threshold.spaces.transitions.in.architecture..analysis.and.design.tools

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Schwellenräume

Threshold Spaces


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Übergänge in der ArchitekturAnalyse- und Entwurfswerkzeuge

Schwellenräume

Till Boettger

BirkhäuserBasel

Transitions in ArchitectureAnalysis and Design Tools

Threshold Spaces


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A central task or architects is designing spaces as a medium or a wide range o uses and unc-tions. When realized as three-dimensional staging, usable space emerges with its ull spectrumo spatial experiences. This backdrop explains the almost endless literature on the principles ospatial design and the abundance o attempts to analyze perception o spatial phenomena. It isthereore surprising that this publication by Till Boettger represents the first examination o the“essence and potential” o a amiliar and yet overlooked and much neglected space. The thresh-old space is an integral element in every architectural project. Until now, almost no attentionhas been given to this special unctional element; rather, it has remained a common blind spot.The space is almost never listed as a separate unctional unit in a space allocation plan or in de-sign competition documents, to say nothing o the possibility o providing specific requirementsregarding size, unction, or perhaps even the desired atmosphere. At the same time, the thresh-old space, as an “articulation between spaces, i.e. between outside and inside, between onespace and another (between one reality and another)” (Robert Venturi), is literally a “key space”that can “open up” or “close off” access to a building.

The main aim o this text is the presentation o design parameters or the staging and organiza-tion o the sensitive and ambivalent spatial zone o the threshold. It essentially seeks practicalanswers, in the orm o design tools or the designing architect, to the ollowing questions: Howcan spaces be opened without closing them? How can we let people see what we want them tosee o the inside o a building and still protect it? Can surveillance and energy-efficiency measuresbe integrated into the design as welcoming gestures? What inormation prepares users or what

is to come?

Three central questions that build on one another ollow rom the others: What is an architec-tural threshold? How can a threshold space be defined? What unctions does a threshold spaceperorm in the access to and the experience o architecture?

Foreword


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Three chapters, written clearly and above all in the language o architects, provide comprehen-sive theoretical answers to these questions as well as practical answers that can be applied inthe design process.

Fundamental principles are established, beginning with the terminology and the phenomena ospatial perception, then a description o the threshold space in a historical context, and finallyattractive and rereshing additions in the orm o examinations o threshold installations romthe art world. In analogy to the medium o an architect’s design process, the second chapter ana-lyzes individual design parameters in the context o outstanding and exemplary projects. Deduc-tively reduced “design sketches” acilitate direct comprehension. In the final chapter, the muchlamented gap between (architectural) theory and (design) practice is graphically and construc-tively closed. The “collection o principles and strategies” is used to ormulate individual designaims and also develop planning tools or the practical shaping o the “spatiality o transition.”

One exceptional quality o this study is the development o design tools or the design process.The work is an insightul building block or bridging the cardinal gaps between theory, the designprocess, and the recognition o an underappreciated space. In view o the challenges awaitinguture architectural projects with changing scales, such as transport buildings (or example, air-ports, train stations) or acilities or trade and commerce, or even completely new organizationo unctions, the changing tasks o public buildings including museums and exhibition halls, it isparticularly ortunate that this publication also offers, or the first time, practical design tools to

acilitate and execute attractive, high-quality threshold spaces.

Egon SchirmbeckMarch


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. Definitions of Thresholds and Space

The Idea of Space and Spatial Perception

The Percipient HumanOn the Searching Eye and theSearching BodyPerception o Movement Spaces

Historical Threshold Spaces

Thresholds—DoorsillsThe AcropolisThe PantheonThe Gothic PortalJapanese HomesArcadesThe Dissolution o Floor Plans in theTwentieth Century

Transitions in Art

Dan Graham: Present Continuous Past(s),New York,

Dani Karavan: Passages,Portbou, Spain, –Bill Viola: Threshold, Frankurt am Main, Lin Yilin: Saely Maneuvering acrossLin He Road, Guangzhou, Dan Graham: Fun House or Münster, Olaur Eliasson: Green River, Stockholm, Till Boettger, Schwellenraummaschine,Weimar, The Threshold as a Spatial Phenomenon

