Architectural Possibilities and Impossibilities of Geometry of Coleridge’s Dome

Architectural Possibilities and Impossibilities of Geometry of Coleridge’s Dome

Symbolist writings sought to evoke rather than to describe, thus symbolic imagery becomes the representative of the author’s soul. In order to experience synaesthesia where the author seeks to identify and compound various senses together to evoke the profoundity in his works, Arthur Rimbaud, a representative of the symbolist movement writes in his poem `Voyelles’;

“A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu: voyelles.”

Here he compounds all the vowels to symbolize the primary colours.

The formatives of Kubla’s dome are traditional and therefore possible in physics and architecture. It does not present geometric-challenge. Coleridge’s dome on the other hand is architectural impossibility in terms of physics and presents a challenge to Co-ordinate Geometry as he tries to connect the onto-logical co-ordinates through contraries expressed through Leonardo Da Vinci’s Virtruvian Man.

The drawing is based upon the correlations of ideal human proportions with architecture. He envisaged great picture chart of human body he had produced through his anatomical drawings and Vituvian Man as cosmography of the microcosm. He believed the workings of the human body to be analogy to the workings of the universe. Similarly Coleridge’s dome itself represents the universe where Good and Evil; Creation and Destruction prevail side by side, so as the “sunny spots of greenery” and “the sunless sea” rest.

Coleridge’s dome presents a metaphor for an artist’s mind, which is always repleted with dichotomy; there is always a duality in a poet’s rather in an artist’s mind. Now speaking of this duality, thesis and antithesis together give synthesis, so for creation; this duality is almost an indispensable factor. And not only has the mind of an artist, but the dome stands as a metaphor of the human brain, where cogito and impulse are stifling to surpass each other; where imagination and vision is like the reflection of the dome in the time line.

Leonardo’s drawing combines a careful drawing of the ancient text with his own observation of actual human bodies and cosmos. In drawing the circle and square, he correctly observes that the square cannot have the same centre as the circle, the navel, but is somewhat lower in anatomy. This difference in positions of the centre is also portrayed by Coleridge as the difference between the “Physical centre of Kubla’s dome” and “Metaphysical centre of Coleridge’s dome”. The square suggested in Da Vinci’s sketch is reflected in Coleridge’s text where he used the line: “twice five miles”. Twice five miles is mathematically represented in 5^2, a square with each of its sides 5 units and superimposed by the circle suggested by the line: “with walls girdled around…” In this sketch the square superimposes the circle, so here let to an equation of finding the area of A and B:

A = B

The pose with the arms straight out and the feet together is seen to be inscribed in the square. On the other hand the “spread eagle” pose is seen to be inscribed in the superimposed circle. If you open your legs enough that your hand is lowered by one-fourteenth of your height and raise your