While the negotiations for the purchase of the land were still in progress, thoughts were given to how the new house for the soma health centre should be designed. Two main lines of thought were to be incorporated into the design: 1. what the new house should contain and 2. how it should be designed.

A visit to the Veda House in Switzerland had left a lasting impression on the Schachinger family. This house houses the "Ayurveda AG", which runs the largest mail order business for Ayurvedic products in Switzerland. The exterior of this house is modern and impresses with its functional architecture. The architect Christian Schweizer is one of the most experienced Maharishi Sthapatya Veda planners.

What is Maharishi Sthapatya Veda?

In our latitudes, Chinese Feng Shui is known as a form of building art that incorporates important structural elements to support well-being, health and success.

Vedic science has also studied the basic structure of creation and its expression in nature for thousands of years. Vedic architecture (Sthapatya Veda or Vastu Vidya) was founded to create an environment for humans in which positive cosmic energies are focused. This form of architecture not only uses natural materials to create a pleasant feeling of well-being, but also emphasises certain proportions of the individual parts of buildings, orientation according to the cardinal points and the arrangement of rooms according to fundamental principles.

In contrast to modern building biology, these structural principles play an important role. Healthy nutrition does not only consist of valuable ingredients of a meal, but very much of the right timing and eating behaviour. Similarly, for a holistic effect on health, a building needs not only natural building materials, but also perfect orientation in space and time. All these components are considered in the Maharishi Sthapatya Veda.

The right architecture for the landscape

The house for soma, the new Centre for Maharishi Ayurveda and Holistic Medicine, was to be built in a deeply rural setting. It should by no means be an exotic foreign body in the rural landscape. Therefore, it was important to the Schachinger family to find an architect who was willing to combine the high structural requirements of Vedic architecture with a regional appearance.

The choice fell on architect Herbert Schrattenecker and his team, which includes his daughter Sophie as junior architect.

Alignment with Maharishi Sthapatya Veda

It was a very time-consuming process to compare the first plans of architect Schrattenecker with the laws of Vedic architecture. In close cooperation with the Institute for Maharishi Sthapatya Veda in Vlodrop, Holland, the plans were refined and perfected more and more. The guidance of architect Christian Schweizer, the senior planner of this institute, was very helpful in this process.

From the right moment

The perfect structure for the building was found after almost a year of work. Now the perfect time for the start of construction activities also had to be determined. This favourable time for the start of an activity is calculated in Vedic astrology (Maharishi Jyotish) by experienced Jyotishis, taking into account the life data of the builder and the purpose of the building. In the process, an optimum time for breaking ground and laying the foundation stone has been elicited.

In the next part you will read about the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone and the start of construction.