Local Cultures – Global Spaces
Abstract
Catherine Bell’s (1992) conception of critical circularity posits a ritualised relationship between people and place, in which the body is structured by place and a place’s meanings become embodied, while simultaneously our a priori meanings are emplaced through our body’s actions in place. Further discourse on ritualised behaviour, the body and place recognises the existence of this as a dialogical, mutually informing relationship (drawing on Bakhtin 1990). Yet the potential of ritualised behaviour as a site of spatial experience, inquiry, praxis, and agency has been mostly overlooked in design praxis and design pedagogy. Received Western architectural discourse and practice has valued the formal, geometric, and perceptual. Our intention is not however oppositional, but rather to expand our understanding of the potential of ritualised behaviour to enable embodied and emplaced spatial meaning. This expansion brings together examination of a ritualised body in relation to place, and the role of ritual surfaces and spatial forms in relation to the body. We will pursue this expansion through a co-joined exploration of existing buildings and places together with interrogation of work generated by students in the design studio extending back 20 years. Emergent from this inquiry will be a deeper understanding of the capacity of ritualised behaviour to enable people to connect to place, and to extend its own agency to transforming place both within and beyond the boundaries of its origins.
Robert Brown is Professor of Architecture at the University of Plymouth and has 30 years of experience in community development. He is founder of the Urban Dialogues Network, co-joining University and external partners to advance civic-engaged learning. He has contributed to numerous international research bodies, including as RIBA Research Development Group chair. His research focuses on socio-cultural identity, urbanism, and pedagogy. This examination is framed dialogically, embracing and working with difference to enable transformative resilience in the context of change.
Dr. Zoe Latham is a tutor at the University of Plymouth, where she runs a BA Arch Year 1 Design Studio and teaches design across the BA Arch and M Arch programmes. Her PhD focused on ritualized behaviour and its situatedness within and affordance of connectivity to place, and works across filmic, mapping, and narrative representations. Her project work has been exhibited internationally and been included in publications on architectural representation.
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Wednesday 6th December, 2023