Breaking Free Part 1 Project 2002 Misae Furugori Gonzalez University of Greenwich | UK Life’s pressures from an early age result in an “armour” in the body that prevents the flow of living energy from circulating freely. Eventually this leads to imbalances at mental, physical and emotional levels. This project provides the space for individuals, through their own awareness, and in their own time, to learn to let go of their unnecessary armour. Within the enclosed spaces, users can experience the benefits of biofeedback, a method to integrate mind and body using specific monitors that indicate physiological responses and thus make the user aware of their body’s conditioned patterns. With the added aid of audiovisual media, the person can learn to reach a level of relaxation that is deep enough to initiate the process of restoring a state of balance. The user’s experience inside an individual pod is mirrored in the changes that take place in the structure itself. As the person begins to relax, parts of the skin covering the cocoon slowly peel away. This represents the first stages of the dissolution of armour. The cocoon can now pulsate freely and will open up if the person is able to reach the awareness necessary to further activate the process of dissolution. As it opens up, scale-like shapes, which are aligned and stored inside, unfold like a butterfly. When allowed free movement they will move backwards and forwards by the impetus of the wind. With movement comes change. As blocked energy starts to re-circulate, the person reaches a new level of awareness about the nature of their inner process. Furthermore, watching their inner process being “played out” in the external structure is deeply powerful and will act as a catalyst in the person’s journey. However, this is as far as this project takes the person. The structure fragments completely and is ready for reassembly at a different site to help people of all walks of life to break free from their limiting armour. Inspired by the metaphor of the snake shedding its skin, Misae’s project succeeds in developing her initial poetic ideas into a sophisticated resolved architectural proposal, without compromising its playful and magical qualities.The project intelligently occupies gaps in the cityscape by introducing temporary structures, which question our perception of London.Initially struggling to find means to connect emotions and feelings of the users to the space, Misae inventively introduced biofeedback technology to create a beautifully choreographed architecture, which acts as a responsive interface between its inhabitants and the city. A skilled and inventive drawer, Misae constantly refined and reinvented her drawing and modelling techniques to reflect her project and push it further – the result is a beautiful and outstanding body of work. The fragile drawings leave the project lingering on the threshold between real and virtual, as hard lines of cables, gears, mechanics are merged with subtle layers of skin, light, memory…traces"