In a new experiment called "The Urban Yoga", architect and long-time yoga teacher Anja Humljan is calling on people to "reclaim their city" by "surrendering" all their senses at once, to strive for something like yoga-induced nirvana right there in public space. Unlike some other artistic reinterpretations of the built environment (A melting house! A fabric apartment! "Painted" Berlin buildings!), "Urban Yoga" doesn't just intend to alter how we perceive architecture with provocative photos of outdoor yoga, it's actually Humljan's proposal for a whole new method of designing spaces that nurtures "our bodies and senses."
Humljan's "urban yoga method" of architecture wants to ditch concerns of geometry and function for "spatial design based on subconscious sensory experience," where just like the body in yoga, the urban environment becomes "a place of self-reflection and self-realization." It's unclear how this approach will actually translate to real buildings, but Humljan is trying hard to find out. She's currently trying to raise $10K on Kickstarter, money that will go towards researching the project (she hopes to work with the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture in San Diego), publishing a book containing the "Urban Yoga" photo series and manifesto, and funding a world tour of sorts for additional "Urban Yoga" photo shoots and "lectures". Anyway, so far the photos look pretty cool:
· Humljan changes the way we experience architecture with urban yoga [Design Boom]
· The Urban Yoga [Kickstarter]
· All Kickstart Me Up posts [Curbed National]
· All Artistry posts [Curbed National]