Body Typologies
City Metaphors (1982), O.M. Ungers
Robin Sparkes April 22, 2024
In my youth, I trained with a professional ballet company. Through the experience of being a dancer, learning the semiotics of ballet, I began to understand movement as a structural medium. The classical arabesque pose, for example, embodies suspension when the leg is lifted in derrière (to the back) at a 90-degree angle. It is a delicate balance; the head, neck, chest, back, and suspended leg are held in balance while the supporting leg acts like a stabilising column — a structural support.
From railway to cultural sanctuary: The metamorphosis of Musée d'Orsay, Orléans, France. Originally a train station built in 1900, the building was repurposed into a museum in 1986. The open hall facilitates public exchange, preserving its original geometry which once served the purpose of the train platform, now transcended into a place of contemplating art.
Understanding the body as a structure helped me to understand the body within a structure. Buildings confine the body, and the body responds to their latent potential. The architectural shell produces both positive and negative space. The body’s existence is facilitated by its container, and the movements made within that container affect the manner in which the container is perceived. Movements made within a space can expand that space’s potential uses and, in this way, we can view the body as an architectural object. As the presence of the body alters the description of the built environment: it introduces the body as a type, a vessel within a vessel. Reimagining the body as a typological unit, a part of architecture, can we imagine what it means to live with architecture?
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“Buildings encapsulate the ideologies of the era in which they were built. As time unfolds, buildings may be repurposed, yet they retain the qualities that mirror the values, beliefs, and priorities of the society that built them.”
City Metaphors (1982), O.M. Ungers
Buildings are physical philosophies. Structures frame experience. Architecture can shape and influences us beyond the material realm. Our sense of place affects our emotions, perceptions, and even our spiritual realities.
The architectural landscape is an archive. Buildings encapsulate the ideologies of the era in which they were built. As time unfolds, buildings may be repurposed, yet they retain the qualities that mirror the values, beliefs, and priorities of the society that built them.
Amphitheater Euripides 300-340 BC.
Different building types are categorized into architectural typologies, which are a system that is used in the process of both design and analysis. These 'types' are defined by the functions that a building provides, such as a library, a swimming pool, or an amphitheatre. Typologies are not set, but evolve to accommodate the requirements of our changing lives, of rapidly evolving technology, new societal needs and belief systems. This is often reflected in a buildings architectural plans. An architectural plan is a detailed drawing outlining the layout, dimensions, and features of a building. The drawing represents the design’s concept, structure and materials. The architectural plans for buildings of the same type can often resemble one another. The plans for the Amphitheater of Euripides, for instance, (dated 300-340 BC) emphasize circulation. Two millenniums later, in 1926, Allied Architects relied on that same emphasis to create the Hollywood Bowl.
Hollywood Bowl, Allied Architects (1926). Various acoustic interventions have been made since by architects such as Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry.
Architecture not only frames but also shapes how we translate and read body language. The way we perceive and interpret movement and sound is influenced by the architectural context in which they occur. Dancing alone in a living room offers a personal and intimate experience, where one's movements are framed by the domestic space. Conversely, performing on a stage with an audience amplifies the gestures and tones, as the architectural setting shapes the communicative exchange between performer and spectator. The relationship between movement and sound in space influences our perception of temporality. Time is an essential current of interpretation, a shared continual reality. The buildings we inhabit construct our experience, and therefore help us construct time itself; shaping how we perceive and interact with the passage of hours, days, and seasons.
“With the sun at its centre, architecture and design can serve as a type of choreography, directing the body’s language and facilitating sociological progression.”
Archaeologists suggest that early architecture built for the collective often hosted rituals. These spaces embodied the inherent bond between human expression and the built environment. For instance, Blombos Cave in South Africa reveals remnants of organized rituals among its ochre-painted cave drawings, suggesting caves may have been architectural settings to host communal dance ceremonies. An understanding of architectural space is intrinsic to the creation and understanding of artistic expression, and our interpretation of culture.
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Once bacteria, now human, every cell in our bodies have evolved under Earth's closest star, our Sun. Contemplating the body’s role with architecture, and our architecture’s place in the universe draws our focus to sunlight as an all-encompassing force that influences the body’s experience of time and space. With the sun at its centre, architecture and design can serve as a type of choreography, directing the body’s language and facilitating sociological progression. The designer, with sensitivity to the tempo, rhythm, and ritual of life, has the potential to guide the body to light.
City Metaphors (1982), O.M. Ungers
On a planet of severe ecological stress, what are the possible futures of architecture? Modular, flexible designs that build upon and expanding from existing structures like tentacles—that can constantly adapt to our changing needs and climate. Drawing from raw, natural materials, would help us to reimagine space and society by fostering our relationship with nature.
We turn to our environments to meet our needs and desires. In turn, we affect ecosystems both near and far when considering the resources this requires. Similarly, when we enter a building, we shape its purpose and definition—we affect its architectural typology. This process of human interaction with space plays a pivotal role in the evolution of architecture over time. Our presence today shapes future archaeological perceptions and understandings of architectural type as a reflection of our societal values. Can we imagine a type of architecture that lives with us, where time itself is allowed to be an architect?
Robin Sparkes, a is spatial designer, studying the kinesthetic experience of architecture. Her design, research, and writing practice traverses the relationship between the body, temporality, and the acoustics of space.
