices, and Destiny (non-freedom) is one choice.

We make this choice, or the external makes the choice for us. The illusion is of the individual assuming otherwise.

The drawing of the simplest mandala is the most illustrative example of the relationship between freedom and Destiny, potential and actualisation.

Mandala 1

A circle describing a point. The circle is an infinite series of points (choices), or an exponent of freedom, while the point in the middle represents the “singularity” of Destiny, or as Jung says, the Self.

Ref: Jung’s autobiographical sketches of daily Mandalas

Mandala 2

A circle cut in half (into two semicircles). In this mandala, the separation of the whole by the Center line is shown. Two sets, thesis and antithesis. This mandala in its simplest interpretation represents three points, connected by a straight line (alignment of three points). Thesis, Antithesis, and the Relation between. The point of relation (Center) is an exponent of the Self and the basic reference point based on which thesis and antithesis are aligned (recognized). This Mandala is the first step in the coordinate determination of the Self and the first step towards Destiny Choice.

Mandala 3

A circle describing a point, and connected by a spiral. We all want to reach the Center, and we reach it through “freedoms”. Freedoms decrease, or “purify”, in cycles, and gravitate towards the Center. The Center is the Goal and the final step.

Freedoms push, the Center pulls. Ref: Terence McKenna and the theory of time (novum).

Maturity of consciousness is needed for Destiny. Infantile awareness, as the predominant collective neurosis, complicates this form of awareness. In a Biblical sense, the Devil is dressed in “new” garments and presents himself as the most beautiful angel, freedom.

Comment:

Free will and multiverse movies

We can often interpret movies as compensatory manifestations of our collective (or personal) shortcomings. The era of superhero movies portrays a picture of individual impotence, which is somewhat understandable due to the time we live in. However, multiverse movies provide a more interesting compensation. Compensation for the lack of free will. By depicting endless arrays of potential scenarios and possible realities, they relativize the importance of singularity behind phenomena but provide the comfort of indefiniteness (freedom).

Individual state – How Human is greater than the Cosmos

The collective existence of indefiniteness is permissible to the Cosmos, which measures its story in billions of years, and its development has practically just begun, however, this is not a good position for the individual.

Our insignificance in years, on the other hand, offers us a solution.

Every story consists of three constituents: Beginning, Middle, and End. These constituents make up the story of the Cosmos as much as they make up the story of a single Human. Although our experience of the Cosmos is of something almost Infinite, although we feel practically frightened by this magnitude, there exists in us another feeling of greatness standing as opposition to this fear. That greatness is the greatness of hypothetical inner infinity, which is as great as the external infinity, only its miniature representation.

Both infinities stand in a parallel, balanced relationship. However, while the external Infinity will potentially need hundreds of billions of years to reach the “Middle” of its Story, inner Infinity has the advantage of accelerated development.

Wrong unit of measurement (reference)

“So the World works, so will I,” is the basic fallacy. The “World” has time. The World is part of the Cosmic narrative.

The entirety of our story (beginning – middle – end) is written and played in about 100 years. All chapters, all transformations, all conceptualizations, all actualizations, all archetypal representations.

The differences between the beginning and the middle, as well as the middle and the end, are evident. These are differences between the young and the mature, the mature and the wise. It is also evident that the world is still in the infancy of its teenage years. This child is not an ethical-aesthetic norm, but merely a reference to the stage of development. A reference to the collective antithesis, which is at the beginning of development and will need much more time to mature.

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