The Threshold Space

Grenzen (Borders/Boundaries/Limits)

Schwellen (Thresholds)Threshold SpacesEquipment in Threshold SpacesThreshold Space Closures

Introduction

Creating Spaces and ThresholdsTopicAimOutline and Structure

Contents

Appendix

IndexThe AuthorAcknowledgmentsIllustration Credits


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. Threshold Space Analyses

Spatial Notation and Spatial Analyses Space as Experienced/Represented SpaceAnalysis Techniques according to SchirmbeckAdaptation o the MethodThreshold Analysis ParametersSelection o Objects or Analysis

Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Le Corbusier, –

Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, –

Museu de Arte (MASP) in São Paulo

Lina Bo Bardi, –

Museum für angewandte Kunst

in Frankfurt am Main

Richard Meier, –

Fondation Cartier in Paris

Jean Nouvel, –

Casa da Música in Porto

OMA, Rem Koolhaas and Ellen Van Loon,–

. Threshold Space Design Tools

Counterbalancing Pairs of Opposites

Open—closedDelimitationSequenceGeometryTopographyMaterialityFurnishingsCounterbalancing Ambiguity

Phases and Organization

RecognitionApproachReachingArrivalOrientation and InormationMonitoringExit

Sensitive Guidance

Positioning ThresholdsPrivate Realm

Essence and Potential

Spatial PotentialIncreased ComplexityAccess Control—Energy EfficiencyThe Potential o Threshold Space Design

Application and Outlook

AnalysesThreshold Space Designs

Aspirations

Contents


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Introduction


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Every day we cross a number o spatial boundaries, moving rom one zone to the next. We live intransition. Architecture builds on transition. Thresholds interrupt spatial boundaries or a transi-tion rom one zone to another. The phenomenon o the threshold thrives on spatial ambivalence.Thresholds open up spaces and organize transitions. At the same time they are read as part o the

boundary and can be perceived as a barrier. A space that is delimited by thresholds and space-defining elements can be termed a threshold space.

Threshold spaces are required or access to the actual unctional rooms. They provide a preaceto perception o architectural space. They live in the sequence o what lies in the past, present,and uture. This means: threshold spaces also live in the expectation o what is to come.

“Only man has the aculty to connect and separate what is ound in nature, and to do so in thedistinctive manner that one is always the presupposition o the other. By plucking two things outo their undisturbed natural state in order to call them ‘separate,’ we have already connectedthem in our consciousness, have differentiated these two together rom what lies between them.And conversely, we can only sense those things as connected that we have previously isolatedrom one other in some way; the things must first be separated rom each other in order to thenbe united.”

In his article “Brücke und Tür” (Bridge and Door), Georg Simmel writes o the human ability toseparate spaces—that is, to establish a boundary between them—and the need to then connectthem again. With the connection, we create a threshold, a possibility to enter and to exit. With-out a transition point, there is no connection between the interior and the exterior spatiality. Thedesign o thresholds is a direct result o the need to create spaces. Usable rooms are designed tobe entered, passed through, or filled. Thus we can understand the interests o those who want todesign, plan, create, analyze, observe, or utilize space.

Spatial thresholds are perceived, recognized, and used in spatial contexts. Wolgang Meisen-heimer calls them “tools or architectural choreography” and identifies the narrative moment

in the threshold. He emphasizes the dual nature o thresholds, namely that they can connectand separate. Architects react to this distinctive characteristic in the design process. “Thresholddetails are the most sensitive, elegant repertoire in architectural language.”

Thresholds oten announce and preace entrances to spaces. They are integrated into the se-quence o arriving and, with their braking properties, slow down those approaching. In particu-lar, thresholds in entrance areas organize the transition and mediate between outside and inside.In their extended orm or in summation, thresholds also create spaces. Together with space-defining elements, they establish the staging or threshold spaces.

