Corporeal

Work of students

Corpo-real and its' students are particularly focused on the connection between theoretical thinking, reflecting and the practical research. The fruitful meeting between these research methods in recent Finals projects shows that it leads to new findings and perspectives for the professional field.

Finals 2025

Faraneh Maadani

Resonant Absences

Can silence shape space? Might absence become presence? Silence lingers. It is not just the absence of sound, but a quiet presence; a subtle potential charged with depth and tension. It becomes an atmospheric experience in space. Coming from a background in architecture and a close engagement with music, I began by asking: how can musical silence be translated into space? This exploration led me to four key spatial elements: shadow, reflection, resonance, and emptiness. Shadow reveals presence through absence and binary contrasts. Reflection distorts and delays perception, echoing movement like sound. Emptiness, understood not as nothing but as openness, appears through in-between spaces that are active zones full of potential. These elements together create a visual resonance that makes silence perceptible. This project seeks to transform the poetics of silence into spatial experience.

I faraneh_maadani
E Faraneh.maadani@gmail.com /

Kritika Sharma

THE LIVING SPACE

As an interior architect with a background in film, my work is grounded in narrative, emotion, and spatial experience. I’m drawn to the performative potential of space—how it can evoke feeling, suggest movement, and carry meaning beyond its physical form. My multidisciplinary background allows me to see architecture not just as structure, but as story. My research explores the question: How can space itself be experienced as a performance? I’m interested in how still elements can create dialogue, how light and shadow can act as storytellers, and how viewers become part of a spatial narrative through their presence and movement. I see architecture as something alive—quietly responsive, deeply felt, and emotionally charged. My practice aims to blur the line between the built and the sensed, combining spatial design with theatricality and sensory depth to create spaces that resonate long after they’ve been left behind.

Li Wang

Spatial Drift: Using Human Movement to Create Spatial Configuration

What is the distance between people? This question became the starting point of my master’s research, exploring how human movement shapes space. In my graduation project, How to Use Human Movement to Create Spatial Configuration, I developed public experiments to test how crowds respond to object-based interventions—categorized as attraction, restriction, and nudge, based on materiality and placement. A second experiment involved participants passing a “paper wall” between each other, revealing how space is shaped by both movement and interaction. When people move objects, they don’t just occupy space—they define it. Movement and density can form structures like walls and columns, showing that spatial relationships are dynamic, not fixed. In my final exhibition, I present the concept: “Human movement and its density shape the architectural structure—manifested through walls and columns alone.” By focusing on how people behave, move, and respond to spatial cues, we can begin to design not from fixed forms, but from movement itself.

Merel Fentener van Vlissingen

Ambiosati

Throughout my life, I have always been interested in being a researcher, gaining new information and testing its limits. I started to realise that the world around us is a fast-paced world. My research looks at how we can use the concept of mindfulness in our environment to help slow down, both physically and mentally. This is where I see great potential as a spatial researcher. Using the idea that our minds are in the environment, it becomes logical to use architecture as a medium to help reduce stress levels. With my project, I aim to create a tool that is applicable to all and any spaces for people to integrate and immerse themselves in. With this, I hope to create a solution to the downsides of modern society in which people have the freedom to experience a de-stressing state.

E merelfvv@gmail.com
I _byMees
W ambiosati.com/

Mohammed Abushaban

Design for well-being: Enhancing the Workspace through dynamic & disorienting Architectural Elements

I chose to focus on workspace well-being after observing how rigid and uninspiring office environments negatively impacted mental health during my own experiences in architecture offices. This realization led me to explore how architectural elements could actively engage mental senses, foster spatial awareness, and facilitate communication. To investigate this, I developed a practice-based approach centered around three key themes: well-being through reflective surfaces, flexible design to foster ownership, and reflective engagement for communication. The design process involved experimenting with semi-transparent reflective materials, movable partitions, and a rotating installation that distorts scale and perspective. These elements were tested to determine their impact on mental stimulation and spatial interaction, aiming to create a workspace that is both engaging and adaptable.

E mhdmonzer94@gmail.com
I mohammedmonzer

Niloufar Ghalandari

Aging in Harmony with Space

The relationship between aging and the spaces we inhabit is central to my research. Inspired by personal experiences, particularly observing my grandparents’ challenges as they age, I sought to explore how design can bridge the gap between human aging and spatial adaptability. As we age, physical abilities and perceptions of space change, making tasks more dicult and altering how we interact with our environment. My project examines how interior architecture must evolve to support these changes. By aligning the aging of spaces with the aging of individuals, we can create environments that are both functional and empathetic. This research aims to encourage designers and architects to consider the needs of an aging population, ensuring that spaces remain supportive and inclusive throughout life.

E Niloufarghalandaro@gmail.com
I Ngdesign

Paige Penberthy

Storytelling Space

Architectural space is more than mere structure. It is a vessel of narrative. Walls, corridors, and thresholds shape the movement of our bodies, just as plot guides the arc of a story. A well-designed space whispers its history through texture and light, inviting its occupants to become both characters and authors. Each room holds intention, each shadow, a secret waiting to be discovered. In this way, architecture doesn't just house stories—it becomes one. Over the course of the last two years, I’ve had the pleasure of dedicating my time to exploring the ways in which designers build vocabularies for spatial storytelling. Through interviews, case studies, and practice-based research, I aimed to uncover how to translate abstract narratives into tangible environments. The outcomes of this research reveal not only design strategy, but also, the deeper phenomenological and cultural frameworks that shape how space becomes story.

E pvpenberthy@gmail.com

Yuliia Kucheriavenko

Home

My graduation project delves into the multifaceted concept of "home" and the elements that create a sense of belonging. "Home" is not just a physical space but a feeling composed of various elements. I approach this concept by breaking it down into fundamental geometric components, starting with a broad, global understanding of "home" and gradually refining it to a personal scale. As an interior designer and a Ukrainian, I grew up surrounded by intricate patterns from my culture and family heritage. These patterns have been a constant presence throughout my life, and they play a central role in my final project. By printing these patterns on textiles, I aim to evoke a sense of warmth and coziness that textiles naturally provide. The shape of the project itself resembles a cave, symbolising the protective and intimate space we carve out from our memories of home. Inside this cave-like structure, light serves as an indicator of something sacred and inviting, drawing viewers into a space that holds memories and a sense of comfort. Through this project, I hope to convey the universal yet deeply personal feeling of home.

