The Architect as Choreographer: A Movement-Centered Approach to Designing Spaces

Abstract

The kinesthetic experience of architecture is an integral element of how we experience and relate to the built environment. Dance as an embodied practice highlights the kinesthetic experience of moving through space, and therefore can provide insight into how movement through architectural spaces can be designed with the kinesthetic experience in mind by translating choreographic methods into the architectural design process. This research analyzes methods used by postmodern dance choreographers to direct movement pathways: positive and negative space, lighting, imposed geometries, and the movement of other people. A comparative analysis demonstrates how these methods appear in the processes and performances of prominent postmodern dance choreographers, and how they can be translated into an architectural context to enhance the kinesthetic experience. In addition to the analysis of choreographic and architectural precedents, I use my own choreographic process for my dance piece "Between Thresholds" as an extended research space to experiment with these methods.

My design proposal implements these choreographic strategies in the design of a series of interactive play structures for the Mount Holyoke College campus, located at intervals around the Upper Lake Loop Trail and designed to facilitate full-bodied recreational movement. Using diagrammatic methods synthesized from choreographic and architectural strategies for representing movement, my process begins by designing movement pathways within each site, then builds around these pathways to create dynamic structures that encourage movement at multiple scales. Each structure encourages specific types of bodily movements, while allowing space for movement variation and exploration. My goal for this design project is to create an environment for students and community members to engage in full-bodied movements outside of average everyday motions in an exploratory setting, as well as to model a movement-centered design process, crafting movement pathways at multiple scales to enhance the kinesthetic experience of architectural space.