Megan van Delden

In a world where we spend hours behind a screen, our connection with our bodies fades into the background. We think, plan, and analyse, and in doing so, forget to move. In today's society, we are alienated from our bodies; we live primarily in our minds. The balance and interaction between body and mind promote our well-being.

As a dancer, I use movement to maintain my body-mind connection. Our body is a medium through which we can experience space. When I dance, I am fully in my physicality. I am aware of all my limbs and muscles, and their positions. Through movement, tension, or relaxation, I experience not only my body but also the space around it.

Three principles are central to dancers' body awareness:

• awareness of posture and movement
• body perception
• the interaction between body, space, and others.

By combining dance and these principles with the spaces we inhabit every day, I want people to experience the same balance. Everyone can benefit from more conscientious body awareness, especially in spaces where movement is often restricted, such as offices.

With The Choreography of Workscapes Through Bodies, I am designing a pavilion that translates these principles into a flexible work hub. Here, a new form of work is implemented that challenges the conventional office space. Each of these ‘working landscapes’ forms a choreographic invitation: a sequence of rhythms, walking routes and changing points of interest.

By incorporating elements of movement, such as rotating and sliding walls and movable workstations, a dynamic environment is created. The user responds to this, disrupting everyday patterns. The space outlines a movement, and the bodies rewrite it through their presence and touch, creating a reciprocal choreography.

When the user makes movements, they become aware of their own physicality. The details are designed to encourage the user to focus more on the small movements, such as a handle that perfectly fits in the palm of one's hand, initiating a push or pull motion.

My goal is to design spaces where the body and the mind collaborate with each other. By using dance as a counterbalance to the disturbed balance of body and mind, spaces are created that are not only intended for our minds, but in which our bodies also play a role.