Finals 2024

ChiaYu Chiu

Grief container: The sense of 莊嚴神聖

As designers, we carry a responsibility to enhance the functionality, efficiency, and accessibility of spaces. However, we often neglect the mental and emotional needs that these spaces should fulfil. This realization has driven my studies at ArtEZ over the past two years. Here, I am given the complete freedom to explore my personal interests. I enjoy manipulating materials and creating atmospheres that facilitate meaningful dialogues and reveal the spatial truths between bodies and social realities. This project is dedicated to those who have lost loved ones and experienced grief. Initially inspired by the architectural concept of the sublime, I began by examining a columbarium in Taiwan to understand how its design evokes feelings of sacredness, honour, solemnity, and inviolability. These insights have then formed the foundation. Designing a space that serves as a container for grief is my goal_a place where people can express their lament and sorrow. This space is intended for participants to share, resonate, and ultimately, find closure. I hope such an environment helps us achieve inner peace and mindfulness.

Jessy-Lee Esselink

The Soul of The Space

"How do we capture the soul of the space and encapsulate it?" As human beings, we form deep bonds with the spaces we inhabit, creating attachments and connections through our experiences and memories. These attachments and experiences imbue the space with a unique essence, which I refer to as its soul. The interplay be-tween human experience and space forms the foundation for this soul to exist, intertwining our personal histories with the physical environments around us. For my final research, I aim to find a way to encapsulate this "soul" of a space. But how can we achieve this? Just like the human body, a space needs to be nurtured and cared for to maintain its soul. I have designed a ritual and created a capsule or altar that serves as a tool to bond with the space, capture its soul, and allow us to mourn and honor it. This ritual in-volves engaging with the space in a meaningful way by nurturing it, reflecting on our experiences and memories associated with it, and then using the capsule to symbolically gather these elements. The capsule or altar becomes a vessel for the soul of the space, enabling us to carry a piece of it with us as we transition to a new one. This process provides a way to say a final good-bye, acknowledging the importance of the space in our lives and the impact it has had on us. By doing so, we honour the space and our experiences within it, ensuring that its soul remains with us when we move and inhabit other spaces.

Parisa Ghasemsani

Acting Space: Transforming Audience into Actor in Space

This topic comes from my interest and background in both architecture and theatre. Theatre artists are always trying to make their performances more engaging through a variety of ways. Nowadays, some directors incorporate audience participation as part of their work. This research started from the idea of “involving the audience in the theatre.” The goal was to make participants in an architectural space feel like actors by experiencing different concepts and acting within the space. It all began with the idea of “Changing position,” and the research continued with other concepts like “Being framed,” “Sound player,” and “Being seen.” I combined these main concepts into one design. This design considers shape, colour, and architectural and theatrical elements such as light and shadow to create an eye-catching and interactive space. To conclude, in this space, by changing positions, being behind frames, influencing the sound of the place, and being seen, even those without any theatre experience can feel like actors and be spotlighted.

Lynn Henderikx

Nature can have a lot of positive effects on our health and well-being. Despite that, we spend most of our time in indoor environments, where nature is not always present. Starting from feeling good while being in nature, I became interested in how to implement that feeling of being in nature in interior architecture. During this research, I am looking for new answers in implementing natural elements in interior architecture by looking at aspects of nature. Perspective, light and shadows, sound, materials and forms come together within this research. The aim is to optimize spaces like waiting rooms in hospitals, so it is not only a space to wait between arriving on location and the appointment, but that it also contributes to the time people are present in these environments.

Mi Jang

We have a landscape, Landscape has us

For me, it is intriguing whether immersive spatial sensibilities have been created in the spaces. The sensibilities I want to bring into the space mainly come from nature. This project began with admiration and curiosity for the natural landscape surrounding our society. We have an intimate landscape in our minds. The senses felt when looking at the vast landscape contain mesmerizing atmospheres and emotions that go beyond just other senses. A Landscape Architect said, ‘Landscape was original dwellings’. Evolutionary psychologically, the accumulated evolutionary data lived in natural environments unconsciously and intrinsically remains a core part of who we are today. Living in different landscapes and climates far from my birth ground made me realizes what was my original dwellings. The organically connected mountains, towering in their respective and distinctive shapes. A magnificently view of the mountain ranges by overlapping this mountain and that mountain. The intimate landscape has been our initial home. I, family, neighbours, and even ancestors who lived in, we may be sharing that landscape as each other’s home. The landscape unfolds, our space intertwined. It merges with us, our presence aligned. That’s how we have the landscape, the landscape has us.

Caroline Mazaro

PROPRIOCEPTIVE PLAY

Exploring the Intersection of Creativity and Functionality In his book "Homo Ludens," the renowned Dutch historian Johan Huizinga delves into the role of play in shaping culture and human civilization. Inspired by his words, my research journey led me to reflect on my own childhood experiences, where an absence of playfulness reflected my later fascination with the transformative potential of children's toys as developmental tools. In my practice, I explore proprioceptive play, which represents play at work. Can children's toys be dynamic instruments for collaborative design? As a crucial part of my master’s final research, I created a mobile space for a collaborative workshop developed to provide participants with a toolkit for play and creation, a catalyst for reimagining the spaces where we truly want to learn and grow. At its core, play emerges as a transcendent force—an imaginative conduit that channels the unspoken essence of existence. Play and learning are at the core of the work I will be exploring as a spatial designer, creating spaces for children to discover themselves and flourish. When we approach design with a spirit of playfulness and games, we unlock new dimensions of our creative thinking. In these moments, when we feel a sense of agency and belonging, the world transforms into a more hopeful place.
My research on play has helped deepen my appreciation for design strategies that prioritize collaboration, social consciousness, and human connection. I've uncovered the power of unconventional materials in generating innovative concepts. Embracing play as context, I've gleaned insights into the value of infusing real-world activities with the engaging dynamics inherent in games.

Rachit Puri

Soundspace

I have always been captivated by the realm of sound. Some of the most profound moments in my life have been intertwined with sound and music. As a semi-professional musician and audio production hobbyist, music has always existed as a distinct passion from my work in architecture. In this project, I sought to blend these two worlds. By merging my deep fascination for sound with the architectural knowledge I have gathered over the years, I aspired to create a space that offers a unique spatial-sonic experience. In my project, I delved into understanding the emotional resonance of sounds, human sound perception and sound-space relations, examining how these elements influence our experience of a space. This inquiry led to a fundamental question: Can sound create space? The result is an immersive and interactive space that uses sound as a fundamental tool for creation. This approach opens up new possibilities for imagining and experiencing space, redefining what it can be.

Julian Puszcz

Owning without Owning

To make a space a home, we need to individualise it. As so often in life, the more money we have, the easier it is: With enough financial resources, we can tailor our own property exactly to our liking. But how can we make this work, if we rent an apartment, where the possibilities of making changes are minimal? How can we make a space our own without owning it? My research approaches this topic from our personal items, as they reflect our identity as a person, and serve as vessels to project this identity into a space. The outcome is a spatial system consisting of five containers, aiming to portray the personal items as the protagonists in the room while allowing users to arrange the system according to their specific functional requirements.

Maya Serghi

On the meaning of space. Architecture from the perspective of Literature.

How do we read spaces? By using representations and adapting architectural elements to fit literary thinking, my aim is to explore Space through the lens of Literature, reshaping its meaning to uncover similarities in how we understand both of these mind expressions. My research addresses questions about the nature of space and representation. It investigates how literary techniques can transform archetypal architectural elements- and whether these alternative renderings can provide a meaningful spatial experience. To which extent is the representation not valid as spatial experience? Ultimately, Literature serves as a medium to define Architecture, linking archetypal elements such as windows, columns, and gates with literary devices like analogy, allegory, and metaphor. My installation brings together these three reinterpreted elements, forming a novel space where the meaning is dictated by the algorithm of another discipline.

Launa Visser

Escaping in Architecture

My project finds its roots in my love for stories, fantasy and imagination. As I grew older, this love became a way to escape my daily life's challenges. I found solace in the digital space of games, where I could immerse myself in their magical realms. My research focuses on the concept of ‘escapism’, the psychological urge to seek escape from reality. As a spatial designer, I see great potential in our practice. Architecture, rooted in the physical reality, can create mindful escapes by impacting our senses, evoking powerful emotions, and creating immersive atmospheres. With the knowledge I have acquired, I aim to make a positive impact on the tangible world around us. My goal is to re-imagine a chemotherapy treatment room, infusing it with elements that stimulate this feeling of escape, bringing solace to those confronting the darkness of disease.

Siyao Yu

Embodying post privacy

Throughout my architectural practice, the question of 'what is home' has always intrigued me. Growing up with the internet, I found community, identity, and belonging online—elements that define the non-physical aspects of ‘home’ for me. Interor architecture is often referred to as the practise of creating a border between inside and outside, private and public. Today, our digital usage blurs this boundary, as they accompany us into private and public spaces alike. Although we understand post-privacy intellectually, we haven't internalized it instinctively. Our bodies haven’t adapted, leaving us unsure of how to react to this reality. My research aims to bridge this gap by developing works that inform and train our instincts about post-privacy. Additionally, I proposed concepts for future homes in this new reality. My goal is to enhance our understanding of post-privacy and guide us towards ethical and informed decisions.

Yujia Zhang

The spatial dynamics of pain

Space serves as a site for the practice of the body; the body is not merely an object within space but also the subject of space. Throughout my entire practice, the body has consistently been a central component. Pain, and the vulnerability of the body, when applied to the relationship between the body and space, through processes of 'reflection' or 'evocation,' makes it possible for my own body to establish a more intimate relationship with space.

Instagram

Finals 2023

Irem Biter

Space of in-betweenness

Space of in-betweenness is the name of my research that originate from my background in Architecture, overlapped with an interest in spaces, subcultures, identities and communities that are normally not physically represented in formal architecture. Space of in-betweenness is a conceptual space that exists between different identities, cultures and belongings where individuals may find themselves positioned. As a Turkish immigrant woman living in the Netherlands, I have been experienced a sense of not fully belonging to either the Turkish or Dutch communities. The space of in-betweenness where I inhabit is a threshold represents an intermediate zone where individuals are in a state of transition, situated between two different states or domains. This threshold which represents non-present moment that exist through the evocation of memory and imagination reproduces interactions, relations, temporality to not feeling alienated in space. 'The in-between in architectural space is not a literal perceptual or audible sensation, but an affective somatic response that is felt by the body in space. This feeling is not one arising from fact, but rather from the virtual possibility of architectural space.' (Peter Eisenman)

Olivier van Dam

The Embodiment of the Hearth within the Contemporary Home

Fire, central to the body of the home was once indispensable. As we gathered around we were able to find safety, cook, warm up and be amused. The human ability to keep fire not only meant the beginning of society but also of architecture. Today the thought of fire as starting point of architecture has been lost. What started with the fireplace moving off-center towards the wall was followed by the many devices that took over its practical functions. With the evolution of the hearth the central place of focus has been lost, resulting in a more secluded social structure within the contemporary home. In order to bring back a form of collectiveness, the extant hearth could still be a necessary asset in the way we will live together. Fire in the form of combustion, in a time of climate crisis and increasing population density, is however not the answer. By following a more sustainable trend caused by the energy crisis, a new place of focus can nonetheless be established through the means of thermal energy.

Instagram

Jenny Do

A Space you Carry

According to Vietnamese, 'gánh' means 'to carry'. And the word 'gánh' is used either to describe a form of vendor with the baskets on their shoulder or to define an action of carrying items on the shoulder.

'Gánh' is caught on the sidewalks due to its significance, characteristic, and occupation. In this research, I mainly focus on the possibility that we may, at some point, be affected by natural disasters is unpredictable. Although I was privileged enough to not live in a disaster-prone area, in the central part of my homeland country, things are not always so easy. From the story of "gánh" and the story of the vendors, I come to realize the connection between carrying your spaces during evacuation.

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Chila Ibrahim

The Future of the fashion runway

Architecture has a great role not only in designing retails and stores of high-brand fashions but also in developing their fashion shows. Designing the set of the fashion show is the combination of art, science and engineering, and they are typically hosted in a space; architects have been trained on the principles and elements of proportion and beauty to design a high-quality built environment and develop novel ideas that break the rules of conventionally made fashion shows. Solving current environmental problems is one of the tasks that has been focused in this research and has become a serious issue in many runways today; since fashion industry in general is also responsible for climate change with all the product that has been produced yearly in addition to all the fashion shows that held during the year, which let people to travel all over the world in order to see the fashion runway that increase environmental impact rapidly. While all luxury brands have stores throughout the globe, my question is why do people have to fly to a specific place in order to see the latest fashion trends? Climate change is a risk that cannot be disregarded because it relates to human life and is more important than clothes, fashion, and many other aspects in our life. My aim is to change the paradigm of the fashion runway in parallel with reducing the impact of the environmental issue.

