I Wanted To Have A Little Break...
Graduation: Ritual and Ceremony
For as long as we’ve existed, humans have carried out structured actions—rituals. Religious services follow set sequences, rulers are crowned through symbolic ceremonies, and we still honour people with a burial procession. Across cultures and geographies, ritual is one of the few things we all share.
Graduation, as a ritual, sits in a phase of liminality—a moment of ambiguity and release, where a person shifts from one version of themselves into the next. This project treats that liminal phase as both a spatial and ceremonial “in-between.” The space becomes a journey, experienced through a sequence that mirrors the rhythm of a ritual. It also responds to the site’s existing narrative: a place where people move, pause, and pass through—an in-between in itself.
Because graduation is such an ephemeral moment, the project aims to shape this transitional space into a meaningful sequence—one last journey before stepping into a new self.
Phenomenology: Auditory Experience and Everyday Progression
Peter Zumthor, in Atmospheres, describes spaces through their sensory presence. His way of writing gives architecture emotional weight—spaces become places because we feel something in them. We attach ourselves to places not only for their physical form, but for the memories and experiences they hold.
The site is currently a transitional space, almost a non-place. This proposal tries to elevate it into something meaningful for those who pass through, not by forcing connection but by shaping an experience that can be repeated daily—slowly turning the everyday into something memorable.
Through sound and landscape, the project creates shifting auditory moments: echoes, muffled, rustling trees, the trickle of water from a pond, the stillness of a reflective water surface, birds calling above, leaves crunching underfoot, the buzz of public conversation, and the hush of study. These aren’t engineered acoustics meant to dominate the space with perfect clarity—they’re sounds we already meet in our everyday lives, the kind of atmospheric qualities Heidegger ties to being-in-the-world.
Design: A Sequence
The design forms an overlapping and intersecting series of auditory experiences mapped along an informal pathway. A central axis becomes the main journey into the graduation hall, and also the primary entrance to the campus.
Working with the grid, two building masses emerge from the informal paths, juxtaposed and disrupting the rigid organisation of the site and forming pockets of protected in-between space. These spaces are programmed for studying, events, and outdoor activities that respond to the needs of the surrounding buildings.
The hall has its own layered journey. Its garden unfolds in tiers, each one quieter and more private than the last. This garden becomes a waiting space for anyone wanting to enjoy the landscape filtered through layers of frosted glass. The same sequence shapes the graduand’s procession—passing through moments of expansion and compression, darkness and brightness, warmth and coolness. In this short, shifting journey toward the stage, the graduand experiences one last intimate, fleeting moment before stepping out to receive their degree.