As transition points, threshold spaces are usually complex spatial structures. In terms o percep-tion, they are a challenge to the interacting human senses. Oten threshold spaces have multipleunctions that can be derived rom the respective typology o the architecture. Based on its

Georg Simmel, “Brücke und Tür,” Der Tag, Moderne illustrierte Zeitung (Berlin) , September , , –. Wolgang Meisenheimer, Choreografie des architektonischen Raumes (Düsseldor: Fachhochschule Düsseldor, ), Ch. –. Ibid.

Introduction

Creating Spaces and Thresholds


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particular use, each architectural endeavor has particular demands regarding access. Further-more, additional unctions can be integrated into a threshold space, such as those that arise,or example, in inormation, waiting, or exhibition areas. Threshold spaces are no longer simpleanterooms to provide access but rather independent, complex spatial sequences and spatial

structures.

Entrance areas must be opened and closed. This means that their conditions change as they reactto different situations. Transitional zones are oten those subject to the strictest specifications,since they are known to be weak points. Threshold spaces become complex, sensitive accesszones that must allow or a transition. In the Schwellenatlas (Threshold Atlas), devices such asintercoms, peepholes in doors, and body scanners, which all provide control between inside andoutside, are first categorized under the term threshold. The ollowing questions arise: Do thesethresholds compromise the quality o the architectural space? To what extent can these technicalthresholds be integrated? What creative concepts can be incorporated into architectural plans inorder to find a satisying design or such a sensitive zone?

The spatial staging or organization o transitions and the particular ways in which modern archi-tecture deals with threshold spaces are undamental. All architecture organizes access. The zoneso architectural transitions are planned, realized, and used. Depending on the design concept,these areas are executed in various ways.

There are designs that deliberately place the ocus on thresholds, while others attempt to blurthem spatially. The tendency to reduce thresholds and connect spaces more directly with oneanother is associated with the development o modern architecture. The anticipated pathway,the sequence, is at the heart o the design.

Twentieth-century architects work with an open floor plan that allows or new links betweeninside and outside and that stages access. The floor plan that had earlier been closed is now bro-ken up by using reestanding panels and supports to organize the space. The concept o an open

space is deliberately employed. One o the first to begin to link interior space with the exteriorspace o the surrounding landscape was Frank Lloyd Wright, in his floor plans or the early villasin Oak Park. The Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe is a prime example o this conceptualdesign, while his Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin can be seen as a legacy o the guiding principle oan open floor plan. Rather than adding spaces to one another as individual components, continu-ous spatial sequences are planned. Adol Loos developed the Raumplan (considered spatial order-ing). Even strict division into stories loses its meaning. Furthermore, there is less differentiationbetween service spaces, or example anterooms, and main rooms. Access spaces are assignedadditional unctions. As a particular orm o transitional space, oyers even orm multistory spa-tial structures. The staging o such “movement” spaces culminates in Le Corbusier’s architecture.In designing his spatial sequences, Le Corbusier began with motion and assigned the sequenceo the spaces additional unctions beyond access. The inside is turned outward. The threshold isshited due to the breaking down o the floor plan. The turning outward o the inside becomes a

dogma. Ambivalence is elt between the desire to protect the interior space and to open it up asmuch as possible.

Institute or the History and Theory o Architecture at ETH Zürich, Schwellenatlas, ARCH+, /, .

Introduction

Topic


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In addition to designing a sequence, architects must pay particular attention to the security andcontrol o spaces, in other words to the design o thresholds. Modern architects work with open-ing to the outside. They attempt to blur the boundary between inside and outside. Views into theinterior o the building provide or a direct approach. The relatively recent preerence, however,

or an uninterrupted view runs counter to the desire or total control. The exact position othreshold space equipment or control o the spatial sequence should already be determined inthe planning process. Given constantly changing security systems, specifications can only be laiddown to a limited extent. The result is the search or flexible urnishings that provide security inthe entrance area and can be adjusted to deal with both expected streams o visitors and uturetechnical innovations.