Nazgol Mostafavinasab

In between regional and global

Trying to preserve the identity of the region and gain from what globalization can offer is what I am trying to do. I am researching ways of creating a space in-between regional and global using the traditional Iranian patterns from the art of mirror mosaic in the architecture parallel to working on the parameters.

Femke Rinsma

The importance of moving differently in the new way of working

During the corona crisis, it turned out that hybrid working is very important, after all, we can work anywhere. This flexibility offers freedom and autonomy to the employees. There are fewer permanent workplaces and the office spaces are used less or differently. Offices will become more meeting places for colleagues, you go to the office if you want to brainstorm, for creative processes and collaboration.

However with this new way of working, we have not only started working harder, but also become less productive. People are social beings and thrive best in a social environment, thereby we have become more sensitive to illnesses and burn outs. So to make the new way of working successful it is important to find a balance between working and relaxing.

Play can help with that, it activates the imagination, whereby autonomy, creativity, empathy, and motor skills are encouraged. With playing you can control your emotions, which is important to prevent to become overwhelmed and stressed out.
To integrate play into the new way of working, I made a piece of furniture that combines movement with work in a playful way.

Olgica Stavrova

Domestic Bliss

Being forced to stay at home during the pandemic made us rethink how we use our homes, making us more aware of our needs and how they relate to the space. To assure belonging and fulfillment, the domestic space should have the ability to adapt to the momentarily needs we experience every day and shape itself accordingly.

Inspired by my need of belonging in my own home during quarantine, I began reimagining the home as a space that is not defined by the elements in it, but by the inhabitant’s movements and actions within. Through this the home gains new configurations shaped by the users themselves, creating a more comfortable and accepting living environment.

Inez van der Steen

Visual sensitivity in response to everyday experiences

Perhaps you recognize this situation: having the same daily routine of activities; experiencing the same daily rhythms of sensation, day after day. You get up, get dressed, have breakfast, go to work or school, come home, eat and go to bed. The next day, the same scenario repeats itself. After a while, this routine can get boring. Take for example the route to your home, this route has become increasingly ingrained in your regular routine, automatically taking you to your destination. And that is strange, we humans, on the contrary, have a great desire for seeking excitement and having new experiences.

How can we make sure that we fully experience our daily surroundings? Is there perhaps a solution in our visual perception? In this research I try to find a way to ‘see’ the space again, by using different aspects of the sense of sight such as, light, depth, color, framing and illusion. Can I cause people to let go of their own expectations of space and take a whole new interpretation? I am inspired by the words of architect Eduardo Souto de Moura; “It is one thing to see with the eyes, another to see with the head”. Look further than you see at first.

Hennieke Velvis

Through the in-between, a transition between the private and shared place in collective living

I researched two concepts in collective living, one is the ‘canal lock’, which is a space with four walls and two doors that you transition through when you want to move from the private to the shared place. This gives you a designated place and path to adjust to the new situation you are going to enter. The second concept is the Dutch ‘stoep’ (EN; stoop), this is a transition where you move from the private to the shared through a threshold. I am looking for a way to implement the idea of a place for preparing and adjusting for the new situation without taking up as much space as a ‘lock’ does.

By research by making and doing I found out that the key lays in bringing two worlds together in the way Aldo van Eyck describes the in-between place by the story of the sailor. The sailor who longs for shore when they are at sea and longs for the ocean when they are at shore, but on the thin slice of land where sea and shore collide is where they feel at home. To bring this concept of the in-between to life I work with a door that is the start of a series of movements, movements that little by little reveal the shared place and bring the private and the shared places together so you can adjust and prepare accordingly.

Jing Wang

Invisible touch — Replace my dog by space

When I arrived in a new environment, the days of living with my dog became a memory. I started questioning how I can bring back the feeling of being with my dog into my new living space. I experimented with simulating scenes of my interactions with my dog that included pushing, pulling, hugging, touching, etc. I tried to recreate these activities and feelings by using different materials and exploring how they can be fulfilled without my dog’s presence.

Instagram

Finals 2022

Cansu Sezer

Almost Touched

My Final project aims to explore the feeling of being touched to restore it for the better by exploring the sense of touch in the exploration of space. To do so, the project uses air as a tool, as a mediator between the user and the space.

Almost Touched on Youtube

Eylül Tombakoglu

Performative Loop

My research aims to learn from performative installation art by specifically looking at multi-sensory layered spatial bodily experiences. The discussion of finding an in-between space for art and architecture is an essential point for this research.

Performative Loop on Youtube

Geralde Benedictus Bintor

Inhabiting a Skin

My research project aims to highlight that flexibility offers a potential solution in making an efficient space that may answer the problem of space insufficiency and offers a completely different lifestyle than we are used to know.

 Hungche Cho

Moving along with your memory

Architecture is a carrier of memory and accompanies human beings for a long time. People living in a building leave traces in that space, and as different people live and use this space, memories are accumulated.

Moving along with your memory on Youtube

Susan Marcia Chombo Bruno

Ayni in current times and how to build cheaply in Peru

With my project, I try to include the ayni (reciprocity) concept in current housing architecture, in which I seek to build spaces as cheap as possible, which must adapt to temporary changes according to the needs of their inhabitants and make them an active part of the development of their homes.

Ayni in current times and how to build cheaply in Peru

Ting Yang

From a Novel to a House

I am curious about what architecture can learn from literature. Being Inspired by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s detective novel, In A Grove, I designed a house that accommodates a writer and an architect. I turned the house 90° (vertical-horizontal) to realize two perspectives. Architecture has become different when I apply a literature structure to it. How to look at architecture is as important as what it is.

From a novel to a house on Youtube

Xinyi Kang

Calm-in

There are too many things filling in our minds every day. No time for thinking about our own. We all want a piece of peace. No time to relax, no time to reflect, no time to think about our spirits.
We all need a piece of peace.

Calm-in on Youtube

Yu-Chi Huang

What is place?

