Choreography & City
How architectural choreography shapes movement through built environments, made visible by the pandemic.
Architectural choreography functions as a foundational system that shapes how inhabitants engage with built environments. This relationship transcends simple spatial formulas or circulation planning, instead constituting a poetically guided sequence of the spatial experiences in a delicate architectural composition.
While choreographic principles have long influenced architectural design implicitly, the COVID-19 pandemic made this system explicitly visible. The crisis introduced novel interaction protocols, visualized through pandemic-era spatial markings.
Public movement now depends on designated safe zones and dynamic body-to-body relationships. The negotiation between human bodies and the spatial system itself represents architectural choreography in action.
Traditional scale measurement has expanded beyond Vitruvian proportions. Distance between bodies now functions as an additional spatial metric. This uncanniness of the interbody distances reflects both apprehension and perceived risk.
Like ballroom dancing, the system heightens awareness of other participants. Social distancing rules fostered heightened consciousness of inter-distance maintenance. Post-pandemic behavior will likely involve habitual distance-checking between groups. Visual movement guides establish restrictions on intentional navigation, with social groups choreographing paths to avoid strangers and obstacles.
COVID-19 catalyzed fundamental shifts in design methodology and spatial experience measurement. It altered how people interact within public realms. Multiple projects employ varied distancing metrics, many incorporating playful design languages intended to facilitate adjustment to socially-distanced environments.
Examples of post-covid choreographed architectural designs from the book Architectural Prescriptions that my friends and I created:
