Presenting a hand-drawn visual travelogue created during an architecture summer course at Waseda University in Tokyo in 2016, this project carries forward the tradition of pedagogic journeys. Drawing inspiration from legacies like the Grand Tour and Bruno Taut’s journey in Japan. It allows a new reading of the spatiality of Tokyo and other areas in Japan visited by both of us during the course. The project is composed of two main series:

The XL series, comprising 29 spheres, each representing a day, narrates the experiences of two foreigners in unfamiliar terrain. This narrative captures the convergence of current moments, memories, and collective perceptions of reality. Notably, this series was awarded the first prize in the Aarhus Arkitektskolen’s international drawing competition, Drawing of the Year (2017).

The XS series, created by hand, complements the XL series. Consisting of 11 isometric manifestos, the series is an attempt to translate the essence of recurring situations encountered during our time in Japan. These manifestos delve into social themes like loneliness, crowdedness, alienation, familiarity, exoticism, and proximity.

The entire drawing series was exhibited in a solo exhibition at the Embassy of Japan in Brussels in 2018.