City Temple of Life

I walk the full streets with fearless dignity.

A parade of joy makers dance to the core.

Our sacred place of lucid epiphany,

to experience GAIA’s oneness and awe,

life’s diversity and shared divinity,

that grounds our collective becoming and lore.

At the core, faiths meet with courage and candour,

co-creators touch in mutual splendour.

City Temple of Life (01/12/2020) in Design Shifts, a poetic journey through post-normal times.

Inspired by the polymath, Patrick Geddes, who espoused the importance of new secular temples and sacred spaces in our cities, and the spiritual city to our human development. Geddes was influenced by the Hindu multidimensional system of city planning – Vastu – which correlated human and spiritual well-being with the design of healthy environments and dwellings in harmony with cosmic principles.

Figure 15.0: Daffara, P. (2025). City Temple of Life [Ink and pencil on trace].

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