A Genealogy of The Circle in Architecture

Positions Cultivating Critical Practice | Fall 2023 MIT Architecture

In Collaboration with Cian Hrabi, Harrison White

Instructor: Ana Milijacki

Year: 2023

"There are two causes of beauty - natural and customary. Natural is from geometry consisting in uniformity, that is equality and proportion. Customary beauty is begotten by the use, as familiarity breeds a love for things not in themselves lovely. Here lies the great occasion of errors, but always the true test is natural or geometrical beauty. Geometrical figures are naturally more beautiful than irregular ones: the square, the circle are the most beautiful, next the parallelogram and the oval. There are only two beautiful positions of straight lines, perpendicular and horizontal; this irom Nature and consequently necessity, no other than upright being firm"

- Sir Christopher Wren, Parentalia