INTRODUCTION

This chapter describes the teaching method Corporeal Architecture which has been
initially developed as Maria da Piedade Ferreira’s doctoral thesis (2016), exploring the
topic of the body and architecture, integrating ideas on embodiment (Varela, et. al, 1991),
neuroscience (Eberhard, 2009) and performance art (Marshall, 2008). Corporeal
Architecture is a teaching method that aims to develop somatic self-awareness and
creativity by the use of performance art as a tool to teach design. In this sense, students
are invited to design from a body-conscious perspective, aiming for solutions that address
the human body holistically and promote health and well-being (Ruggles, 2017). As part of
the method, students work directly with their bodies in movement and with the senses to
discover design possibilities.
The designs are developed through the use of different media including analog and
digital tools and are built as mock-ups, prototypes, large scale models and installations.
The performances also take place in already existing interior spaces, buildings and urban
settings, in oder to explore through play how they become alive through human action.
Video is used as part of the performances as documentation and as an extension of the
human body’s sensorium, in order to investigate with multi sensory modalities and
narratives.
Corporeal Architecture explores the idea that the whole design and learning process
is embodied and proposes that working with objects at human scale, especially in the
context of interior design, allows a more playful experimentation with design possibilities,
while letting the body move freely and explore through haptics and movement the
affordances of the materials and of the design solutions themselves. The concept of
affordances was introduced by James Gibson (1986) and has regained interest recently
through the work of cognitive and neuroscientists such as Alva Noë (2004). The
incorporation of neurosciences as part of the theoretical support of the practical work of
Corporeal Architecture aims to sensitise students for how the built environment and design
objects in different scales, inevitably condition how we act and think, while guiding the
actions of our bodies and therefore shaping our brains (Goldhagen, 2017). Students learn
to pay attention to how the qualities of a room, a building, a street, a city but also of a chair
or table shape their habits and represent narratives and protocols of interaction in the
world. They are encouraged to analyse their own patterns of interaction with such objects
or spatial situations and through this reflection understand how this methodology can be
used during the design process itself, and not only to make a posteriori evaluations of the
success of a design.
Neuroscience, especially in the work of Antonio Damásio (1999, 2003) and Michael
Arbib (2015), suggests that understanding our emotional responses to the built
environment is not only a matter of decoding the mechanics of our nervous system, but of
understanding the biological embodied nature of the human organism as a whole. The
purpose of this chapter is to present a set of experiments in teaching where the Corporeal
Architecture method was applied by integrating neuroscience and performance art.

BACKGROUND

Inspired by new developments which integrate architecture and neuroscience

(Mallgrave, 2010), Corporeal Architecture also integrates emotion measurement tools
(Kim, et al, 2015) and questionnaires (Bradley, Lang, 1994; Lang, 1998) to evaluate the
experience of the body while interacting with the designs. Such methodologies are
frequent in the fields of neuroergonomics, computer science and marketing, in order to
understand through psycho-physical evaluation how the body/ brain reacts to certain
stimuli, but only recently such practices have started to be incorporated in the design
process as well (Sussman, Hollander, 2015). Emotion measurement machinery is
frequently used in medical contexts, or for the purposes of physical evaluation, for
example in physical training/conditioning for competitive sports. Corporeal Architecture
takes reference from the work of performance artist Stelarc, who has incorporated
technology in his performances interpreted as an extension of the human body. For Stelarc
the human body has always been prosthetic, revealing our interdependence with
technology. Stelarc uses emotion measurement machinery to aesthetically translate into
quantifiable means the impulses that the body produces, while performing under certain
conditions. This is also a reference to the methods of Taylorism, which explored the use of
such technologies, although from the point of view of anthropometrics and efficiency which
was continued with Le Corbusier.
Corporeal Architecture proposes a re-interpretation of these quantification tools -
they are not used with the purpose of efficiency or analysis of how a body can be
conditioned to be a more functional/ efficient production agent, but instead it strives to use
the technology to aid the body to understand itself from the inside-out, holistically. Instead
of efficiency, it aims for the development of an experiential sensitivity that allows a student
to learn how to connect with her/his own body and emotions and use this knowledge in
order to become a more empathic, sensitive and responsive designer. To support this aim,
reference is taken to the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1945) in phenomenology, who
proposed that perception is an active process that takes place through the whole body,
and to the work of Juhani Pallasmaa (2005) and Peter Zumthor, who defend a
phenomenological stand point in architecture which focusses on the body and the senses
in order to foster a sense of place through the creation of atmospheres.
Performance art, while focusing on the experiential body and also on aspects of
play, ritual and intersubjectivity, is used in the Corporeal Architecture method to foster a
celebratory spirit that allows the students, individually but also when performing as a
group, to feel at the same time safe and vulnerable enough to explore less-developed
sides of their creativity in action, coming up with unexpected design solutions in a
collaborative, communal spirit. This “carnival spirit”, also proposed by Harry Francis
Mallgrave (2018) in a reference to Gottfried Semper, is enhanced by the use of a neutral
mask which quotes the work of Oskar Schlemmer at the Bauhaus and Jacques Lecoq’s
theatre practice. In Lecoq’s work, the neutral mask is used as a tool to liberate the
performer from the constraints of the persona, letting the body speak more freely. At the
Bauhaus, Schlemmer also encouraged his students to design, build and perform with their
own costumes and masks and work with them as body extensions and restrictions,
understanding how these directly affect how the body moves and feels. Similarly, in the
Japanese performance art Butoh, strong white makeup is applied to the face, sometimes
the whole body, to accentuate both a state of transitory suspension of identity and
accentuated vulnerability. The performing body then becomes similar to a canvas which
can more freely express impulses, intentions and visceral reactions in its interaction with
the surrounding space and design objects.
Corporeal Architecture incorporates these concepts, experimenting with the design
of objects at different scales of interaction, namely, body extensions and restrictions,
costumes and furniture, where simple elements, such as chairs, tables and cabinets
become the object of study and reflection on how their narrative qualities are inscribed in
our bodies through empathy and expressed through muscular sensations and behaviour
(embodied simulation). When a designer works through this performative lens, her/his
awareness of the affective, social and cultural expectations that we have towards such
objects is heightened. The possibility of performing directly with the design, although often
the objects produced in the design studio are roughly/cheaply produced mock-ups and not
finished prototypes, allows the exploration of affordances through improvisation. Since
many of these objects are built precariously from waste materials and follow a ready-made
aesthetic, even during the performance the design can be changed and adjusted, in order
to keep the transformation process open. In this context, affordances are explored as the
possibilities of action and interaction that an object and all it’s constituent materials
inherently have through their properties, but also due to their hermeneutic dimension.
The methodology described in this paper addresses how meaning is manifested in
the world through design objects, interior spaces and the built environment, sedimenting
our actions as artefacts, buildings and culture and creating the synchronicity between
human and environment that Alberto Pérez Gómez refers to as attunement.