Furthermore, specifications regarding moderate energy consumption and active energy genera-tion are changing building design. These requirements apply in particular to the sensitive spaceo the entrance. It is a question o the strategic position o the threshold space with regard to thearchitecture. On the one hand, energy loss should be kept to a minimum, but, on the other hand,active use o the threshold space must be possible.

Thresholds and threshold spaces are thus oten marked by opposing orces and requirements,which should be careully examined. It is a matter o the staging and organization o transitionsand pathways. The ollowing questions arise: How can spaces be opened without our first havingto close them? How can we allow glimpses into the inside o a building and yet also protect it?Can access control measures be integrated into the entrance area as welcoming gestures? Whatinormation and what staging can serve as preparation or what is to come?

This work is a quest or the essence o a threshold space and its capabilities. The use, interpreta-tion, and design o transitions are clarified and newly defined based on the spatial concept o athreshold space. I hope my methodology can assist in responding to the increasing complexityinvolved in large buildings. The aim is to provide a useul orientation guide that recontextualizesthe visitor in the space. To achieve this, a representation is needed that can describe and clariy

transition situations and their spatial design elements between spaces. By analogy to an archi-tect’s design sketches, I develop diagrams. Spatial transitions are illustrated in order to comenearer to the “threshold moment.” The staged transition o a person through a threshold spaceis related and elucidated. I present various principles and elements or the design, organization,and perception o threshold spaces that can be understood as threshold space tools.

In projects rom the twentieth century to the present, treatment o threshold spaces is oteninadequate. Sometimes the spaces are kept very compact, based solely on economic considera-tions. Some transitional spaces have had to be retrofitted due to new technical requirements andas a result have lost their particular spatial qualities. Threshold spaces should not be thought osimply as “technical systems” designed to ulfill technical requirements.

Architects can make use o orm-giving means that blur thresholds without neglecting transition.

Threshold spaces exist that have no clearly perceptible thresholds. Through the use o trans-parent acades, the changes in entrance areas, which as a rule provide initial orientation, areparticularly noticeable. The question is whether the desired transparency indeed makes it easierto “read” a threshold space and orient onesel in it. The goal is also to determine what role thesearch or transparency plays regarding the blurring o the threshold. Jean Baudrillard puts it well:

Aim

Introduction


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“Take the idea o transparency, or example. It’s something extraordinary that expresses the playo light, with something that appears and disappears, but at the same time you get the impres-sion that it involves a subtle orm o censorship. This search or ‘transparency’ with which our erais ascinated is at the very least ambivalent in its relation to power.”

An understanding o threshold spaces can make us conscious o how we move in a state o“between-ness.” A clear ocus on passages through a threshold space can prepare us or spatialexperiences and thus provide us with a deeper insight into the associated architectures. Thresh-old spaces should be used as perceptual and cognitive architectural access to immersion inarchitectural experiences. The design o threshold spaces thereore determines the “depth oimmersion” o the atmospheres to be ound there. The sensitive spot where we change rom zoneto zone becomes a stage and an indicator.

This book is divided into three chapters. In the first chapter I define the space to be considered.Here, the sentient human being provides the ocus. Those human perceptual abilities are deter-mined that play a primary role when we cross thresholds or threshold spaces. I subsequentlyanchor the topic o “threshold spaces” in the context o architecture history by identiying andpresenting historical examples o threshold spaces. I then attempt to analyze the threshold as aspatial phenomenon and describe art installations that explicitly deal with thresholds. With thehelp o these “perormances” o space and presentations o thresholds, I derive and define theterm threshold space toward the end o the chapter.

