Architect as Thespian

This research is positioned at the intersection of performance studies, cognitive philosophy, and architecture, this research seeks to uncover productive outcomes in the development of an architectural practice that prioritises the reactive and performative nature of the human body. Positing that the role of performance within an expanded field of architecture emerges through an investigation of three key sub-topics: bodily performance, movement notation, and spatial embodiment. By tracing the life and work of Oskar Schlemmer, Rudolf Laban, and Bernard Tschumi, the study is situated within the German, Swiss, and French contexts between 1880 and the 1980s—a period marked by significant shifts in traditional performance practices. This historical lens provides a comprehensive research framework for identifying practical tools and pedagogies that tap into somatic rhythms and kinesthetic flows inherent to spatial experience and critical to human wellbeing. The study’s exploration of the (inter)active nature of space and its primary (en)actant—the body—stems from a desire to uncover architecture that expresses empathy, placing experience-making at the core of its design strategy. Architecture is reimagined as a spatial manuscript—a structured yet flexible framework that challenges Cartesian divisions, positioning the body as relational, affective, and dynamically intertwined with cognition and materiality. By foregrounding motility and ludic engagement, the research investigates architecture’s capacity to script, support, and enhance embodied perception.

Niloufar Nelly Goodarzi is a registered architect (AIBC) and educator with expertise in natatorium and post-secondary institutional architecture. As an adjunct professor at UBC’s School of Architecture, she taught master’s-level studios, including foundation courses for students from non-design backgrounds in accelerated formats and vertical studios exploring material craft, site-specific installation, and performative spatial design. She is currently a Visiting Lecturer at Birmingham City University and London South Bank University, teaching graduate and undergraduate architectural studios.

Four-k in the Plan, spatial manuscript, N Goodarzi & N Dagenais, 2018. A planimetric notation of movement trajectories for four characters, choreographing the overlapping geometries of bodies-in-motion as a projective design exercise.