Susan Melsop

HI! My name is Susan Melsop. I am an Associate Professor of Design at Ohio State University and interdisciplinary scholar working at the intersection of architecture, sacred space, and health with a particular focus on how built environments shape embodied experience and influence how people relate to the world around them. Trained in both architecture and design, my work asks a deceptively simple question: how might the act of making /being enveloped by space also support healing, reflection, and a deeper sense of environmental responsibility?

Central to my teaching is design-build pedagogy. Framed as a mode of inquiry, students engage directly with materials, sites, and communities, constructing full-scale projects that foreground process as much as outcome. This work is positioned as an embodied form of learning—one in which knowledge emerges through action, collaboration, and sustained attention to place.

This emphasis on experience extends into my research on sacred space, understood not in strictly religious terms but as a quality of environment that invites presence, meaning-making, and, at times, awe. I draw on phenomenological approaches to examine how elements such as light, material, acoustics, and spatial sequence can produce atmospheres that quiet habitual perception and heighten awareness. These spaces often evoke a sense of humility and attentiveness—qualities increasingly associated with environmental awareness and care.

Complementing this is my engagement with embodied modalities for health and healing, including somatic and sensory-based practices. My work explores how the built environment can support nervous system regulation, emotional balance, and a sense of groundedness, while also fostering a felt connection to surrounding ecologies.

Across these domains, I aim to advance a view of architecture as a relational and experiential discipline. My teaching and research suggest that designing and building are not only technical or aesthetic acts, but also opportunities to cultivate spaces that resonate with the body, evoke awe, and ultimately encourage more attentive and responsible forms of environmental stewardship.