The system / IV

Four pillars.
Eight characters.
One structure.

Bazi is an ancient temporal map. Arch.IVE reads it as architecture: material, proportion, relationship and change.

八字 / Bāzì

Each pillar is built from a heavenly stem above and an earthly branch below.

Four vertical pairs. Eight characters in total. The stems show energy in expression. The branches show the conditions beneath it.

01Context

Year

The outer elevation

Heritage, early environment and the wider field you first entered.

02Climate

Month

The load-bearing programme

Work, formative conditions and the season that sets your operating climate.

03Foundation

Day

The central material

Your Day Master sits here: the primary element through which you meet the world.

04Horizon

Hour

The unbuilt extension

Ambition, private imagination and the structures that emerge later in life.

日

Day master / centre

The central material

Your Day Master is not your whole building. It is the material at its centre.

Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal or Water—expressed in a Yang or Yin mode. It names your primary way of moving energy, while the full chart shows what supports, redirects or refines it.

Find your Day Master ↗

The principle

No material is good or bad.
Only load, context and proportion.

Explore the ten materials ↗

Four pillars.Eight characters.One structure.