The Body in Space - PhD project The Royal Academy

‍ It is important for the later practice of architects and designers how the body and bodily diversity have been incorporated into the teaching of architecture and design programmes. This is one of the assumptions in the PhD project Bodies in Spaces: Inclusion at Danish Architecture and Design Education, which is set in the lake at the Royal Academy's Cluster for Spatial Inclusion at the Department of Building Art and Design. The project examines how the body as a phenomenon, including bodily diversity, can be involved in teaching and how the teaching relates to the issue of human vision and the spatiality of society.

This is the first time this type of study has been done in Denmark, and there is great potential in improving our understanding of how we organise teaching and work with the view of the human body in architecture and design programmes. This is what PhD student on the project Christine Bjerke tells.

“The project is, among other things, about finding good examples from both Denmark and abroad to learn from the way we teach in relation to the inclusion of the human body. The ambition is to create prototypes of teaching methods and educational tools that can contribute to new ways of teaching.”

^{- Christine Bjerke}

The project will run from February 2024 until the end of January 2027. The project is a collaboration between the Royal Academy, Realdania and the Bevica Foundation. It is, among other things, an offshoot of the United Nations Convention on Disability, where Denmark has committed itself to developing and promoting education and research on universal design and is based on the transversal principle of Leave no one behind, which has been the guiding principle for the formulation of the UN's 17 global goals. In this way, the project is also in line with the Bevica Foundation's strategy, and Director Marianne Kofoed is looking forward to following along.

“This is an important issue that Christine Bjerke is investigating, and we are very much looking forward to seeing what comes out of the project. The hope is that it will lead to a paradigm shift in the human vision of architecture and send the Vitruvian Man into retirement.”

^{-Marianne Kofoed}