Bary Yanko

Introduction

Architecture shapes space from the outside. Dance reveals it from within. This work explores the space between—where form, movement, and perception converge. The notion of choreographing design emerges from this relationship, framing space not only as something constructed, but as something felt. The synergy of dance and architecture has shaped my design explorations since 1985. As a methodology, choreographed design applies kinetic principles as part of a continuous spatial idea, shifting the process beyond static representation into an immersive three-dimensional realm.

—The Dance of Life, Ellis Haveloc

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Kinetic Structure

Buildings, like the human frame, have their own dynamic language and when captured become as important to the formal creation as the shape itself.

The Choreographed Space is illustrated graphically here. The top image shows the superimposition of a dancer and a structure. The dancer lifts into a high relevé held in tension at the threshold between balance and release. In the same sense the structure is also in a high position. The membrane of the structure must expand vertically reflecting the skeleton’s force. When choreographed this structure externalizes its internal energies.

The lower image captures the release of energy, as the body yields and the structure settles into a new equilibrium. This is the controlled result of a fall. In each image the structure creates a completely different shape of the body. The forces in the structure have changed and the resulting external shape has changed.

To summarize, choreographed spaces are in part transformed structures. This synthetic transformation can simulate our imagination and engage the observer to experience the designs in motion.