SpaceScript: An Improvisational Method for Exploring Older Adults’ Lived Spatial Experience in Participatory Research

Understanding how different individuals experience and adapt everyday spaces is important for spatial design to become more inclusive. Unfortunately, in their work, spatial designers (e.g., architects) often refer to normative data about human behavior that exclude or stereotype those who fall outside the norm. There is a need for approaches capable of capturing human behavior within everyday contexts in greater depth. This paper introduces SpaceScript , a qualitative research method that combines theatre-based improvisation with real-time interaction to access the lived, embodied, and relational dimensions of spatial experience. It offers an agency-centered approach, enabling participants to co-create scenarios, adjust environmental elements, and explore comfort strategies through active, improvisational play. Grounded in participatory research, improvisational practice, and embodied inquiry, SpaceScript uses scaffolded, scenario-based exercises that prompt movement, adaptation, and reflection. Rather than relying on recall or fixed tasks, the method generates insights through active participation, revealing how comfort, accessibility, and social dynamics are shaped through memory, experimentation, and interaction. This paper details our development of SpaceScript and presents findings from applying it with older adults, a population often underserved and stereotyped in research and design. SpaceScript actively engaged participants in trial-and-error discovery, spatial problem-solving, and collaborative meaning-making. The method surfaced subtle dynamics, such as the contrast between perceived and actual comfort, the creative reinterpretation of spatial objects, and the ways participants constructed meaning through memory, experimentation, and dialogue. Beyond data collection, SpaceScript fostered social connection by offering participants a playful, collaborative space that encouraged interaction and reduced isolation. SpaceScript adds a participatory and embodied approach to qualitative spatial inquiry, one that captures not only how different people navigate space, but also how they construct meaning, solve problems, and engage socially through their environments.