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ing to locations together like a route, i.e. an elongated stoa, or
covered colonnade. Circular movements like the circumam-
bulation of a sanctuary manifest this figure of movement as
ritual action.
When a centring object that orients movement is circled,
the varying form dynamic on different sides of the object may
subdivide the movement into phases of gliding and decelera-
tion, repulsion and attraction. A stroll through a city or a mu-
seum, in contrast, requires no centre. At times, the expansive
empty middle of a room or square encourages the circling
of an imaginary central point; on the other hand, the empty
centre may constitute a point of attraction, promoting an
> oscillation between centre and periphery. In the ring-shaped
arrangement of rooms found in Leo von Klenze’s Glyptothek
in Munich, for example, circulation is circular. This type of
arrangement is often encountered in apartments from the
Wilhelminian era, where the possibility of reaching the same
destination by at least two different routes, and hence the
possibility of encountering or avoiding others, offers notable
flexibility in use and differentiated experiential options.Closure in architecture is manifested in a graduated way be-
tween absolute impermeability and complete openness. De-
grees of closure are defined in a complementary fashion in
relation to degrees of openness. Coexisting with requirements
for enclosure is the need for balance through the requisite
openness; only when views, movement, and accessibility
have been restricted through closure can > openings indi-
cate pathways in a directed way. Whether in urban develop-
ment or in an individual building, closure and openness are
experienced as ‘part of this great environmental interplay
between access and obstacle.’ (Arnheim (1977/2009, 226).
In comparison to the ‘open’ > landscape, buildings in
‘closed’ localities, and even more so in closed developments,
and to an increasing degree depending upon > density, con-Closure