Architecture of Being: The Pursuit of Embodied Presence

Kristin Pisano // Advisor: Karla Roberts

The Pursuit of Embodied Presence

This thesis investigates how architecture can cultivate embodied presence by reuniting the human body with the natural world through materiality, form, and sensory experience, while acknowledging the temporality of life. Drawing inspiration from spaces of awe and spiritual contemplation, it proposes architectural vessels that dissolve the perceived boundary between human and nature, an understanding long recognized by ancestral communities, in order to slow time, heighten awareness, and invite reflection on the fleeting nature of existence. Through the interplay of light, shadow, texture, and proportion, these spaces are designed not simply to be seen but felt, manifesting as serene yet dramatic sanctuaries where stillness becomes an active state of being and time is perceived as both passing and present.