Architecture and Embodied Free Play

Abstract

This article argues that architecture makes possible a unique form of aesthetic experience, one involving what I will call, departing from a Kantian perspective, embodied free play. I argue that architecture's purpose is to encourage, cultivate, and enable human activities while also becoming crystallizations of those very activities. I will show that the living system of such interaction is called “place,” as I explore the role of artifacts, movement, activities, and the environment in place creation. I show that when the embodied activities and design of a place harmonize, a fullness of free play is made possible and daily living can involve aesthetic experience.