"In a world more and more consumed by the artificial realities of electronic technology, architecture serves not just as the physical construct embodying the essence of our time, but more importantly as an experience of elements of reality to which our responses, both physical and psychological, make us human." - Karsten Harries / Master of Architecture

To embody is to give a tangible or concrete form to an abstract concept. The use of the term Embodying Architecture notes a desire for an architectural structure that materially supports individuals concept of the way that they want to operate in the word. It is also notes that architectural space does not currently support this. Those individuals farthest away from the modes of cultural production are the least represented spatially. These occupants are therefore left in the position of being trapped in a space that denies them their desired way of being. Numerous critical theorist have noted the ways that architecture and urban design disenfranchise people, Beatriz Colomina, Sexuality and Space, Adrienne Rich, Politics of Location, Kim Dovey, Framing Places. More important perhaps, are writings by theorist such as Neil Leach and Julia Kristeva that connect space with a human need for articulation. This design project takes as its site Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. The text is precisely about the space of disenfranchisement and the tasks of actualizing yourself when there seems to be no space in which to do so. Figurative and literal space are seen as interchangeable. In response to the novel, a house is designed for the mother and daughter characters that provides a physical space for them to both connect and forge their separate identities.