In the second chapter, parameters or spatial analyses are identified and applied. On the basiso phenomenological descriptions and spatial diagrams, I develop a threshold space analysis.Architectures rom the second hal o the twentieth century and the twenty-first century are ex-amined. They are archetypes o outstanding, specifically designed threshold spaces. Characteristicsites and architects are given due consideration in the selection o buildings that can be seenas representative examples. The detailed threshold space analyses are carried out with the help

o the ollowing parameters: delimitation, sequence, geometry, topography, materiality, and furnishings.

Based on the analyses o the case studies, in the third chapter I develop a collection o principlesand strategies or making statements about the spatiality o a transition. Regardless o thespatial configuration o the objects o analysis, the considerations o how to organize a thresholdspace display similar tactics. A threshold space is strongly determined not only by tension-buildingcounterbalances but also by the sequence in which space is experienced. In its conceptual de-sign, a threshold space ranges between the poles o open and closed and can act, as a result oits intrinsic ambiguity, as a spatial mediator. With the help o pairs o opposites, the variations onindividual spatial parameters can be presented and a new orm o comparison achieved. Further-more, the sequence o a threshold space can be divided into the phases recognition, approach,reaching, arrival, orientation, monitoring, and exit.

Jean Baudrillard and Jean Nouvel, The Singular Objects of Architecture, trans. Robert Bononno(Minneapolis: University o Minnesota Press, ), .

Outline and Structure

Introduction


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Definitions ofThresholds and Space


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The Idea of Space and Spatial Perception

In the ollowing sections, space is defined according to Jürgen Joedicke’s idea o “between-ness.” The result is the simple and clear interrelationship between space-defining elements and the

space itsel, which exists in relation to the sentient human being.

The space delimiters create a spatial body that can be entered and experienced. In extremecases these space delimiters can create a completely closed body o space that depicts a clearlylimited volume. A notable example is Rachel Whiteread’s work House, in which, with the help oconcrete, the “space” o a house is cast as an object. The exterior walls become the ormworkand allow the space to become visible as a body. The spatial structure, with its indentations andprotuberances, is made into visible material. On the other hand, a space can exist as an openspatial body and define itsel through delimitations that do not orm a closed shell. An exampleo such a space is Peter Eisenman’s Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. This sculpture landscape ormsa spatial body that is open on all our sides. A clear cast like that o Whitehead’s House would notbe possible in this case. In imagining a spatial body, the so-called between-ness can be thoughto as either a delimited or an open volume.

In addition to the understanding o architectural space as an open or closed body, the develop-ment o various ideas that could lead to such an understanding will be explained. The concepto architectural space is characterized by various views o space and in certain ways mirrors therelationship between architecture and space or the respective era.

The first step is the rough division that differentiates between the two basic ideas o space inarchitecture—presented space and experienced space. Until the nineteenth century, theoreticaldiscussions o space in architecture were consistently carried out on the level o presented space.The discussions were inormed solely by aesthetics, proportions, and geometry. In other words,presented space in architecture was analyzed and evaluated. Space was long seen as a static sys-tem, one that, since the Renaissance, had indeed dealt with the proportions o the human body,but which had established no direct connection to human perception.

Experienced space distances itsel rom the concept o purely geometrically presented space butremains in dialogue with this idea o space. The space delimiters are depicted in geometric spaceand eventually translated into what is built.

It is more a matter o an intermediate state that results rom the dynamics between individual,subject, and presented space. Otto Friedrich Bollnow cites Martin Heidegger, who, while he doesnot differentiate between presented and experienced space, ormulates the relationship betweenman and space on a undamental level. “The subject (Dasein), i well understood ontologically,is spatial.” Man is the center o attention and orms, in every sense, the starting point. “As thisspace-orming and space-spreading being, man is however necessarily not only the origin butalso the lasting center o his space.”

Definitions o Thresholds and Space —

Jürgen Joedicke, Space and Form in Architecture (Stuttgart: Karl Krämer, ), . Martin Heidegger, “Sein und Zeit” in Mensch und Raum, Otto Friedrich Bollnow (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, ), . Otto Friedrich Bollnow, Human Space, trans. Christine Shuttleworth, ed. Joseph Kohlmaier (London: Hyphen Press, ), .


