The architectural  threshold is a (physical/ mental) space encapsulating a change; it initiates movement or a change in a state of mind to another; affecting the experience of architectural space. The idea of threshold has been an operative metaphor across disciplines among which are architectural, urban, social, and artistic studies. Historically, thresholds, in their various forms and definitions, played a significant role in both function and integral experience of architecture.

A threshold is a space of transition from one state to another that could imply a sense of contingency. It is indeterminate and carries a sense of temporality. Its domain of presence spans over the experience of the sequence of movement through built spaces, to leftover spaces or voids, or to the natural environment. A threshold is the vestibule of experience.

Instant connections and rapid movement are the intellect of the era and for many, slowness and contemplation that transitive spaces provide is considered a time sink. As a result, transitional spaces are losing their value and meaning by the over-emphasis on spaces that accommodate main functions in cities and buildings, or by being treated as service areas. Evidently, this also minimizes their scope of spatial experience.

The course attempts to redraw attention to thresholds that derive from relations and interrelations between built space and its natural surrounding environment. The course  consists of comprehensive reverse readings of  selected thresholds together with the reinterpretation and reconstruction through the learnings gained from the reverse readings. We will be working on various techniques from photography and drawing to model making and a well-crafted short descriptive text, as complementary to the scaled model, for the final review.

The elective is organized around a set of analytical and critical readings. The readings consist of a selective number of texts from literature and theory of architecture that successfully capture the significance of the notion of threshold and transition. The analytical works include investigations on selected thresholds that span from critical analysis of an integral experience of the threshold to studies on the spatial and structural elements which constitute  it (i.e. materials’ properties, positions, and relations). Through the understanding gained, students will  investigate  the tectonics and atmosphere of that threshold through collage visualization and scaled models.