ABSTRACT
The axis is one of the most powerful instruments for spatial organisation. In the metalanguage of architecture it is a ‘verb’, a ‘doing word’. It links; it directs; it guides; it disciplines; it draws attention to a focus; and it provides a line of reference. The axis may be poetic but it is also an accoutrement of power. Since ancient times the axis, expressed and generated by architecture, has been exploited by power, whether mystical, political, military or religious. The dominant power of a time uses the axis to project its control out into the world. The axis – the projective and penetrative axis – engages the person as an ingredient in (rather than merely a spectator of) architecture. The axis mundi is primarily an axis of projection: it projects upwards into the unknowable heavens and downwards into the bowels of the earth.
