Spatial Experience in Architectural Environment Through Dance, Time, and Urban Choreography

Abstract

Space and time are two inseparable parts of architecture. The human body experiences space through movement in different ways than dancing. A dancer carves the space through dancing. Sensorial experiences have an impact on architectural design. If sequencing and relating experiences with the human body and senses can be related through architecture, how can art and architecture be experienced through space with dancing and time? Time is the tool and opportunity to measure and experience every moment we have, as our body moves through space. Capturing every sequence that we experience in a space is the exact and the honesty of the space, the honesty of human nature. How all the experiences, choreography, and time can help in designing a larger scale of a city but not just a single building? Buildings, streets, sidewalks, spaces between them, and every single element in a city and our everyday life creates new experiences for us, as designers how can we design according to choreography to provide these experiences? Through a series of observations of dance rehearsal, interviews with architects and dancers, and readings of philosophers, such as Juhani Pallasmaa, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, John Berger, Sigfried Giedion, and Susan Sontag concerned with the relationship of time to our experiences through space, and specific dance theoreticians, a discussion unfolds to consider the essential relationship between architecture, time, and dance.