Bodies that Paint, Spaces that Feel

Abstract

This article investigates the sensory and affective experiences of students in the Architecture and Urbanism programme at the Instituto Federal de Sergipe — Lagarto campus — during the collective painting of a mural in an academic space. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Juhani Pallasmaa, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Baruch Spinoza, and other authors in phenomenology and the philosophy of embodiment, a qualitative methodological approach is adopted, combined with content analysis, as proposed by Laurence Bardin, for critical observation of the collected data. The study examined spontaneous written accounts produced by students, in which they described their impressions, sensations, and reflections following the practical activity. The objective was to identify core meanings related to emotions, bodily sensations, and the symbolic appropriation of lived space. The results reveal that the aesthetic experience fostered intense multisensory encounters, a re-signification of the institutional space, and the strengthening of affective and social bonds among participants. The choice of colours, the use of the moving body, and the collective engagement with the pictorial practice generated a learning environment that brought together artistic expression, theoretical reflection, affectivity, and personal development. Thus, it is argued that architecture should be understood as a sensitive field of lived and shared experiences, and that pedagogical practices involving art and embodiment can decisively contribute to the ethical, perceptual, critical, and sensitive formation of future architects.