By bringing in the concept of memories and time, several moments in time of a place could be sensible at the present moment. Architecture is not merely a spatial arrangement at a moment but a flexible place and the collective of past and present.

What is place

Finals 2021

Marie Hong

WHAT CAN INTERIOR LEARN FROM LANDSCAPE?

Landscapes around the world have different spatial qualities; it could be a flat landscape, mountainous landscape, desert landscape. As inhabitants, we live under a particular sky and on a particular topography. Each landscape contains different contents and existential meanings which often times when we are in a foreign landscape can cause us to feel lost. In the past, our ancestors relied on their context and built spaces using the materials they gathered and according to their environment. It is quite a stark contrast if we compare it to our modern cityscapes. Our advancements have led to a disconnection with the environment because we aren’t limited to materials and context anymore. This results into buildings without context that can be copied and pasted around the world, which goes the same with generic interior box spaces. What happens is that the experience of space becomes dull and almost robotic.

Pei-Jung Lee

Festivalscape: the floating pavilion

Temporary architecture, one of the architectural languages, demonstrates innovative ideas and contemporary philosophies of architects. Its storytelling character cited my interest in how this ephemeral structure could convey the spirit and ritual of the traditional. Through the journey of theoretical research, temporary architecture contributes its continuity in two categories: festival architecture and modern interpretation of rituals. To further explore the knowledge, I gained from writing my paper, the artistic research focuses on analyzing and deconstructing the theoretical conclusion by the human scale.

Arda Pehlivanli

The Cinematic Promenade

My work investigates the interrelation of cinema and architecture in a multilayered manner. The main goal is to seek the relation between these two notions, both in physical and metaphysical space, and its connection with the body. The theory is based on Walter Benjamin's concept of 'aura.' Benjamin claims that inhabitation generates a limited perception of space. This research offers a formula that combines promenade architecture and cinematic techniques to broaden the perception of space, body, and mind. These techniques are investigated under three levels: framing, sequence, and montage. To clarify the formulation, it can be defined as: activated by the notion of movement, supported by frames such as windows and circulate around montage.

Qiongge Yan

A moment, called home

I grew up in a boarding school and went home once a month. Therefore, eating together as a family became an important part of my childhood memories. Food was the link between me and my home. Since Covid-19, I have not been home for two years. During the lockdown period, I became anxious every day. Eating a homemade meal became my craving. Since food is so important to me, as an interior architecture student, I started rethinking the relationship between body and space. Space should not only focus on the physical art but also mental well-being. Does food help to build a space that makes me feel at home? After a series of makings and reflections, my artistic research question was: HOW to use food to build a moment to feel at home?

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Soroush Javadi asl

A Place for all

Our outdoor activities, necessary or optional, give us this chance to contact others. A good quality public space should host a diverse range of people and give everyone an opportunity to be involved. For urban furniture to be effective in creating public social space, understanding where people prefer to stay and sit is necessary, they should present themselves as a metaphor for diversity in public spaces where every individual has a place. Creating a safe environment with different possibilities of interactions for individuals and groups will encourage more people to spend their time in public spaces. 

Susan van den Berg

The (in)comprehensible movement

The Elevator Experience My mother has always been afraid of using an elevator, which made me wonder about this small, vertical moving space. How can elevator design affect the perception of users with fear? After researching the links and disconnections between the architect- and the human perspective to this space, I related them to five characteristics of the elevator which trigger people who experience fears inside elevators; size, function, upholstery, distraction, and movement. I propose that a psychologist will co-operate with architects in the process to include more of the human experience and design beyond the elevator as we know it today.

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Vana Sulentic

PARTICIJA

As technology continues to advance, and the physical workspace integrates more with its virtual environment, there has been an ongoing debate about the future existence of the physical office. History of office development portraits the nature of the physical workspace as ever-changing – the office construct survived in the past by re-adapting to every crisis and challenge it has faced. Therefore, my research paper questioned the possible re-adaption of the contemporary office. Inspired by Robert Propst’s humanistic ideas behind the 1964 Action Office, I analysed office partitions as one of the key tools in achieving flexibility for the office to adapt.

Xian Zhang

Interaction devices

By now COVID-19 has had a detrimental effect on peoples life. Lockdown and physical distancing measures facilitate the prevention of COVID-19 spreading while causing problems such as emotional ones. These problems arising from the sudden epidemic motivated me to study how to establish interaction at a distance between two people. Under the pandemic, I found that the size of people’s personal space can be changed through moveable devices to promote interaction while keeping a distance between them. Readily available materials in life, even some left-over items at home are used as the source of installation to create mobile interactive objects.

Finals 2020

An-Yue Deng

Improvising Space Inspired by Jazz Improvisation

Music is information, the wave of sound. Meanwhile, space spread its information from eyes to human’s whole body and include the potential to convey various information. This research aims to find methods to spatialize music elements, and through that, apply the characteristics of Jazz improvisation into a scenario of small housing. Thus, could provide a different way of thinking towards the urgent global issue of the housing shortage. To find the new form of interior which could absorb the experience of life, contain the past, and hold the potential of the future.

Paloma Franco Hempenius

Restricted Space: redesigning the interior of public buses

From my personal experience of riding overcrowded buses for approximately 3 hours every day in my hometown Bogotá, Colombia, I was motivated to learn what was possible, as a designer, to change in the interior of the buses to make the commuters experience a more pleasant one. Within the enclosed space of the bus, I studied the restricted space and what it implied as a spatial matter and the relationship with the human body. Through this, I was able to understand which elements within the space were important in order to alter the feeling of the restricted space. The design concept considers not only how the restricted space is modified through physical elements but also in which way the space can shape the positioning of passengers within the bus creating invisible boundaries between passengers.

Kaylyn Jedliński

New meaning and life to patterns

As a child born in South Africa to two European parents I always wondered where I belonged. Raised in South Africa I continuously surrounded myself by other fellow European’s, often not embracing and fully understanding my identity as a South African. As I longed for the search to understand what it meant to be a South African - I found myself wanting to grow my knowledge and share it’s beauty with people so unfamiliar to it. Through conducting my masters research over the past two years centred around identity and the culture of South Africa as well as my love for commercial brand design. These aspects allowed me to learn, love and embrace the place I can finally say “I belong to”.

