The architect Alexander Gorlin, 58, has kept files full of arcane references to kabbalistic principles during two decades of designing projects, from public schools and synagogues to palatial Hamptons houses. Although not a terribly devout Jew, he has studied ancient Jewish texts and modern interpretations by scholars including Gershom Scholem and Daniel C. Matt. He has looked for buildings and artworks related to the texts’ themes of shattering, repair, voids and heavenly structure. His fifth book, “Kabbalah in Art and Architecture” (Pointed Leaf Press, $60), compares Herzog & de Meuron’s steel lacework of the Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing to “the radiance of the Bird’s Nest” mentioned in the Zohar and Rothko paintings to Exodus descriptions of deep colors bleeding into one other.