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Regardless o this theory, namely that humans orm their own spaces or, in other words, theirspheres o activity, ranges o movement, or their own private realms, the undamental principleremains, to my mind, that architectural space is created through perception o the space-delimit-ing elements. What is even more important is to understand humans as the perceptive beings in

the center o any analyses o space and not to conuse presented space with experienced space.

Given the changing approach to architectural space in the course o the twentieth century, inwhich an individual is centered in the space, in the ollowing sections humans must be con-sidered in conjunction with their sensory organs. How can humans perceive space-delimitingelements?

Joedicke describes perception with the help o the concept o the experience o space and citesAristotle. “Perception occurs via the senses, to which, according to Aristotle’s classical subdi-vision, sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch belong.” He amends this classification system,drawing on James J. Gibson, who combines smell and taste and adds a basic orientation system.What is particularly important or the perception o spatial experience is, according to Joedicke,“the introduction o a system o basic orientation, which includes the sense o above and below,in ront and behind, or let and right.” Various studies demonstrate the importance and promi-nence o this sixth, or rather new fith, sense.

Alred A. Tomatis points out the early development o the organ o equilibrium in an embryo.“It [the vestibular system] not only already orms near the beginning o embryonic lie, but alsobegins to be active in this phase.”

Along with the system o basic orientation, which acilitates perception o a person’s position inspace, the stimuli with which his or her sense organs are conronted condense into a complexidea o space. Depending on how their sense organs have been trained, humans achieve an abilityto perceive their environment and orient themselves in space. A deciding actor in this interac-tion o the sense organs is movement. Movement is a prerequisite or properly comprehending

complex spaces, and through active appraisal it can help to orm an idea o the space and itsassociated atmosphere in our heads. August Schmarsow speaks o a positive interplay betweensense o space and creation o space, which in turn improve comprehension and perception ospace. In the course o movements within the space, the use o various sensory organs, whichare activated in a consciously selective manner, leads to a clearer perception o the complexity othe space. With the help o this perception “in motion,” the space can be more exactly compre-hended and optical illusions are more easily resolved. The atmospheres o a space can only beperceived by strolling through it or by immersion in it.

Schmarsow cites St. Peter in Rome as an example. He sees the orm o Bernini’s colonnades thereas the true consummation o the ensemble. The colonnades are described as the essential spatialcompletion as they provide spatial depth and orm an invitation to stroll about.

— The Idea o Space and Spatial Perception

The Percipient Human

Jürgen Joedicke, . Ibid. Alred A. Tomatis, “Der Klang des Lebens”, in Von mir aus ... Bewegter Leib—Flüchtiger Raum, Manja Leyk

(Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, ), . August Schmarsow, Der Werth der Dimensionen im menschlichen Raumgebilde (Leipzig: Hirzel, ), –.


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Joedicke incorporates the dimension o time in architecture into his considerations and highlightsthe importance o perceiving succession. In other words, the perceptual process is dependent onmovement in the space within a particular period o time.

“The definition given at the beginning, according to which space was seen as the sum o relation-ships between points, must be ormulated more precisely to read: space is the sum o con-secutively experienced relationships between points. Here too time is the consequence o ourperception and not at all comparable with the three dimensions o space.”

An individual naturally moves through his or her environment and actively perceives it. Gibsonspeaks o an interaction o the perceiver. In order to perceive phenomena, a person must initiatemotor processes. Gibson explains that in the case o sight alone, ten different muscles must beactivated to achieve a sharply ocused image. He speaks o attention directed outward on a sub-conscious level. He distinguishes very clearly between passive and active experiences, using theterms “sensations” and “perceptions.”

