Investigating the Relationship Between Embodiment and Narrative Mechanisms in the Architecture of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and the Sacred Defense Museum with Emphasis on the Visitor’s Perceptual–Motor Experience

Volume 23, Issue 159
September 2026
Pages 73-84

Document Type : Original Research Article

Author

Department of Architecture, NT.C, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract
Problem statement: In contemporary Iranian museum architecture, spatial narrative is not generated solely through architectural form and physical signifiers; rather, it emerges through the interaction between space and the visitor’s perceptual–motor experience. Despite the significance of this issue, the relationship between embodiment and narrativity has received limited analytical and comparative attention within Iranian architectural scholarship. The primary concern of this study is to explain how embodied experience contributes to the formation and transmission of architectural narratives in two prominent examples of contemporary Iranian cultural architecture: the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and the Sacred Defense Museum.
Research objective: This study aims to develop an analytical framework for explicating the relationship between embodiment, spatial perception, and architectural narrative, while comparatively examining the narrative mechanisms employed in the two selected museums.
Research method: The research adopts a qualitative–interpretive approach and employs a comparative analytical method. Data were collected through architectural documentation, theoretical literature, and direct observation. The collected materials were analyzed within an integrated framework combining the phenomenology of perception, architectural narratology, and spatial semiotic analysis. The analytical process was conducted in four stages: extraction of theoretical constructs, coding of spatial data, organization of indicators within the NBI (Narrative Building Index) analytical model, and interpretation of embodied narratives.
Conclusion: The findings reveal that the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, through its circular spatial organization, filtered daylight, gradual thresholds, and fluid patterns of movement, generates a perceptual and phenomenological narrative in which the body actively participates in the process of meaning-making. In contrast, the Sacred Defense Museum, through linear circulation paths, ritualized spatial sequences, dramatic lighting, and explicit symbolic representations, constructs a guided and symbolic narrative that organizes embodied experience within a predetermined interpretive framework. The results demonstrate that the principal distinction between the two museums lies not in the intensity of narrativity itself, but in the degree of freedom afforded to the body for generating, interpreting, and reconfiguring meaning.

Keywords

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