MAIN FOCUS OF THE CHAPTER

The main focus of this chapter is to describe a group of experiments in teaching

where the methodology Corporeal Architecture which was previously introduced has been
applied. The work hypothesis behind these experiments is that by training students to be
able to tune into their own corporeal awareness using techniques from performance art as
well as ideas and tools from neuroscience, their spatial, sensorial and perceptual skills will
expand, develop and refine and, consequently, their creativity and sensitivity as designers
will improve. Such approaches are not new and the outcomes of the pedagogy at the
Bauhaus which integrated performance, philosophy and science as teaching method are
still a living testimony. Therefore, Corporeal Architecture aims to retrieve a tradition which
has always been important in teaching architecture and design, of learning directly through
the body and experience and extend it to incorporate new knowledge and methods from
neuroscience. Through this methodology, students experience two main overlapping
strands: an introduction to the somatic techniques of performance art, which is undertaken
through practical exercises that directly work with the body and basic notions of
neuroscience, behavioural sciences, sensorial design, affective science and
psychophysiology tools. Designed to make students aware of their own body’s relation and
reaction to space, such experiments are taken in the context of seminars and workshops
with the aim to develop their own corporeal awareness. Questionnaires and other self-
assessment tools are often also employed, taking into consideration that the information
collected is most of all important as a direct feedback on bodily states under certain
conditions and not necessarily a deterministic analysis of affect.
The Corporeal Architecture method aims to bring new approaches to teach
architecture and interior design by integrating in teaching play as a creative strategy, while
also taking reference from ritualistic traditions that address the movement of the human
body, the breath and the interaction with objects and other bodies. By learning, for
example, to observe how the rituals of everyday life unfold in space, such as cleaning the
house, preparing a meal or taking a walk in a part, and how the placement and order of the
objects and buildings which support such rituals allow humans to achieve goals but also
create a sense of placement and feel situated, students can understand their importance
in the creation of culture but also how at the same time such conventions might equally in
time become obstructive or even un-desirable.
Corporeal Architecture introduces performance art as a teaching methodology for
design to investigate the idea of protocol in the interaction between body and space and/or
body and object, as well as one’s own body and the bodies of others, and to question
through direct interaction where the protocol comes from and why and which narratives
are performed in such patterns of behaviour. In this way, students are sensitised to their
own habits and by observing their own movement they learn how such protocols are
shaped by cultural identities (Marshall, 2008). When working with students it’s important to
find in the mix of all these conditionings the subtle idiosyncrasies that make each student a
creative individual. By becoming aware of one’s patterns of thought and interaction with
the world, students become conscious of their agency and limits, their possibility of choice
and their potential to become active participants in shaping and transforming the world
through design.
A description of the Corporeal Architecture method follows. As a preparation for the
design task which is proposed for each workshop or seminar, students receive a
preparatory training which involves physical exercises. These exercises are meant to
make each student connect to the body and develop their perception and are performed
slowly and with attention to the breath. The exercises develop sequentially, sensitising the
body for different modes of perception and sensory modalities at different scales, first by
focusing on individual experience, followed by working with a partner and finally in a group.
The first exercise „Experiential Anatomy“ is a reference to the work of Galen Cranz
(1998) who developed a method of teaching design by incorporating ideas from the
Alexander Technique. This technique develops somatic self awareness and the capacity
for the body to tune into its natural rhythms and find its own way of achieving balance
through conscious movement and breath. The exercise on „Experiential Anatomy“ aims to
make students aware of their skeletal system, by bringing the attention to each segment of
the body, starting with the feet, moving upwards towards the skull. Students are instructed
to take off their shoes and stand with the eyes closed, focusing the attention first on the
feet and how the weight of the body is distributed on the ground. The exercise
progressively directs the attention to the shape of each joint/pair of joints in the body, with
emphasis on the different curvatures of the spine and how all these elements of the body
are articulated in a unified whole, similar to a chain and not indivisible components. The
exercise develops the capacity to visualise the skeletal system from the inside-out and to
understand how the body distributes effort, developing also a feeling for balance,
symmetry and proprioception, meaning, the awareness of the position and movement of
the body in space.
The second, third, fourth and fifth exercises, „Listening to the Body“, „Responding to
the Room via Listening to the Body“, „Responding to Object“ and „Responding to Sound“
are a reference to the work of Lorna Marshall (2008) who is a somatic educator in the
context of the performing arts. „Listening to the Body“ is performed in silence with the eyes
closed and instructs students to direct attention to their body and monitor its internal state
for a set amount of time. It aims to detect where tensions, feelings and sensations exist in
the present moment and allows students to connect to their inner landscape.
„Responding to the Room via Listening to the Body“ extends the previous exercise
by directing the attention to how and where the body is triggered to interact with the
surrounding space. It directs the attention to eye movements, scent, sound, haptic
perceptions and impulses to act and aims to develop the sensitivity to understand how the
properties and materials of the interior space influence the body and the internal
landscape and how this process is felt in the body and manifested in action.
„Responding to Object“ aims to direct the attention to how the body feels and acts in
direct contact with an object, for example a chair. In this case, the attention is directed to
the feeling of the body while in contact with the object, when this takes place in
conventional and in unconventional ways. For example, a chair might be used to sit, and
the attention will be directed to how the back feels in contact with the materials, if the feet
can touch the ground, the texture of the surface, if the chair has backrest, arms, wheels, if
it is a rocking chair, etc. Then, students are encouraged to explore hidden affordances, or
alternative possibilities for interaction with the chair by momentarily forgetting that they
ever knew what the object „chair“ was. Normally this starts by exploring alternative modes
of sitting, then discovering completely new narratives for the object, for example, using a
chair as a backpack.
 „Responding to Sound“ is performed in silence and with the eyes closed, and
directs the attention to hearing, moving around the room and touching as way to respond
to auditory stimuli in the environment. It simulates how a blind person would perceive and
navigate in a room or exterior space, developing awareness to how the different sensory
modalities work together to compensate for the absence of vision. „Responding to Sound“
also develops the capacity in the brain to build images or representations based on certain
perceptual stimuli.
The sixth exercise „Responding to the Void“ is a reference to the work of artist Bill
Viola, „The Stopping Mind“ (1999) which proposes a meditation on the void. The exercise
is performed in silence while lying on the floor with the eyes closed and requires students
to progressively focus their attention to the feeling of the surrounding space in their skin
and imagining that this substance is thickening progressively. The goal is to develop the
capacity to feel space and the void as a substance or negative space which is always
contained and shaped through design elements.
The remaining exercises have been created by Maria da Piedade Ferreira as part of
of the Corporeal Architecture method and are called respectively, „Layering“, „The Walk“,
„The Body as Eyes“, „The Body as Ears“, „The Body as Nose“, „The Body as Tongue“,
„The Body as Skin“, „The Body as Movement“ and „Bodyscan“.
„Layering“ is usually performed at home and proposes students first to put on as
many layers of clothing as they can, walk around their home or bedroom and perform
simple daily tasks; secondly, to remove as many layers as they feel comfortable and
perform the same tasks. The exercise has two aims: to develop empathy by creating an
improvised costume which alters the shape and weight of the body, creating an alternative
body which can be experienced in action and to develop sensitivity to how the body relates
to space and objects in states of vulnerability.
„The Walk“ is a slow walk which is performed individually outside, for 30 minutes. It
should be done in solitude and silence and as slowly as possible, paying attention to pace,
breath and to how the different senses relate to the surrounding environment. „The Walk“
is a preparatory exercise for „The Body as Eyes“, „The Body as Ears“, „The Body as
Nose“, „The Body as Tongue“, „The Body as Skin“ and „The Body as Movement“ which
have the goal to direct the attention to each one of the different senses at a time, while
doing a 15min, slow walk and trying to memorise how and what triggers sensations and
where. As instruction, students are asked to imagine for each of the senses that the whole
body becomes a gigantic sensing apparatus having, for each exercise respectively, eyes
the size of the entire head, the same for the nose, ears, tongue and hands. For „The Body
as Skin“, the attention should be focused on how skin reacts to changes in air, exposure to
sunlight, rain, snow, contact with clothing, with the ground, with other bodies. „The Body in
Movement“ aims to set the focus on the effect of gravity on the body and proprioception by
directing the attention to the movement of the body in space, sense of balance and how
the body navigates the environment in way-finding, obstacle detection and collision
avoidance.
„Bodyscan“ is an exercise inspired by yoga practice and it is usually performed at
the end of the individual training described before. It can be done sitting or lying on the
ground, with the eyes closed and in silence and has the aim to direct the attention to the
interior world and sensations of the body, after having collected all the experiences
described previously. It is meant to give students the time to process all the sensorial
information which was collected in the previous exercises and also to give them time to
see how these sensations trigger imaginary processes. It aims to be used as a channel for
creativity and reflective thought. At the end of the „Bodyscan“ students are asked to stand
up slowly and write a text which describes their experience during the training with all the
previous exercises.
 The exercises are supported by lectures which include reading and discussion of
texts from neuroscience, phenomenology and somaesthetics. Then, students are
challenged to create a design, for example for an interior space, an installation, or a piece
of furniture and imagine a performance as part of their design task and apply in the design
this newly developed body awareness. Here, the most important aspect is play, where the
necessary freedom to explore with different design approaches and solutions is given, also
as a way to establish connection and develop skills, while working creatively in a group.
The following paragraphs describe a set of experiments in teaching where the Corporeal
Architecture method was applied to prepare students to respond to different design tasks.
The results are presented as photo documentation.

