Architecture of Threshold Spaces

A Critique of the Ideologies of Hyperconnectivity and Segregation in the Socio-Political Context

Laurence Kimmel

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000515480
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architettura
• Subtopic: Architettura generale

This book explores the relationship between architecture and philosophy through a discussion on threshold spaces linking public space with publicly accessible buildings. It explores the connection between exterior and interior and how this creates and affects interactions between people and the social dynamics of the city.

Building on an existing body of literature, the book engages with critical philosophy and discusses how it can be applied to architecture. In a similar vein to Walter Benjamin's descriptions of the Parisian Arcades in the nineteenth century, the book identifies the conditions under which thresholds reveal and impact social life. It utilises a wide range of illustrated international case studies from architects in Japan, Norway, Finland, France, Portugal, Italy, the USA, Australia, Mexico, and Brazil. Within the examples, thresholds become enhancers of social interactions and highlight broader socio-political contexts in public and private space.

Architecture of Threshold Spaces is an enlightening contribution to knowledge on contemporary architecture, politics and philosophy for students, academics, and architects.

Part I Thresholds: some theoretical background

1 Threshold spaces are singular spaces

DOI: 10.4324/9781003133889-1

What are threshold spaces?

Threshold is the intertwining of public space and semi-private interior. A focus on the concept of Threshold requires us to embrace the complexity of spatial aspects of life in their spatialised social context. This is beyond the physical characteristics of architecture.

Since thresholds are delimited by porous partitions, the word “space” is used in this book to express the quality of openness of the different areas considered.¹ “Architecture” is defined in this book as:

a selected, arranged and constructed configuration of environmental properties, both natural and artificial, in and around one or more activity space or behavioural setting, combined with patterns of behavioural rules and meanings, as well as incorporating cultural constructs of space and time to result in human comfort and quality of lifestyle, all within a wider, large-scale cultural and social context.

(Memmott and Davidson 2008, 64)

Within this broad definition sits the entire genre of Western architecture, as well as many other genres from all human societies and cultures, past and present. The tensions and contradictions between different behaviours that are inherent in the negotiation of space, are fluctuant, and architecture hosts these fluctuations.

Architecture as an array of spaces whose physical boundaries can be represented as envelopes

This book mostly considers the use of space and, as such, considers the physical characteristics of architecture that orchestrate and affect this use. In this book, the word “building” emphasises the physicality of architecture. Following the definitions above, these public buildings are usually composed of semi-private interiors (for example, the concert hall) and thresholds between public space and semi-private interiors – that is, semi-public spaces (for example, the foyer of the concert hall). In physical terms, the threshold space is delimited by porous partitions and can be covered or uncovered.

The sketch representation of architecture considered in its spatial aspects is an array of sketch 3D envelopes that delimit spaces. One envelope is a sketch envelope of its physical boundaries. Sometimes, the sketching exercise can be challenging; for example, for open-air spaces or indoor/outdoor spaces like thresholds. However, a sketch image of 3D envelopes is possible, implying a few approximations (Hensel and Turko 2015). An envelope is the equivalent in 3D of a sketched perimeter in 2D (whether in plan or in section). This sketch representation of a space is a tool to analyse links between spaces. You can imagine these envelopes when considering the different descriptions of such spaces. Open-air public space can also be sketched as an envelope when it is delimited by architectural elements or public furniture, even when the visitor does not feel totally “enveloped.”

Threshold spaces adjacent to public space

The “public sphere” provides benefits to society ranging from the provision of arenas for political representation to more informal symbolic and representative functions. Public space is the most visible aspect of the public life and cultural vitality of a city (Habermas 1989). It is the spatial subset of the public sphere and has a crucial role in sustaining and developing the public sphere (Parkinson 2012; Sennett 1971). Philosopher Hannah Arendt emphasised the importance of this “material common world” as the expression of the public sphere (Arendt 1958; Madanipour 2003, 148–149, 152).

The architectural approach of this book borrows tools from sociology. Public space is primarily concerned with people–space relationships. Public spaces are a matter of use (Goffman 1963); the use being more important to this research than the ownership of the space. Inter-subjectivity—that is, links to others using the space—is the main characteristic of public space (Kohn 2004, 11; Wood and Gilbert 2005, 686). In line with the analyses of Henri Lefebvre (1991, 83–195), David Harvey (1989, 212), and Mike Davis (1990, 222–263), this book studies the expression of the social context in the interactions that are supported within public space. Through this expression of the social context, public space is thus the expression of rules and norms, behaviours and beliefs (Habermas 1989; Dacheux 2007). Rules usually apply to the whole of society. Norms are more informal and fluctuant, and can relate to groups, communities, or society as a whole. The predominant norms of society are the norms of the political economy—that is, how society functions politically and economically—for example, different social statuses. In public space, expressed behaviours and beliefs can be individual or collective, making public space fruitful terrain for the study of their relations.

