Problem Statement: Contemporary architectural experience in Iran, particularly in museums, is embodied not only in physical form and spatial symbolism but also in the perceptual–motor experience of visitors. Nevertheless, the role of embodiment as a fundamental mechanism of architectural narrativity has received limited attention in Iranian architectural studies. This research seeks to address the following question: How do embodiment and narrative mechanisms interact in two prominent case studies the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and the Sacred Defense Museum to shape spatial experience and visitor interpretation?

Research Objective: The aim of this study is to develop a theoretical–analytical framework for examining the relationship between embodiment and spatial narrativity in Iranian cultural architecture, and to investigate the qualitative differences in visitors’ experiential perceptions across the two selected case studies.

Research Method: This research adopts a qualitative interpretive approach and employs comparative analysis. Based on an integrated framework drawing from narratology, semiotics, and embodied phenomenology, the narrative mechanisms of each building are analyzed across three levels: perceptual, motor, and semiotic.

Conclusion:
The findings indicate that the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, through its looped spatial organization, filtered natural light, and fluid movement rhythm, creates a multilayered and exploratory experience in which the body functions as a producer of meaning. In contrast, the Sacred Defense Museum employs ritualized spatial structure, linear pathways, dramatic lighting, and explicit symbolic articulation to construct a guided and ideological experience in which the body assumes the role of a receiver of meaning**. Analysis based on the NBI model further confirms that the nature of architectural narration in these two museums is fundamentally different.