Claude Fayette Bragdon

Claude Fayette Bragdon
Claude Fayette Bragdon (1866–1946) was an American architect, writer, and stage designer known for his innovative ideas in architecture and theosophy. He authored numerous books on design, mysticism, and metaphysics, including "The Beautiful Necessity" and "A Primer of Higher Space". Bragdon advocated for the integration of geometry and spiritual philosophy in his architectural works, pioneering the concept of "fourth-dimensional" design. His influence extended beyond architecture, as he also contributed to the stagecraft of theatrical productions with his advanced lighting and set designs.

Author's Books:


I THE QUEST OF FREEDOM THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY Expectancy of freedom is the dominant note of to-day. Amid the crash of armies and the clash of systems we await some liberating stroke which shall release us from the old dreary thralldoms. As Nietzsche says, "It would seem as though we had before us, as a reward for all our toils, a country still undiscovered, the horizons of which no one has yet... more...

I BEFORE THE WAR The world war represents not the triumph, but the birth of democracy. The true ideal of democracy—the rule of a people by the demos, or group soul—is a thing unrealized. How then is it possible to consider or discuss an architecture of democracy—the shadow of a shade? It is not possible to do so with any degree of finality, but by an intention of consciousness upon this... more...

I THE ART OF ARCHITECTURE One of the advantages of a thorough assimilation of what may be called the theosophic idea is that it can be applied with advantage to every department of knowledge and of human activity: like the key to a cryptogram it renders clear and simple that which before seemed intricate and obscure. Let us apply this key to the subject of art, and to the art of architecture in... more...