Commentators have proposed the concept of “publicness” as one of the characteristics by which the quality of public space can be measured and evaluated. A qualitative public space is one that fosters presence, movement, and behaviours of people and their use of the space by prompting interactions between people. Publicness requires appropriate design, location, and management (Varna and Tiesdell 2010). In terms of design and location, Kevin Lynch raised questions about the physical and psychological accessibility of public spaces (Lynch 1972). Lynch asserted that public space should have characteristics of spatial openness² and functional openness,³ enabling a diversity of use.

This study considers that another fundamental characteristic of public space is its unfettered accessibility for all. That is, it is not ticketed, no one filters visitors to the venue, architectural symbols do not intimidate potential visitors, and accordingly, no one need to feel like a stranger (Toloudi 2016). Presence in public space can be negotiated by anyone. Public spaces are known as the “theatre of everyday life” where individuals and groups can observe and encounter other people beyond their normal circle of acquaintances, people who might have different practices, behaviours, and cultures. “Differences are constructed in, and themselves construct, city life and spaces” (Bridge and Watson 2000, 251). Hence, public spaces help people to engage with differences, and to extend their personal boundaries, and to confront, tolerate, and resolve conflict. Therefore, a central role of public space is to offer a ground for a civilising social life and social encounters among citizens.

Accordingly, every person and all communities should have some form of agency in public space. Agency relates to the possibility of action of an agent (acting individually or on behalf of a community), and the possibility that this action is received and has consequences. Lynch, in his book A Theory of Good City Form (1981), proposed five forms of agency: presence, use and action, appropriation, modification, and disposition. Appropriation allows users to claim symbolic or real ownership of a place. Modification relates to the right to change a space to enable use. Disposition is the potential to shift one’s use of public space to other users. These forms of spatial control have strong psychological values, including satisfaction and pride, and their absence could contribute to anxiety (Francis 1989). Having agency is especially important to those who have minimal levels of social control and opportunity. People can perform “the right to be.”

Control is an important characteristic of public space and can influence its use. Whereas private space is demarcated and protected by state-regulated rules of private property use, public space, while far from free of regulation, is generally conceived as open to public participation. In the case studies considered in this book, the rules and norms of the potential private owner do not threaten the publicness of public space. A public space is a space that is not excessively controlled by private individuals or organisations, and hence is open to the public (Madanipour 1996, 144–145).

Similarly, threshold spaces are public where they remain accessible to all. For example, the foyer of a museum may be used freely by a homeless person. The threshold can be considered as semi-public. That is, in all non-ticketed areas, anyone can enter and wander without obligations related to the purpose of the interior. The difference between a public and a semi-public space is that, in the semi-public space, activities unrelated to the purpose of the building are not permitted without restriction. For example, one usually cannot make a picnic in a threshold space and therefore the threshold is semi-public. When thinking about the publicness of a space, I like to take the example of a conversation among friends, or a picnic. You can, for any public space, take the test of imagining one of these two situations, and get an immediate impression of its publicness.

Threshold spaces adjacent to semi-private space

Public interiors can be considered as semi-private spaces. For example, the exhibition spaces of a museum have a specific function, which is the experience of art and culture. Other public buildings have an intended specific function, such as reading or playing sport. This use can be individual or collective. Most of the people in these buildings are there for the function of the building. Therefore, the threshold space of a public building is less public than open-air public space, and less private than a semi-private interior.

In this book, “privacy” is considered as the sphere of private contacts, both with people one knows and with strangers. It is in this sense that we consider privacy’s existence in public space. For example, a conversation between two persons in the middle of public space can be considered a private interaction in public space (Madanipour 2003, 155). A fortiori, the (semi-public) threshold can host private behaviours. Public and private spheres are parts of a continuum and cannot be treated as completely segregated social and physical realms. Anthropologist Morton H. Levine defines privacy as “the maintenance of a personal life-space within which the individual has a chance to be an individual, to exercise and experience his own uniqueness” (Levine 1980, 11). In this book, we consider a certain kind of private practice through the usage of nooks of public space for private purposes, the limit of which is what is accepted in public space.

Chapter 5 extends these concepts to consider retail spaces, which comprise the interior of a shop and the areas that are just outside the shop. The interior of a shop can be considered as semi-private space; that is, a private space open to the public at certain hours. Everybody can enter and look around without an obligation to buy; however, activities unrelated to the purpose of the shop are not permitted without restriction.

Chapter 5 also considers service areas such as workshops for museum staff and storage rooms, which are usually private and not accessible to the public. This chapter tackles the unusual idea of intertwining public space and service areas, in which service areas become visible or accessible to the public.

Another example of a semi-private space is the music performance hall, which is accessible to the public, but where activities unrelated to the purpose of the performance space are not permitted. These examples illustrate how behaviours are more predetermined in semi-private spaces than in the related thresholds.

The experience of passage through threshold spaces

The experience of threshold spaces is one of a passage through public, semi-public, and semi-private space. This experience has an identifiable spatiality and temporality that define the aesthetics of threshold space. We can consider the aesthetic exp...