“Choreo-tecture”: Architectural choreography

Abstract

RESEARCH QUESTION: How can choreographed movement inform architecture and urban revitalization?

ABSTRACT: The project explores the role of choreographed body movement in architecture. The relationships between body, space, and movement are key to experimental artistic movement. The city offers experiences and should be a place of free expression, by incorporating the potentials of artistic movement into its design.

The project also explores the body movement of athletes and theories of how it can be used to influence architecture. It explores how circulation systems can encourage movement to draw the public into the building and allow them to engage with the performing movement that is fundamental for human physical development. It also discusses how architecture has the potential to function as a stimulus for movement and the relationship established between the user and space.

Choreographed body movement is more than to simply move; it is an expressive process of transformation and resignification of body movement as an artistic phenomenon. Choreography designs a series of movements for the human body using order, rhythm, and discipline. The application of these qualities in architectural space allows the architecture to be produced and determined meticulously by creating controlled navigation of spatial sequences. However, contemporary spaces often neglect the body. By not demanding much from it and not offering a variety of experiences; the result is an absence of action.

"Choreo-tecture” - Architectural Choreography intends to establish a creative and dynamic framework influenced and interpreted by a choreographed movement to be applied at two different scales; first to the proposed building, then progressing to an urban scale.

Urban regeneration of the place and is realised through the proposition of an Artistic sports Centre, promoting the wellbeing of the population and the artistic development through the body movement. Located strategically in the Brazilian city of Florianopolis, it emphasises the importance of public and democratic use of the space through activities that can add experience and leisure for the population, as well as enhance and preserve activities that already occur in the environment.

The field of this research project has been driven by two catalysts. The first catalyst is the personal experience with artistic sports and the willingness to use the choreographed body movement analysis as a driver for the design of an Artistic Sports Centre. A critical investigation of the selected movement sequence determines what values, qualities and themes influence the building form, circulation, and space distribution. The second catalyst is the re-adaptation of an abandoned public structure located in the heart of the city of Florianopolis. The chosen site carries its history and is seen as an opportunity to apply the theoretical research to a larger scale, enriching the urban fabric by reconnecting the forgotten space with the surrounding context.