Group 2 Theories and philosophies
The paper offers a new theoretical stance for an architectural approach to birthspace, a term coined to name an intimate place/space that specifically privileges embodied birth experience. Based on my doctoral research in the field of architecture, the proposed paradigmatic shift builds not only upon the Birth Territory Theory of Fahy, Fourer and Hastie (2008), but brings the perceptual embodiment theories of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1945/2012) and James J. Gibson (1979/2015) into play.
The paper will discuss six key conceptual principles concerning light as a driving force for birth architecture. Light, understood as ‘light-colour-darkness’ – an inseparable trio within architectural/spatial experience – is discussed as providing diverse affordances for birthspace.
Birthspace is proposed as architecturally important space/place, worthy of imaginative reinvention. As a ‘design problem’ concerning ‘architecture as space’ (Zevi, 1974), birthspace can be taken up by creative architects as embodied spatial experience – facilitating agency, altered consciousness and emotional/spiritual resonance.
Providing an architectural language and theory for birthspace is important in capturing the attention of designers, and altering the perspectives of ‘clients’ and ‘users,’ who typically drive/limit the design agenda. The ‘poetics of space’ (Bachelard, 1958), the ‘poetics of light’ (Turrell, 1992; Irwin, 2011; Plummer, 2009; Torres, 2006; Zajonc, 1993), the concept of ‘attunement,’ (Perez-Gomez, 2016) and the theory of ‘extraordinary architectural experience’ (Bermúdez, 2008, 2010, 2013) provide perspectives of import to architectural theory and practice.
The six points presented here address aspects of experiential birthspace design. These include (but are not limited to): cosmicity, movement, flow, privacy, sensuality, interrelatedness of person/environment, altered consciousness, resonance, phenomenological perception and sustained stimulation of oxytocin (facilitator of birth processes). The value of these points extends to all involved in the birth.
The aim is to aid architects in reimagining birth environment as a new kind of architectural challenge going well beyond any existing paradigm…as a potent means of advancing normal birth.
Preference: Oral Paper
Examinations of building design and of the physical and psychosocial environment of birth , Emotional and spiritual aspects of labour and birthing , Philosophical and theoretical critiques and debates