„Dilemmata“

Long duration participatory performance art piece, conceived for the course on
Neuroarchitecture and Performance Art, Fakultät für Architektur der Technischen
Universität München (TUM) with the support of the Gender Equality and Diversity program
(Lehrauftrag der Frauenbeauftragten). The performance was developed by remote
collaboration during COVID-19 restrictions and involved participants collaborating from
different locations, such as München, Stuttgart, Alicante and Krakow. The performance
explored the concept „Dilemmata“, since a dilemma by definition is the paradox of having
to choose one of two options, either equally pleasant or equally unpleasant. In the
performance this was taken as a metaphor for choice as expressed in action.
The course developed as a four day intensive workshop, each day dedicated to
developing corporeal awareness at different scales - starting with work with one’s own
body and the surrounding space (room/home), then to group work in the interior and
exterior of buildings and public spaces of their choice, according to what was available/
possible due to the existing restrictions. Each morning, the group had a lecture via a virtual
meeting room on the topics of performance art, neuroscience, architecture,
phenomenology and somaesthetics.
On the first day, students were required to follow a series of audio-recorded
instructions with exercises targeted at connecting to the body, the surrounding space and
objects through movement and the senses. This preparation work was to be taken slowly
and in silence at home in the morning and continued in the afternoon by solitary walks with
conscious awareness of the interaction and stimulation of different sensory modalities and
attention directed to the constant interaction between the interior and the exterior
landscape.
The following three days, students used these skills to explore through play,
improvisation or choreography the obvious, hidden and possible affordances of the
environments they chose to develop their performances at. Students were asked to
integrate in the performances video to capture and suggest visual, auditory, haptic,
olfactory and gustatory impressions as they performed, using the camera as part of the
body’s sensorium and not just an instrument for documentation. At the end of each day all
the group met again in the virtual room to discuss the work process, describe the personal
and collective experience of the performances, including participation and reactions from
an eventual audience. The evening meetings were also a forum to exchange ideas on how
such an approach can be used as a strategy to trigger transformation processes that
address contemporary environmental challenges. The videos produced were archived and
are exhibited with Open-Access in the corporeal.persona.co website and the YouTube
channel Corporeal Architecture (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Image stills from videos of performance „Dilemmata“, TUM

„Bodyscans“

Long duration participatory performance art piece, conceived for the course on
Ergonomics, Hochschule für Technik Stuttgart (HFT). The performance was developed by
remote collaboration during COVID-19 restrictions and required students to take this time
of isolation to make a study of their body, while interacting with objects from their
immediate environment. Students received for a period of four weeks a weekly lecture on
Ergonomics via the YouTube channel „Corporeal Architecture“ which prepared them for the
work.
The task required that first an anthropometric analysis of the body itself should be
made. Then each student would perform tasks with selected objects of different scales in
relation to the body (e.g. pen, knife, chair) first in normative, then in explorative, non-
normative ways. Each of these interactions was documented with video and through
another media of choice, such as painting, drawing or collage, that would reflect the
emotional experience of the body, while performing. The goal was to develop corporeal
awareness and imagination by mindfully focusing the attention on the body „from the
inside-out“ and „from outside within“, while performing and re-interpreting simple tasks.
The performance aimed to expand traditional views on Ergonomics as a solely
functional science dedicated to the search of ideal universal standards. It brought focus on
body diversity, the individual emotional experience of interacting with objects and
encouraged the exploration of affordances of the immediate surroundings through play.
The performance also served as a strategy to fight lock-down induced boredom and
passivity and make students aware of how restrictions can be interpreted and incorporated
as triggers for creativity.
The lectures and performances are archived as a playlist on the YouTube channel
Corporeal Architecture and the corporeal.persona.co website, forming an Open-Access
documentation of the collected Bodyscans (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Image stills from videos of performance „Bodyscans“, HFT

„Life Drawing Life“

Performance with students of interior design, Hochschule für Technik Stuttgart

(HFT). The performance developed in two parts - the first used drawing with the whole
body as a medium to register the movement of the human body in space and the second
explored drawing blindfolded in order to represent images from sensory inputs, abstract
concepts and automatic representations of internal states. Students followed instructions
for actions with the intention of expanding their corporeal awareness or „seeing from
within“ and develop their capacity to sense, connect and represent impulses.
The first part of the performance started as an interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s
drawing of The Vitruvian Man and the idea of leaving a mark on the ground as a way to
establish one’s sense of personal space. Then the marks of each body evolved
progressively to express emotions, idiosyncrasies and the interior landscape, while
performing actions focused on topics such as proprioception, range of motion, rhythm,
balance, co-ordination, symmetry/ asymmetry, proxemics and communication. As each
drawing grew and expanded in scale, it was necessary to negotiate with the bodies in the
proximity how to develop a sense of common ground through drawing. In the end of the
first part, all drawn marks were interlinked leaving a registered record of this empathic
stream of consciousness.
The second part of the performance required students to wear toilet paper as
blindfolds through a series of tasks. Initially they were suggested to navigate the
surrounding space with a body extension used as a cane with an attached crayon in order
to register these motions in space. Then each was required to sit down and imagine
navigating a labyrinth with the mind’s eye, while registering this path on the floor. This
virtual labyrinth evolved in complexity and abstraction to include automatic gestures as
impulses (Figure 3). Finally, the performance ended with a teams-of-two exercise, sitting
back-to-back and drawing on the floor as a means to establish a non-verbal dialogue.

