Embodied spaces

The intertwinements of affect, corporeality, and environment are central in our phenomenological understanding of both architecture and psychiatry. This overlap is especially relevant in the design of psychiatric hospitals, which play a significant role in shaping patients’ everyday experiences. While existing research has explored these concepts within their respective fields, the intersection remains understudied. As a first step toward bridging these fields, this chapter examines how embodied accounts of depression, mania, and psychosis can inform psychiatric hospital design. Our findings suggest that architecture may facilitate restoring disrupted cycles of sensorimotor interaction between patients and their surroundings. We argue that the stable, predictable nature of architectural environments can invite bodily action, rhythm and resynchronization practices to support people experiencing depression, mania or psychosis. In depression, architecture may counter constrictive tendencies of the corporealized body by inviting expansive tendencies, whereas in mania, it may moderate expansive tendencies by fostering gradual deceleration. In psychosis, architecture may focus on providing a coherent and stable background to alleviate disembodiment and fragmented perception. By moving beyond isolated design features and embracing an integrated, circular approach, we can refine our understanding of psychiatric hospitals as truly therapeutic environments.