Ziada, H., 2007.

KINESTHETIC FOUNDATIONS OF SPATIAL CONCEPTS AND CONFIGURATIONS

This paper focuses on the kinesthetics of human bodies, whether engaged in generic everyday movement or in ritual formations. It attempts to articulate how such kinesthetics constitute a layer of experience which, while ephemeral and barely conscious, is deeply informative of the conception and configuration of building space. To link the ephemeral grain of kinesthetics to spatial configuration, the argument refers to Rudolph Laban's Effort-Shape theory of movement (Dell 1977). Laban distinguishes between movements that the body directs at itself, and movements directed towards other objects and bodies. The latter, termed spatial-movements, construct nearly imperceptible forms of social interaction, as demonstrated by systematic analyses of dance forms in various cultures (Bull 1967). The fleeting, 'fine-grain' of encounter suggested by moving and gesturing bodies, underlies conceptions of space. This is particularly emphasized in mass gatherings within building enclosures, which amplify issues of generic movement and stasis, and attendant kinesthetics. The paper examines two different building types: Muslim mosques and Soviet assemblies. While different in many respects, both involve synchronic and diachronic spaces meant for large crowds in ritual formations.

Generating a range of kinesthetic movements and sensations, the different crowd formations in both species of buildings construct subtle patterns of encounter, besides proposing models for framing the sense of things (bodies and objects) and of the enclosing boundaries. During Muslim ritual, it is the reliance on subtle spatial-bodily gestures between physically contiguous bodies to communicate a feeling of unity that permeates Muslim ritual space with an overall sense of transparency. In Soviet mass assemblies, diachronic movement is more crucial. The Soviet Rationalists' manipulation of building floors as curved surfaces (the Palace of Soviets, 1931), generates a choreography of rhythmic gestures synchronized across the mass of moving bodies (after Meyerhold's theatrical Biomechanics; Law 1996). A flow of rhythmic spatial gestures (after Laban) conjoins the attending crowd in a pattern which scaffolds shifting attention. Self-awareness of the body's weight and movement provokes a sense of space as the empathetic projection of weightiness, complemented by the Rationalists' tilted building masses and play on gravitational pull. Centered on this kinesthetic crowd, Soviet architects shaped spatial boundaries as 'floating': visually detached from the ground and from a conclusive resolution to their structural forces.

"Accordingly, the paper speculates that the generic condition of a crowd within building space negates the idea of a convex enclosure as the element of spatial configuration. Instead, the Rationalists seem to pose the threshold as the building block of their spatial
arrangements."