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EXPERIENCE | EXPLORE | ENGAGE

Spacious research bridges the gap between academic and artistic research in architecture. 

At the heart of Spacious’ practice is our ongoing research. We critically rethink the role of the architect in building climate just futures by advancing inderdependent, embodied-enactive and post-Western perspectives in architectural theory and practice.

Our approach to research is distinguished by the creation of spatial installations, such as mock-ups and re-enactments, through which we conduct sensorial and participatory fieldwork. These testing grounds allow us to study the spatial experience artistically and scientifically, intersecting the field of architecture with insights and methods from cognitive and contemplative sciences as well as from other visual and performative arts.

This creative approach to scholarship generates peer-reviewed publications as well as non-traditional research outputs such as performances, visual essays and exhibitions.

SPACIOUS RESEARCH

Spacious advances interdependent, embodied-enactive perspectives in architectural theory and practice.

Our approach to research is distinguished by the creation of spatial installations, such as mock-ups and re-enactments, through which we conduct sensorial and participatory fieldwork. These testing grounds allow us to study the spatial experience artistically and scientifically, intersecting the field of architecture with insights and methods from cognitive and contemplative sciences as well as from other visual and performative arts.

Our creative approach to scholarship generates peer-reviewed publications as well as non-traditional research outputs such as performances, visual essays and exhibitions.

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EXPERIENCE | EXPLORE | ENGAGE

Testing grounds add a first person ecology to the third person perspective still prevailing in academia. 

 

RESEARCH

At the heart of Spacious’ practice is our ongoing research. We critically rethink the role of the architect in building climate just futures by promoting inderdependent, embodied-enactive and post-Western perspectives in architectural theory and practice.

Our approach to research is distinguished by the creation of spatial installations, such as mock-ups and re-enactments, through which we conduct sensorial and participatory fieldwork. These testing grounds allow us to study the spatial experience artistically and scientifically, intersecting the field of architecture with insights and methods from cognitive and contemplative sciences as well as from other visual and performative arts.

This creative approach to scholarship generates peer-reviewed publications as well as non-traditional research outputs such as performances, visual essays and exhibitions.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

THE COMPASSION PROJECT (2024 - )

The Compassion Project explores how spatial intervention can enhance compassion, kin relationality, and ecological belonging in public space. The research is conducted in affiliation with ArtEZ professorship Theory in the Arts (NL) and the Studies of the Architectural Body Research Group at Kansai University (JP).

Keywords: Procedural Architecture; Architectural Body; Arakawa and Gins; Planetary Health; Compassion

Coming soon
TRANSFORMATIVE SPATIAL PEDAGOGIES (2020 - 2024)

Transformative Spatial Pedagogies is a research project exploring in-situ (embodied and enactive) experimentation as an agent of change. The project started in 2020 in affiliation with the Teaching Tools research group at University of the Arts The Hague (NL) and has continued in affiliation with ArtEZ University of the Arts (NL).

Keywords: Co-Creation; Collaboration; Generosity; In-Situ; Art Education.

Coming soon
WORKING WITH/IN THE GAP (2017 - 2021)

Working With/In the Gap is a research project dedicated to the transformative potential of in-between space. Key concepts like “building”, "space" and “time” as well as the role of the architect in building (climate) just futures are recast through the lenses of the Japanese concept of 間 (Ma). The research is conducted in affiliation with the Radical Materialities research group at KU Leuven (BE) and the Ecologies of Architecture research group at TU Delft (NL).

Keywords: Ma; Japan; Arata Isozaki; Space-Time; 4EA Cognition.

Coming soon

FEATURED MEDIA

PUBLICATIONS AND NON-TRADTIONAL RESEARCH OUTPUT (NTRO'S)

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Matching & Meshing: Reciprocity as Cement

Book Chapter in P. van Sonderen (Ed.) Out of  Theory. Arnhem, Netherlands: ArtEZ Press. 2025. 



Feminist Spatial Practices

Interview with Bryony Roberts, Renske Maria van Dam, Abriannah Aiken, Ridhi Chopra by Ekam Singh on behalf of Architecture Lobby for the Venice Biennale Project May 2025.

Past the Crossroads

Interview with Elise Zoetmulder, Renske Maria van Dam and Sarah Poot by Thierry Somers on behalf of Nook Magazine, 2025(1) Contemplative Interiors, March 2025.

Feminist Pedagogies

Panel participation at BK-Talks, TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture, Delft, Netherlands. 2024.

Lessons Learned from Passing Through Doorways

Book Chapter in R. Gorny, S. Kousoulas, A. Radman and H. Sohn (Eds.), Noetics Without a Mind. Delft, the Netherlands: TU Delft OPEN Publishing. 2024.

Working With/In the Gap

Contribution to group exhibition at AGxKANSAI Exhibition 2022, Kyoto University of the Arts, Japan. 2022. 

Working With/In the Gap

Interview for podcast AI Murmurings, 12(2). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Slow Research Lab/ Podbean. 2022. 

Biotopological Craftsmanship in the Here and Now

Book chapter in T. Kadobayashi & N. Mimura (Ed.), Art and Philosophy in the 22nd Century After Arakawa and Gins. Tokyo, Japan: Ratik. 2023.

Working With/In the Gap: Japan-ness in Architecture of Experience

Doctoral dissertation, KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture, Brussels/Ghent, Belgium. 2021.

Zigzagging Pathways and Somersaulting Horizons as Agents of Transformation

Invited Lecture at Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. 2023.

Architecting Life

Presentation at XXV World Congress of Philosophy: Philosophy across Boundaries, Rome, Italy. August 2024. 

Ma as a Transformative Spatial Practice

Invited Lecture at Bachelor interior Architecture, ArtEZ, Zwolle, Netherlands. March 2025.

You are visiting a new website. In the coming year we will slowly add more projects, research, and programs to our online portfolio. If you cannot wait to know more about our activities, feel free to contact us directly. 

NON-TRADITIONAL RESEARCH OUTCOMES

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