Figure 3. Photos of performance „Life Drawing Life“, HFT

Figure 4. Photos of performances „Mean Chairs“ and „Tricky Tables“, FATUK

„Mean Chairs“ and „Tricky Tables“

Performance art pieces, presented as end result of the work developed for the
elective course on Möbelbau „Mean Chairs“ and „Tricky Tables“, Lehrstuhl Raumgestalt
und Entwerfen, Fachbereich Architektur TU Kaiserslautern (FATUK). Students were
instructed to design, build and perform with a chair and a table as an opportunity to
question traditions and rituals which are changing due to the presence of digital media in
daily life. The task also addressed health concerns regarding the negative effects of sitting.
The chairs and tables were designed as corporeal awareness instruments and the
performances explored narratives which revealed or subverted expectations and biases
we have about these particular pieces of furniture. As part of the preparation for the task,
students were sensitised on the historical importance of chairs and tables as objects of
ritual, dialogue, power or craft, as well as its multiple symbolic connotations. The
performance consisted in the installation of the objects created and the interaction
between all participants and objects and was documented in photo format (Figure 4).

„Cabinet“

Performance art piece, presented as end result of the elective course on Möbelbau,
„Cabinet“, Lehrstuhl Raumgestalt und Entwerfen, Fachbereich Architektur, Technische
Universität Kaiserslautern (FATUK). Students were instructed to design, build and perform
with a cabinet. The cabinet should be able to host the human body and offer the possibility
to be used as a small chamber for meditation/contemplation.
The performance should express and re-enforce the narrative qualities of the
cabinets, demonstrate how and where objects could be stored, for example, the existence
of secret compartments and explore through improvisation further possibilities for use. The
cabinets were built in a ready-made fashion by re-purposing existing materials and parts of
objects. The performance consisted in the installation of the objects created and the
interaction between all participants and objects and was documented in photo format
(Figure 5).

Figure 5. Photos of performance „Cabinet“, FATUK

„Corporeal Architecture“

Performance art piece, presented as the end result of the elective course
„Corporeal Architecture“ hosted by the Digitale Werkzeuge, Fachbereich Architektur,
Technische Universität Kaiserslautern (FATUK). The seminar on Corporeal Architecture
explored the relationship between body and space through an embodied approach to the
design process that was translated into the construction of objects. Students were asked
to build portable structures with simple materials such as paper, wood, string and
cardboard and they were encouraged to discover through their bodies how these
structures would move and behave in space, how their bodies reacted emotionally to the
incorporation of extensions and restrictions of movement and how they felt when
performing as an architectural element (Figure 6). The performance had the support of the
DFKI - Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz. The seminar was
developed as an experiment in the context of the doctoral research work by Maria da
Piedade Ferreira (2016).

Figure 6. Photos of performance „Corporeal Architecture“, FATUK

„De Humani Corporis Fabrica"

Performance art piece, presented as the end result of the seminar “De Humani
Corporis Fabrica – Fabricating Emotions through Architecture” hosted by the Digitale
Werkzeuge, Fachbereich Architektur, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern (FATUK). The
seminar required students to design, fabricate, assemble and perform in architectural
settings constructed at 1:1 scale, taking in consideration the direct effect that the design
elements produce in the body, or as the subtitle suggested “fabricating emotions through
architecture”. The title is a reference to the first anatomy treatise with the same name
(from Latin to English, “On the Constitution of the Human Body”), in which Andreas
Vesalius presents dissections of human bodies in order to explain its inner workings. It was
taken as a motto for the workshop as the original Latin word for fabrica can have the
multiple meaning of “fabrication, constitution, or construction” (Figure 7). The seminar was
developed as an experiment in the context of the doctoral research work by Maria da
Piedade Ferreira (2016) and had the support of the DFKI - Deutsches Forschungszentrum
für Künstliche Intelligenz.
Figure 7. Photos of performance „De Humani Corporis Fabrica“, FATUK

Figure 8. Interior of immersive models for the installation „Feel your Design“, FATUK
„Feel your Design“

Installation with mixed media, namely, architecture models enhanced with sound
and smell, presented as end result of the workshop “Feel your Design” which took place
from June 19th through July 25th 2013, and was hosted by Digitale Werkzeuge,
Fachbereich Architektur, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern (FATUK). The workshop
dealt with the physical construction of immersive architectural models and the evaluation
of viewers’ response to the atmosphere’s created by the models.
Each student was given a cube measuring 50 x 50 x 50 cm and was requested to
design a scene which could be any kind of interior space such as an attic, a bedroom, a
working room, a library, a museum, or a hospital room (Figure 8). Each model should
follow a narrative that described the mood that was to be explored through the scene. In
total, the task was meant to design an immersive experience through the combined design
of an interior space, the choice of a scent which accentuated the narrative (“scentscape”),
and a specifically created sound-loop which re-enforced the desired atmosphere
(soundscape). The workshop was developed as an experiment in the context of the
doctoral research work by Maria da Piedade Ferreira (2016) and had the support of the
DFKI - Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz.

