Automated system test schedule

Abstract

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Architectural space is designed and built for occupation by the body: the individual body, the collective body, the bodies of all species. Becoming architects must develop an awareness and a recognition of this critical relationship. While observation, drawing and modelling, the traditional modes of architectural investigation and design, can provide some insight into this relationship there are further riches to be obtained from direct experience. The M[ ]VE project explored ways to actively engage body and architecture through a dance-based investigation of this relationship. Informed by the work and writing of Bernard Tschumi, Bruno Munari, Isabella Ong and William Forsyth, the project was developed by two architects and a dance lecturer and taught by the trio to a mixed group of sixteen students in their third and fourth years of the architecture programme at the Xxxxx. A series of workshops were designed to enable the students to work directly with their bodies as an exploratory design tool. The first workshops encouraged the students to explore non-habitual ways of engaging with familiar architectural elements like stairs, doorways and corridors as a way of broadening their movement vocabulary. Working in groups of four they took these new movements, connected them as sequences and performed them within a 2400x2400x2400mm frame. The dance tutor supported this design process with her disciplinary knowledge. The body movements were generated from a transgressive non-habitual position. Similarly, the emphasis on direct bodily engagement was designed to transgress traditional architectural design methods and ditch the drawing! The paper will examine the processes involved in discovery and generation of the final performances and identify the insights gained that can contribute to a richer architectural pedagogy and professional performance.