I delved into the beauty, intricacy, curiously, adventure and colourful world of my culture. By conducting artistic research of pattern making and ways in which we able to create new spacial potentials through two dimensional patterns by using Starbucks as a case study - making linkage and relevance towards my theoretical paper. I was largely inspired by the pattern making experimentation process of Mondo Mendini and the Memphis group, however throughout the process I was later inspired by more current approaches to patterns in the works of the New London Fabulous Group.

During the mysterious times of the Coronavirus, it allowed me as a interior designer to think of new ways of researching by making - through which I was able to transform my designs by a non-traditional, however in my sense new way of research by making, through digital and photographic contents giving new meaning and life to patterns and their presentation.

Zehra Kahvecioğlu

A welcoming space

Paper is a very common everyday material. Whether we use it as toilet-paper, a receipt or something as precious as a Master’s degree, so fascinating! With this process I try to give paper as much value and attention as possible. What are the possibilities to limit yourself as an architect to just use paper and nothing else? During the process I analyzed the force and qualities of paper. Using this specific -one- material pushed the boundaries of an artistic research with a lot of restrictions and endless try-outs to awaken curiosity to enter a space. Is it really possible to build a nice, welcoming space made out of paperwhich invites you to walk in? With my end model and film, I try to give answers and reasons why this one-material rule made me grow as an interior architect. My project attempts to question the power of an everyday material, fragility and the way we try to fit in the nature with our buildings. Letting go of the desire to build permanent and learn from limitless beauty of a model that is a temporary welcoming space.

Elif Liman

Time perception at the platform

The concept of time is related to other concepts such as experience, movement, human actions, consciousness and also the surrounding space. Therefore, an attempt is made to integrate the element of time into designers and architects understanding of analysing the social processes involved in creating space and place. How does a person define the passing of time in a public area? Is it possible to let time appear to pass faster through spatial design? In certain physical environments, you experience "time" that passes slowly. This research concerns the environment of a train station, the platform to be more specific.

Sila Öztekin

Going out of binary: With gender expression

One is all. 

The human race  has multiplied from one transparent ball.  

You were a single beam of light, which hit the prism and saw the spectrum.  

You saw a variety of  colors.  

When did you forget this diversity?  

Times have changed.  

The values that we used to have, are considered to no longer exist. 

Authority did spirit away the freedom of choice, discretely.  

A generation of people, whose control is possible, was built.  

When they divide the human into two, they call you 'Woman and Man'. 

Ying-Ting Shen

Build with Memory

Application of traditional construction method in post-disaster shelter. In the 2018 Hualien Earthquake, sturdy buildings we believed in crumbled down. This shocking fact became my motivation to research tranditional Taiwanese indigenous architecture. In the process of research, I found that they used simple and easy-to-learn construction methods to create sturdy buildings. Due to limited technology, none of these indigenous buildings used adhesives. As a result, on the one hand, flexible intersection without adhesives creates resilience for the house. On the other, it also becomes a sustainable building method. Building materials are undamaged by nail and glue, thus they could stay intact and be reused when buildings are demolished.

In the further process, I want to apply this method to post-disaster reconstruction. In a post-disaster state where everything is destroyed and disorderly, how can we continue the lifespan of the material? And what value could we create in this scenario? I intend to construct a temporary shelter by a traditional building method and the remains of our home. The process of reconstruct a shelter, it is also a reconstruct treatment for our memory. Furthermore, the completeness of materials is preserved by this method, thus the wreckages could be used in the permanent housing rather than be transported into landfill.

Lisabell Zint

Color matters: Color Becomes Space

Color Becomes Space is a design research that came about due to the lack of existing quality of urban public spaces, particularly in transition zones. The lack of quality leads to a reduction in use - but even more importantly decreasing of a user’s mental well-being. Considering the significant influence of color on the architectural environment and to the human’s response to it, my design research is based and driven by the aim of creating additional mental space by using color as the only element in order to promote and support mental well-being.

Finals 2019

Małgorzata Gniatkowska

Play

Urban public spaces need educational aspects that promote play and generate a sense of community. To encourage children and adults to go out on the street, the project aims to transform the city into an ageless playground .

Rosie van Beuningen

Balance

Students increasingly suffer with the pressure of performance. How can we create a school environment where they can find balance between stress and rest by introducing slow motion, responding changes and dancing through space?

Phuong Dáo

Architectural space

Starting from the Western and Japanese’s perception, I am developing another notion of architectural space, a place man can inhabit, but also a moment he experiences his presence in the relationship with the outside world.

Alana Jansen

Choreography

My goal is to make people aware of their communication with a spatial design, by using choreography as a design tool. Architects and choreographers are ultimately both space artists. The square as a theatre!

Cille van den Brink

Future supermarket

Our current supermarkets consist of a large range of (pre-)packaged foods. In the future, these products will be offered online so that the physical supermarket can be transformed into a food experience.

Xiaomin Deng

Spiritual space

Spiritual space is taking on the role of chapels in the context of globalization, to offer repose. My thesis tries to figure out how can space serve as a mediator between physical and mental being.

Fenne van den Heuvel

Literature and architecture

By examining known architecture and experimenting on a case study poem, I developed five methods (representation, movement, order, meaning, and feeling) that can be used to convert literature into architecture.

Mariska Boer

Privacy

We work at various locations, a "privacy workplace" in a "retail" environment seems impossible. By controlling, personalizing and indicating your workplace you create privacy. Is a workplace in a store possible now?

Qi Liu

Inside outside

Being part of a place means being in a dynamic relationship with it.  The place is inherently connected with all the activities in and around it.

Mandela Jap-A-Joe

Paramaribo

How can the gap between the past and the future of inner city life in Paramaribo be bridged appropriately? My design method combines what is left of a damaged traditional wooden house with modern technologies.

Finals 2018

Data Skin

Maarten Mulder

We live in a digital age where people are more connected through digital devices. This changed the way we communicate. Physical presence isn’t needed to speak to someone, see someone and be in their environment. We can do this remotely and on demand, what affects our social structures and privacy. Our digital behavior is being tracked and stored; we all know. Although we know, we aren’t changing our behavior on social media for instance. This occurs because effects of digital behavior are not impacting our physical world immediately. In the domestic environment the façade’s function as privacy filter disappeared, data-streams are not blocked. In other words, the façade is digitally open when data is coming in and going out. With the data skin a new relation with privacy arises in this digital age, uses incoming and outgoing data to change its transparency, connecting the digital and physical world.