Issues, Controversies, Problems

Each human body carries a history and a story. When working with human bodies,
especially in states of vulnerability as often occurs when applying the somatic techniques
of performance art and psychophysiology measurement tools, it is paramount to create a
place where each student does not feel coerced to expose or participate, but has the
space and the time to choose the level of participation which feels for her/or himself
appropriate and meaningful. This is a golden rule in Corporeal Architecture, especially
since most students of architecture and interior design have never been exposed to
performance art and only used emotion measurement technology in a medical context.
Students of architecture often legitimately ask - what does this have to do with
architecture and interior design? So it is important that they can take the most of the
classes and understand how the exercises develop their skills as designers by focusing on
perception and interaction. Also, when teaching performance art, for example as usually
happens in art academy, students are challenged to overcome inhibitions and certain
forms of cultural conditioning which might present limitations for their creative
development. Here the same dilemma applies as, for example, in theatre where a director
might use aggressive strategies to break the passivity of the actor. It is my position
instead, that positive re-enforcement and encouraging each student to choose one’s own
themes for reflection and level of expression/participation bring out the best of their
creative potential. Joy, pleasure and play are conscious strategies which are employed in
class in all stages of the design process - design, building and performance. These
strategies are not permissive - the role as teacher is to ensure that the atmosphere is
playful but that there are rules and these include always the respectful treatment of oneself
and one’s colleagues and privacy regarding the data obtained, when emotion
measurement methodologies are employed.
More now than ever a designer is also someone who conceives a space taking in
consideration the well-being of its users and aiming to provide places where meaningful
experiences happen. Physiological measures recorded from the body, such as heart rate,
skin conductance and blood pressure, which have been applied in some of the Corporeal
Architecture experiments in teaching, have been previously used in psychological studies
and in neuroergonomics. Both psychophysiology and neuroergonomics share one goal -
the design of safe and efficient technologies and systems for human effort, therefore, such
methodologies offer a very fertile ground for designers and architects to research,
especially when integrating performance art. Although the technology still has more
limitations than possibilities, I stand by the position that an integrated practice of design
which includes such methodologies and developments will not only radically change the
way we design but, most importantly how we live.
Such approaches also offer problems, for example, the question of „data bias“
which is not a contemporary concern, but has been a present reality as statistics and
histories have mostly been written from a male gendered perspective (Criado Perez,
2019). Data bias has guided for centuries how we think, design and act in the world and
established ideas on comfort and usability. Historically, and especially after the Industrial
Revolution, design objects were mostly adapted to generalised male standards based on
the averaged collected data from male gender humans. Such a built environment shaped
cultures and identities, forcing everybody, regardless of one’s naturally imperfect humanity,
to adapt to such standards. And although the 21st century has definitely brought evolution
in this regard, most of the spaces we live and work in are mostly adapted to the efficiency-
driven ideal of the „car-driving healthy male standard“, a residue of Taylorism.
There are also fundamental aspects of being human and of the creative process
that are not measurable or translatable as data such as play, which develops with
improvisation and intuition. Another non-measurable human feature has to do with our
innate interest in ritual and need for introspection (Mallgrave, 2013). In a century when
religion has not as much importance as before and human beings’ instinctual need for
community and ritual is increasingly met by commercial experiences, it is architecture that
has the responsibility to create typologies where such needs are met, what Alberto Pérez-
Gómez (2016) refers to as architecture as a place for free enjoyment or catharsis, which
can take place where humans individually and collectively feel a sense of attunement.

SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Working between the seemingly different worlds of art, architecture and research,
also poses questions regarding the role of architecture and interior design as art and the
implications of including artistic methodologies and methods from neuroscience in the
design process. The research described in this chapter is dedicated to the conscious
exploration of this situation of liminality, as the capacity to relate different ways of
conceiving and addressing the same topics, across disciplines, between worlds.
Therefore, Corporeal Architecture takes advantage of what we can learn about the
interaction of body and space through performance art and emotion measurement data,
but does not accept it as the full picture of the felt experience, more as an abstraction
which is conditioned by the architecture of the technology used and its own form of
artificial sentience. In this regard, emotion measurement tools are approached from a
performative approach, as an extension of the human body’s sensorium. It’s important to
note that just like human bodies, machines are prone to failure. This is especially the case
when working with emotion measurement tools, which pose many problems. Bio-markers
require direct contact with the body and do not respond well to continuous or sudden
changes of movement. This alone restricts considerably the range of motion and situations
which can be explored by analysing a body performing in architectural space. So the
experiments with emotion measurement that were described in this chapter, namely
„Corporeal Architecture“, „De Humani Corporis Fabrica“ and „Feel your Design" took place
in minimalistic settings which explored through performance and play basic human actions
such as siting at different heights and positions for different periods of time and performing
simple daily actions such as eating dinner, reading the newspaper, dressing and
undressing, moving while wearing body extensions and body restrictions and experiencing
immersive installations (Ferreira, 2017).
Another aspect which is especially relevant in the practice of the Corporeal
Architecture method and is influenced by the presence of digital media and social
networks in our lives is privacy, and this can become an issue as sometimes students are
concerned about having their performances documented and exhibited in public. This is
particularly important since work with performance explores improvisation and in such
situations it is not uncommon that unconscious patterns take expression which might bring
about difficult feelings such as shame. Another strategy which is consciously employed in
the method described in this chapter is that the teacher performs also with the group to
encourage students and induce a more informal atmosphere which is more conducting to
a playful atmosphere. The teacher develops the same task, shows how the preparatory
exercises are done and performs. Here the teacher works again in liminality, switching
roles as performer and director, often also documenting. This requires a high level of
presence. Presence in this context refers to the capacity to be in a state of creative flow
and focus. It is often the biggest challenge in a performance with students to create an
atmosphere where for a certain amount of time all the group is fully present. The
preparatory exercises encourage this, but it is not always possible or successful and the
outcomes are not completely predictable. But working within this paradox is also the
source of much creative opportunities.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

