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Email: yuti_ju@icloud.com
Sacred Spaces and Sacred Principles

February 2025-now
Sound & Space


Sacred Spaces and Sacred Principles is a research project on understanding and analyzing what makes spaces sacred, with an eye to understanding how new sacred spaces are created, especially ones that uses non-conventional features. It draws on traditional art history, e.g. how cathedrals are designed to evoke a sense of awe and reverence, focusing on the psycho-spatial affective responses evoked by architecture. Ultimately, it looks at how traditional sensibilities are incorporated in modern sacred architecture.
Main research questions:
    Is making a space sacred just a matter of religiosity or religious authority, or does it draw on certain physical traits that resonate psychologically?
    What is the origin of such physical traits?

The questions are first approached with literature review focusing on the psychological and neurological explanations of affective response triggered by sensory environment in Catholic churches. 

Literature Review on Catholic Church Design and the Elicitation of Awe and Sacredness
The analysis argues that the feelings of awe and sacredness are not merely a consequence of religiosity but are a powerful, measurable human experience actively mediated and amplified by specific architectural design principles.

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The notion that “sacredness is psychological resonance evoked by specific physical traits” is advanced with my field work and narrative case study on Jianshan Catholic Church in Wengcuo, Putian. 


Jianshan Catholic Church field study
2025
Through field observations, including photography, interview, and participation in church activities, I produced a case study demonstrating how the Jianshan Catholic church reinterprets traditional cues of sacredness through architectural language, responding to post-Vatican II liturgical reforms and localizing itself in Putian culture. It is informed by my previous literature review. The study is organized into 8 sections, following the order of an actual visit to the church.