The Woven Wall

Cathérine Schoenmakers

How to make a soft spatial construction? Soft enough to lean on and solid enough to stand upright, not relying on the help of a hard and bumpy frame. Walls, floors, ceilings, every construction we make is hard. For most people, this kind of environment causes no problems, but some more vulnerable groups may function better in a softer environment.
In my research I looked at different kinds of techniques in textile manufacturing, this showed that a combination of constructive materials and soft yarns makes a perfect combination for building softer environments. Moreover, each can’t function optimally without the other: soft materials make the constructive material more stable and softer, while the constructive material makes the soft material more suitable for construction. With this theory in mind, I wove a three-layered wall. Using differences in length, the fabric creates spaces in between itself, making it stand on its own.

andersnieuw.nl

Spatial membership

Ashley Hoekerd

We are running out of resources. Houses are getting bigger and less people are living in them. We keep on buying stuff and filling the empty spots in our homes. At the same time we speak about a housing shortage in the Netherlands.

However something is changing; the end of owning is near. If we want music we open the Spotify app, if we want to see a movie we use Netflix, if we need a car we call Uber and if we need a place to sleep we book an Airbnb. These are all services in the form of a membership.

So when it comes to houses, let’s get a membership for space. In this way, we will only have the space we actually need. If we need more space, we upgrade and if we have too much space, we downgrade. When it comes to objects, let’s get a membership on that too.

Finals 2017

THE CHOREOGRAPHY OF DAILY MOVEMENTS

Annika Beuving

A remarkable change has been taking place in recent years in the field of interior architecture. Though homes are still organised in the traditional way – bathroom, kitchen, living room, etc. – ongoing developments in digitisation have changed the ways in which these spaces are used. People are less and less physically active in their homes. In ‘The Choreography of Daily Movements’ I have been searching for a new approach to interior architecture from the perspective of dance. The dance theorist Rudolf von Laban (1879-1958), and particularly his vision of architecture and the design of everyday activities, was an important influence in this regard. I discovered that dancers consider a space from two different perspectives: the user space (the amount of space dancers use in their performance) and the emotional space (the amount of space a movement requires in order to convey a specific emotion). What would happen if these approaches were applied in a residential space? What would your own home look like, with your own everyday activities?

NATURE’S CHARACTER: A NEW ARCHITECTURE

Marit Reitsma

When I’m in nature I feel something moving all around me, when I’m indoors I feel lonesome. When I’m in nature I’m not required to do anything, when I’m indoors there’s always something that needs my attention. When I’m in nature I can see time happening, when I’m indoors I don’t understand how time works. When I’m in nature I can see colours exploding, when I’m indoors I can’t really experience them. When I’m in nature I see things others don’t see, when I’m indoors we all notice the same things. When I’m in nature I feel free, when I’m indoors I never really do. In order to experience the feeling of being in nature, we attempt to implement green in interior spaces, but what exactly is this need we’re trying to fulfil? Applying within design rules the experience of calm, fascination, freedom, inspiration, appreciation and immersion, makes it possible for us to live in homes that are no longer standardised. A space has been designed that better addresses human needs in today’s society. After all, nature has the ability to stimulate an open mind much more than an urban environment ever will.

www.maritreitsma.com

IMPLANT

Julia Meyerrose

We are all free to appreciate art in our own way, regardless of our educational background. And yet many exhibitions, particularly contemporary art exhibitions, may seem intimidating to potential visitors. Cultural institutions, with their elitist image, tend to cut themselves off from much of society. These barriers must be broken down, allowing museums and exhibitions of contemporary art to reach a wider audience by attracting people who might otherwise not feel any connection to art. In addition to the usual curatorial methods, we should also address the problem from another perspective: applying the methods of interior architecture to museums in order to facilitate transdisciplinary public access to art. A simple intervention – implanting elements that seduce, distract and inspire confidence – can play an important role in encouraging and supporting visitors in their appreciation of contemporary art.

www.meyerrose.nl

Finals 2016

ADAPTABLE POP-VENUE OF DISCOMFORT (APoD)

Arco Hollander

Discomfort and inconvenience are often experienced positively in the context of old buildings. In new buildings also, discomfort and inconvenience can be used in order to influence and enhance the experience of users. However, new architecture is usually designed to be as practical as possible, resulting in boring, one-size-fits-all solutions. I discovered the qualities of discomfort and inconvenience during my research of old and new venues for popular music, and I decided to reintroduce these qualities in new architecture. This led to the development of the APoD, an adaptive pop music venue that provides additional quality through discomfort and inconvenience. A ‘space jockey’ can distort the space to suit the ambience of the music. Through variations in shape, height and size, the audience is guided into positions that provide added value to the musical experience.

https://vimeo.com/170845120

LOCALITY

Suzanne Overbeek

The pervasive availability of the internet makes it possible to find inspiration everywhere. Designers are always copying each other, whether consciously or unconsciously, resulting in environments that look increasingly alike. As a consequence of globalisation, however, people increasingly feel a need for local experiences. This need manifests itself first of all in physical objects and structures. Locality can also be found in narratives which connect objects and structures to a specific place. I developed a research method for improving control of locality and its possibilities for designers. This methodology consists of a number of dimensions that collectively define the concept of locality. These dimensions are brought together in a cart that allows a designer to conduct research of locality at any imaginable place. Applying this method at a specific location makes it possible to gain new insights that are necessary for the designer in arriving at a localised design. Thus the design and its narratives will reflect the specific locality.

https://vimeo.com/170846239

THE FRAGMENTED HOME

Aaltsje Venema

The huge amount of digital information we receive every day influences our lifestyle as well as our way of thinking. Research has shown that our brains are capable of adapting to new ways of processing information. We ‘like’ what our friends post on Facebook, we ‘follow’ images on Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube. All of these are channels in which we can see fragments of information from our real, physical life. I call this the ‘digital view’: viewing in fragments. This is what we are constantly doing with digital information: constructing collages, whether consciously or unconsciously, out of the wide variety of information we collect. But how would it be to physically experience this digital view? What would the space around you, or your own home, then look like? A home that is a reflection of the fragments which you have collected together in your thoughts?