The research described in this chapter is a work-in-progress therefore, the

Corporeal Architecture methodology and its exercises are usually readjusted for each
design task, incorporating new elements and experimenting with different approaches.
Ultimately the goal is to grow a body of work through time which, by its experimental and
exploratory character, allows the continuous development of skills through the active
reflection on contemporary topics through each design task. The integration in office
practice of a performative approach to design which is supported by scientific knowledge
brought by neuroscience would also open up possibilities for expanding the way we think
about the relationship between body and design and help to create design guidelines
which would better serve human psychophysiological needs. Applying the Corporeal
Architecture method in workshops or other life-long learning contexts which support
professional practice would also be an interesting direction to follow in the future,
especially since the current paradigm in design is shifting towards participatory processes
which include cross-disciplinary approaches and direct involvement with the community in
decision making. A performative approach in this context would bring many possibilities to,
for example, revitalise urban settings by mobilising individuals and encouraging citizen
organisation and participation in transformation processes.

CONCLUSION

As with all experimental work, the Corporeal Architecture teaching method as

described in this chapter requires an openness of thinking and a willingness to try out
different solutions, which often lead to failure or inconclusive results. In any case, these
are seen as necessary steps in the process of discovering new ways of teaching and
working. It’s also important that students learn to accept such uncertainty not as a
limitation or source of anxiety but as a challenge and trigger for their creativity. Working
with the body in action and directly experiencing how it acts and reacts through design
objects and spaces is a direct channel to educate students to design from an embodied,
human-centred perspective.

ACKNOWLEDGEMNT

The research described in this chapter would not have been possible without the
active creative participation of students who contributed enthusiastically with their ideas
and their willingness to perform and participate in the experiments described. The
research also had the support of different institutions, namely, Fakultät für Architektur der
Technischen Universität München (TUM), Hochschule für Technik Stuttgart - HFT,
Deutschen Forschungszentrums für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI) and Fachbereich
Architektur TU Kaiserslautern (FATUK).

REFERENCES

Arbib, M. (2015). Toward a Neuroscience of the Design Process. In S. Robinson, J.

Pallasmaa (Eds.). Mind in Architecture: Neuroscience, Embodiment and the Future of
Design (pp. 75-98). Cambridge Massachusetts, MA: MIT Press.

Bradley, M. M., & Lang, P. J. (1994). Measuring emotion: the self-assessment manikin and
the semantic differential. Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry 25(1), 49-59.

Bradley, M. M., Cuthbert, B. N. & Lang, P. J. (1998). Emotion, motivation, and anxiety:
brain mechanisms and psychophysiology. Biological psychiatry. 44(12), 1248-1263.

Cho, M. E., Kim, J. T. & Kim, M. J. (2015). Measures of Emotion in Interaction for Health
Smart Home. IACSIT International Journal of Engineering and Technology 7(4),10-12.

Criado Perez, C. (2019). Invisible Women: exposing data bias in a world designed for
men. London, UK: Penguin Random House.

Damásio, A. (1999). The Feeling of what happens: Body and Emotions in the Making of
Consciousness. Orlando, USA: Harcourt Books.

Damásio, António. (2003). Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow and the Feeling Brain.
Orlando, USA: Harcourt Books.

Eberhard, J. P. (2009). Brain Landscape. The Coexistence of Neuroscience and

Architecture. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Ferreira, M. P. (2016). Embodied Emotions: observations and experiments in Architecture

and Corporeality. PhD thesis. Lisboa, Portugal: FAULisboa.

Ferreira, M. P. (2017). Corporeal Architecture: Teaching future Architects to think through

the Body Using Neurosciences and Performance Art. (ed.) Itai Palti. Conscious Cities
Journal 2 - Bridging Neuroscience, Architecture and Technology.

Gibson, J. (1986). The ecological approach to Visual Perception. Hillsdale, New Jersey:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Goldhagen, S. W. (2017). Welcome to your world - How the built environment shapes our
lives. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.

Hollander, Justin B. & Sussman, A. (2015). Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How we
respond to the built environment. New York, NY: Routledge.

Mallgrave, H. F. (2010). The Architect Brain: Neuroscience, Creativity and Architecture.

