Yoga and Architecture: The Art of Dwelling

Yoga is all about experience. If the Self is not present as a silent witness during the practice, such ends up empty of meaning. By the same token, Architecture can only come to life if the direct experience of the dweller (the Self) is deeply imprinted in each and every element of its final product. In Yoga, such as in Art and Architecture, the experience of the Self may contain innumerable subtleties that the expression of such may be better accomplished through analogy or metaphor. It’s a means of explaining the inexplicable. Miriam Hamui, Architect and Yoga teacher and practitioner as well, has gathered the inexplicable of both disciplines and used each to explain the other in order to convey her experience as a human being living inside and outside of her body. To explain Yoga, she has applied Frank Llyod Wright’s Fallingwater house, a legendary masterpiece that has redefined the art of inhabiting. Likewise, illustrations representing the different aspects of the Human Anatomy according to the Yoga tradition, clarify the idea of Architecture. The result: an enjoyable short essay, full of imagery, which speaks directly from the author’s heart to the heart of the reader.