This project explores the urgent issue of circularity from a broad and cultural perspective. Inspired by the Grand Shrine of Ise in Japan, a mutual balance is proposed between architectural form and cultural patterns, based on their interconnected but different qualities. The study combines case study analysis and broader theory research to discover the relationship between architectural environment and cultural patterns in three Japanese rituals: the tea ceremony, the bathing ritual and the naked men festival.

Results suggest that (multi)sensory architectural form and cultural behaviors indeed reinforce each other. They complement each other in the way that they embody, transfer and maintain meaning or form. According to findings, incorporation of elementary human tendencies in the circularity debate – both cultural and bodily – could help moving towards a future where ‘circular architecture’ achieves durable maintenance and continuity of both form and meaning

Student: Eline van Leeuwen