West Sussex, UK: John Wiley&Sons.

Mallgrave, H. F. (2013). Architecture and Embodiment: the implications of the new

sciences and humanities for design. New York, NY: Routledge.

Mallgrave, H. F. (2018). From object to experience: the new culture of Architectural Design.
London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Marshall, L. (2008). The Body Speaks: Performance and physical expression. London, UK:
Methuen Drama.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (2012). The Phenomenology of Perception. 1945. New York, NY:

Routledge.

Noë, A. (2004). Action in perception. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Pallasmaa, J. (2005). The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. West Sussex,
UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Pérez-Gómez, A. (2016). Attunement: architectural meaning after the crisis of modern

science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Rosch, E., Thompson, E., Varela, F. J. (1991). The Embodied Mind - cognitive Science and
Human Experience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Ruggles, D. H. (2017). Timeless Patterns & their Impact on our well-being. Fibonacci, LLC.
Colorado: University of Oklahoma Press.

ADDITIONAL READING

Gallagher, S. (2005) How the Body shapes the Mind. New York, NY: Oxford University
Press.

Hall, E. T. (1966). The Hidden dimension. New York, NY: Anchor Books Edition.

Ikonomou, E., Mallgrave, H. F. (1994) Empathy, Form and Space: Problems in German
Aesthetics, 1873-1893. Santa Monica, USA: Getty Publications.

Johnson, M. & Lakoff G. (1999). Philosophy in the Flesh: The embodied Mind and its
challenge to western thought. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Pallasmaa, J. (2005) The Eyes of the Skin - Architecture and the Senses. West Sussex,
UK: John Wiley and Sohns.

Pallasmaa, J. (2009) The Thinking Hand: existential and embodied wisdom in architecture.
West Sussex, UK: John Wiley and Sohns.

Pallasmaa, J. (2011) The Embodied Image: imagination and imagery in architecture. West
Sussex, UK: John Wiley and Sohns.

Rasmussen, S. E. (1964) Experiencing Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Shusterman, R. (2008) Body Consciousness: a Philosophy of Mindfulness and

Somaesthetics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Torrens, V. (2014) How we teach Performance Art. USA: Outskirts Press.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Affordances: What the environment, design object, interior space or building offers the
individual as potential for action. Affordances can be related to possibilities of interaction
between bodies and objects and also between bodies, adding a social dimension.

Body-Conscious: The term of body-conscious, seen from a philosophical perspective can

be considered as the self-knowledge an individual has regarding her/his physical and
somatic needs. Body-consciousness also refers to the capacity to tune into emotional or
cognitive experiences and understand how they are able to influence the bodily reality.

Embodiment: Embodiment corresponds to what is now known about the process of

perception from the perspective of neurosciences and cognitive sciences. According to
this, perception is not a process of mapping sensory stimuli onto an inner model of the
world, but a sensorimotor coordination that always occurs in the overall concept of an
acting being or agent, which involves the integration of body and mind.

Embodied Simulation: The capacity to imagine situations through the visualisation of

images which are created through the continuous collection of perceptions and processed
by experience.

Empathy: The capacity to relate physically and emotionally to an object or person. In an

aesthetical context, empathy refers to the body and minds disposition to find affinity to
certain colours, shapes or patterns which trigger sensations of affinity by the activation of
sensorimotor responses.

Hermeneutic: Charged with meaning. In the case of an interior space, design object or
building, it refers to the intrinsic meaning (cultural, social, functional) such an object has for
the people who interact with it in the context in which it is situated.

Holistic: Philosophical position which proposes in the context of the research described in
this chapter.

Interior Landscape: images that are formed in the mind through the on-going process of
absorbing sensorial information from the environment and sense-making through
experience. It involves memory and psychophysiological states and is exclusive to the
individual. The level of abstraction of such images varies according to each body and
situation, for example, the internal landscape of a congenitally blind individual differs
considerably from that of an individual with the sense of vision.

Intersubjectivity: The capacity of one body to relate and establish affective bonds with
other bodies and objects in the environment.

Perception: What a body detects and processes as external stimuli in an environment

through the senses.

Persona: Concept from psychology that refers to the set of characteristics that an
individual displays as her/his personality traits on a regular basis. The persona in this
context also refers to a public or social self.

Phenomenology: Philosophy developed by Edmund Husserl as the study of essences

and continued by Maurice Merleau-Ponty as the study of perception.

Play: Exploratory activity which involves curiosity, active imagination and interaction with
the body and other bodies and objects in an environment for the pursuit of joy,
development of creative tasks, problem solving and social/emotional bonding.

Proprioception: Often referred to as the 6th sense, it concerns the feeling of one’s body
and it’s position in space and reaction to surrounding environment through motion.

Proxemics: Concept developed by Edward T. Hall referring to animal and human need for
personal space and the biological boundaries that regulate social distancing and proximity.

Somaesthetics: Interdisciplinary philosophy coined by Richard Shusterman which aims to

investigate bodily perception, performance and presentation integrating theoretical,
empirical and practical disciples, for example John Dewy’s pragmatism and Zen body-
mind philosophy.

Somatic Self-awareness: The capability to feel how the body reacts physically to external
and internal stimuli.

Wayfinding: Concept from neurosciences that refers to the capacity of a body (human or
animal) to orient while navigating an environment.