This paper puts forward the early, practical actions “in context” that can begin to sensitize, orient, expand, and constrain design dialogue at the outset of a design effort. Drawing on a case of “breaching experiments” in “non-places” we explore a “first approximation” of interventionist participation into the context of future interactive & responsive design interventions. By introducing a design journey, we have shed a light on how a human-centric approach, applied to the context of Human Building Interaction (HBI), can support an interventionist design dialogue between people and designed environment through processes of stirring up what’s beyond ‘norms’ of interaction.