www.aaltsjevenema.nl

CHANGEABLE HOME

José Koers

Contemporary society keeps changing at an ever-increasing speed. These changes in turn influence our sense of space. My research is a spatial research of freedom for changes in the residential interior. The main question I ask is: what would be the characteristics of a residence that adapts and connects to my everyday activities? Based on an analysis of a typical day in my life, I compiled an overview of my own everyday activities. Each activity causes a new change in lighting, spatial proportions, bodily posture and materiality. The changes compiled within this analysis provided the starting point for my spatial research. The context for this research is a space measuring 3x3x3 metres: a frame, my laboratory, in which different life-size activities take place within a compact space. Each activity in my laboratory triggers a spatial change. Since my movements cause changes, my body becomes an architectural element. Thus I become the conductor in my home. The objects within the space are not disordered

https://vimeo.com/174472889

THE NONE OBJECT

Roos Limbeek

These days we seem to always be busy doing something or going somewhere, while the boundaries between work and private life are becoming increasingly blurred. More and more people are looking for ways to escape this everyday routine and stress. My own interest, from the perspective of interior architecture, is in finding out why people do the things they do, and how spatial factors can influence them in this regard. Up until now such knowledge has been applied mainly for commercial purposes, but my own interest is rather in finding out how it can be used to influence people in a positive way. The concept of manipulation almost always has negative connotations, but can also be applied positively. During my graduation I investigated possibilities for escape, by giving people the feeling that they were briefly somewhere else. All of this comes together in The None Object. By researching a feeling everyone is searching for, I hope to influence people in a positive way.

CRAFTSMANSHIP

Sam Eerdman

The starting point for my research is the increasing independence of private citizens. It is becoming easier and easier to gain knowledge, and non-professionals are provided with more and more free online resources that allow them to easily design, download and produce their own home, interior or products. YouTube is filled with tutorials in which complex skills are explained step by step, while TV programmes and magazines keep people informed of the latest trends and possibilities. All of these contemporary developments are in fact seriously undermining the profession of interior architecture. Consumers increasingly have the possibility of doing everything themselves, completely bypassing the knowledge and craftsmanship of the professional interior architect. I find this particularly troublesome as a future interior architect, and so I have decided that this is an issue I must address. Using an online method, suitable to contemporary lifestyles, I am able to operate from a distance while also making it possible for private citizens to experience the value of an interior architect.

www.sameerdman25.wixsite.com

Finals 2015

BOUNDLESS

Debbie van Dijk

Technological developments, population growth and increasing urbanisation all affect our living environment. Our personal space is shrinking and must therefore continuously adapt to the changing circumstances. This requires a different approach to the use of space within our homes. How can we create the optimal habitat in a minimal surface area and with limited resources? Rather than adapt to the space, why not make the space adapt to you? This space feels like a second skin and changes according to the life phases and the needs of the resident. A research which features a transformable background and makes visible the movement of everyday life. A spatial background, which is not massive, but rather becomes lighter. Which can be rolled up, pushed aside, folded, and put on as a second skin. An anonymous beginning, a space which becomes personal through the activities one performs within it.

PLAYFUL PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN THE OFFICE

Daphne van Rosmalen

Recent scientific research has shown that sitting down for extended periods of time is extremely unhealthy. Our bodies are made for moving. Up until now, however, office work has always meant that people spend most of their time sitting down. Chairs are designed to be more comfortable than ever before, making it possible for us to sit longer without experiencing immediate physical discomfort. Technological developments have also decreased the need for physical movement: you can email a question to a co-worker, or have a Skype meeting. Since we go on living longer, while the retirement age is expected to go on increasing, it is important for working people to remain healthy. This way, we will be able to continue working longer while also addressing the problem of increasing healthcare costs. Therefore it is crucial to consider the interior design of the office. In my research through design, I searched for a form in which working people are challenged to assume a variety of physical working postures, and to remain playfully physically active throughout the day.

COULD THERE BE A SHOPPING DISTRICT WITHOUT SHOPS?

Marleen Garstenveld

We’re all familiar with the experience of a busy shopping street on a Saturday afternoon. All kinds of people from different social backgrounds come together, all with their own goals: some of them are actively searching for a specific product, while others are just out for a day of fun shopping. Still they all have one thing in common: they all find themselves in the same place, where they are briefly disconnected from their everyday habits. Nowadays, however, one cannot help but notice many empty buildings in these shopping districts. Brick-and-mortar shops are slowly disappearing due to the increasing market share of online shopping, which is hard to beat in terms of convenience. You can now find and order the perfect product without ever having to go outside, with just a few mouse clicks. The next day already it can be delivered to your home. What else could you ask for? People thus need a new motivation to come to shopping districts. And so I asked myself: could there be a shopping district without shops? To answer this question, I studied the Eiland shopping district in the centre of the city of Zwolle. Here I conducted research and discovered how this shopping district could function without shops in the future.

www.marleengarstenveld.nl

AGEING

Stephanie Klein Holkenborg

‘Tomorrow’s senior citizens will be more like today’s youth than like today’s seniors.’ From the Dutch government report ‘Dynamiek in de derde leeftijd’ (a study of ongoing lifestyle changes among seniors).

We will soon be encountering a new generation of senior citizens. As described in the report quoted above, these new seniors will be different from those we see today. Research has indicated that they will have different requirements for living spaces, will wish to remain fully involved in society, and above all will not want to be seen as old. The ageing process is an important factor in our lives. Can we influence this ageing process in a positive way, or perhaps slow it down, so that these people can remain fully involved in society and continue to live independently? Research of the ageing process, of the new generation of seniors, and of their changing requirements for living spaces, has shown that it is indeed possible to slow down the ageing process. The apartments of these new seniors can contribute in a positive way to changing or slowing down this process.

https://vimeo.com/219362927

RESPECTFUL COMMUNICATION

Jip Zewald

To me it is extremely important how we as people treat each other. This has increasingly led me to the realisation that people, all too often, deal with each other very badly. We often seem to have very different ideas about desirable norms and values for respectful communication. For this project, I searched for an environment in which interpersonal communication is far from optimal, though everyone is still equal in the eyes of the law. The social welfare office is a very good example of such an environment. The relationship between clients and staff members is in fact far from equal. During the past five months I researched elements which I, as an interior architect, could apply in order to improve interpersonal communication. During this research I made use of spatial models, film and actors. The behaviour of angry people has been transposed to spatial elements that focus on influencing this behaviour in a positive way. The result is a piece of furniture in which I have implemented all of the answers from my research. This object shows how interior architecture can be used to promote positive interpersonal communication.