From our earliest moments on this earth, our understanding of the world has been shaped by our bodies. We make sense of the world by reference to our physiology; as humans we understand that up is positive and down is negative, a reading that is based on our body orientation and not one we might have if we walked on four legs.  Yet body awareness is largely absent from Western culture.  Is it possible to create an architecture that brings us into greater connection with our physical selves; an architecture that privileges the body, rather than the eye?

In this context, the landscape itself can act as inspiration, suggesting ways of being in space that stimulates the haptic (body) sense.  The Sutro Baths is such a place.  Though fallen into ruin, a walk over the remains animate our imaginations and engage the body with the rhythms of the site.  Irregular patterns, created from site and contextual constraints, have great haptic potential.  The body is constantly reorienting itself as it changes direction.  The changing spatial conditions in a haptic building create a choreography of movement, one that stimulates a range of motion.  This is an architecture that embraces the section, regarding elevation changes as opportunities to create diverse types of rhythmic movement as one moves diagonally through space.

In addition to spatial organization, architecture that successfully reintegrates the self with the body brings sensual experiences to the fore, giving imagination free reign.  This is not an architecture that reveals all to the bright light of midday.  Instead, light levels vary: at times bright and crisp, and at other times dim and obscure.  Shadows mute vision, shifting our normal external focus inwards to our bodies.  Ambiguous forms perceived in low light engage the imagination, imbuing space with intimacy and mystery.