EXPERIENCE | EXPLORE | ENGAGE
Spacious research bridges the gap between academic and artistic research in the built environment.
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.
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 spatial designer in building climate just futures by advancing embodied-enactive and post-Western perspectives in 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 and urbanism 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.
LONG-TERM RESEARCH CYCLES
THE COMPASSION PROJECT (2024 - ONGOING)
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: Compassion; Procedural Architecture; Architectural Body; Arakawa and Gins; Planetary Health
TRANSFORMATIVE SPATIAL PEDAGOGIES (2020 - 2024)
Transformative Spatial Pedagogies is a research project exploring sensorial and peformative experimentation as a pedagogical tool for driving systemic change. The project started 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; Architecture Education.
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 designer 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.
FEATURED MEDIA
PUBLICATIONS AND NON-TRADTIONAL RESEARCH OUTPUT (NTRO'S)
Titel
Publisher/ Venue
Medium
Link | Download
Ma as a Transformative Spatial Practice
Invited Lecture at Bachelor interior Architecture, ArtEZ, Zwolle, Netherlands. March 2025.
Un/Balancing Procedurals
Invited Lecture at Master Performing Arts in Public Space, Fontys, Tilburg Netherlands. 2023.
Feminist Spatial Practices: A Global Network and Community to Celebrate Diversity in Architecture and Design
Presentation at IAWA Symposium, Virginia Tech School of Architecture, Blacksburg, USA. Melnyk, V., van Dam, R. M., Aiken, A. March 2025
(2025, March 20th) [Paper Presentation].
Forming Social and Ecological Transformation
Invited Lecture at Corpo-real Master interior Architecture, ArtEZ, Zwolle, Netherlands. 2022.
A Planet of Bodies: Human and Other Physiques at the Intersection of Nature and Design
Panel participation at BK-Talks, TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture, Delft, Netherlands. 2022.
Biotopological Craftsmanship in the Here and Now
Invited lecture AGxKANSAI Conference 2022: Art and Philosophy in the 22nd Century After Arakawa and Gins, Kyoto University of the Arts, Japan. 2022.
Reversing Destiny: Initial findings on Japan-ness in Arakawa and Gins
Book chapter in A. Radman & S. Kousoulas (Eds.), Architectures of Life and Death: The Eco-Aestetics of the Built Environment (153-163). Lanham, England: Rowman and Littlefield International. 2021.
Grasping 間 [ma]
Essay in A. Radman & S. Kousoulas (Eds.), Architectures of Life and Death: The Eco-Aestetics of the Built Environment (153-163). Lanham, England: Rowman and Littlefield International. 2021.
Time Near Windows is Time Well Spent: Practicing Full Emptiness in Architecture
Book chapter in C.F. Strauss (Ed.), Slow Spatial Reader: Chronicles of Radical Affection (102-111). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Valiz.2021
Tussen Wilde Maakbaarheid en Gemaakte Wildheid
Essay for StrandLab Newsletter. Almere, Netherlands: StrandLab Almere. 2021.
Minor Movements: A Rethinking of an Exhibition
Spatial installation at La Trobe University Art Institute, Bendigo, Australia. 2019, with Senslab: Laboratory for Thought in Motion.
