Affecting Depth

Abstract

Recent discourse surrounding affect has focused attention on the significant role architecture plays in defining the day to day embodied experience of its inhabitants. The theoretical framework surrounding affect emphasises the importance, to architectural design, of considering the moving body that will inhabit architectural space. This thesis draws from affect theory to argue that architecture under-considers the moving body in the designing of space. By more directly considering the moving body when designing architectural space, this thesis argues that architecture can be designed to contribute more significantly to the everyday experience of its inhabitants. This thesis, therefore, prioritises the experience of the moving body to design architectural space. The thesis does this through four stages of experimental design processes which emphasise embodied qualities of movement and time (duration) as privileged constituents in the development of space. Each stage draws upon different theories and from case studies to initiate informed experiments that privilege the moving body in the design of an affective spatial experience. These design processes culminate in a final developed design of a bakery. This thesis argues that by engaging with embodied qualities of movement and duration in the design process, architectural space can be designed that has a more affective charge, and more significantly contributes to the embodied experience of its inhabitants.