These insights exert significant influence on the understanding o the perceiver in space. As a re-sult, we can think o a person as a searching subject who attempts to attain an overview in orderto orient himsel or hersel. People respond with attentively ocused behaviour in order to obtaininormation about their environment. Gibson cites Pavlov, who calls the various adjustmentso the sense organs, or example the eye-head system or the hand-body system, “investigatoryresponses.”

This active receptivity and searching can be used to provide clearly stimulating signals or orien-tation in a spatial context.

In addition to movements o the individual sensory organs, which can perceive their environmentbetter through active adaptation, various other movements play a large role in the perceptiono spaces. The human musculoskeletal system has the undamental role o counterbalancing

movements or orientation toward the floor, and it stabilizes vertical posture. Furthermore, theorientation-investigatory system and the locomotive system play particularly large roles in spa-tial perception, given the dual purpose o obtaining inormation about the surroundings and alsoreaching a specified place. Le Corbusier ormulates the process o spatial perception and the resulting design strategy orthe Modern Movement as ollows:

“An architecture must be walked through and traversed. […] Thus, equipped with his own twoeyes and looking straight ahead, our man walks about and changes position, applies himsel tohis pursuits, moving in the midst o a succession o architectural realities. He re-experiencesthe intense eeling that has come rom that sequence o movements. This is so true that architec-ture can be judged as dead or living by the degree to which the rule o movement has been

disregarded or brilliantly exploited.”

Jürgen Joedicke, . James J. Gibson, The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ), . Le Corbusier, Le Corbusier Talks with Students, trans. Pierre Chase (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, ), .

On the Searching Eye and the Searching Body



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These observations made by Le Corbusier are preaces to undamental reflections on spatialsequences in his work Vers une architecture, in which promenades through the Acropolis aredepicted with the help o drawings by Auguste Choisy.

Spaces that offer transitions oten present themselves as open spatial bodies that are experiencedin motion. For the most part they are only partially delimited by spatial boundaries and provideaccess in an open or a circumscribed manner. The basis or considering threshold spaces is thephenomenological view o space, including, however, Joedicke’s understanding o architecturalspace as one in which humans can move in exact between-ness. Humans move between space-defining elements. They open their spheres o perception, which are created, together with thespatial bodies, by the architectural space.

To a certain extent, this concept o a movement space cannot develop without the theoretical prin-ciples o the twentieth-century view o space described in the preceding paragraphs. Only throughhumans moving into the center o a view o space is it possible to evaluate and comprehend such aperceptible space. Architects o the modern age position the percipient individual in the center otheir architectural designs. This way o thinking leads to an understanding o the concept o a con-nected movement space. It is a space that develops out o the idea o a spatial continuum, whichmeans the series o spaces can be thought o and designed as an “enfilade.” The upcoming experi-ence o space that is announced can guide percipient humans and lead them orward.

The idea o designing a space as an open spatial body or as a field is actually, according to Joedicke,not an invention o the twentieth century. Nonetheless, he sketches a particular view o spacethat developed in the s, dissolving walls and seeing the interior and the exterior as a con-tinuum and a spatial field.

Perception o connecting movement spaces occurs in a manner analogous to the generalperception o spaces, namely in interaction among various sense organs. A movement space ischaracterized by its unction as a transitional space; in other words it is a “passage space” which

distributes and redirects. This means it is primarily perceived as we stroll through it, as opposedto a “place space,” which serves as place to stay or rest.

Gibson’s observations are essential to the perception o movement spaces:

“[A]ll the perceptual systems […] can serve to govern directed locomotion. They are all orientingsystems insoar as they can guide the individual to a goal.”

The vestibular (balance) system seems to be o particular importance or eedback on our ownposition in a space, as it lays a oundation or the other senses. It is oriented to gravity and givesus inormation on the incline o a floor and on our own locomotion in space.

Perception of Movement Spaces

Le Corbusier, Vers une architecture (Paris: Crès, ). Joedicke, . Gibson, .

— The Idea o Space and Spatial Perception


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Barring visual or acoustic stimuli, movement to the right within a building seems to be the natu-ral direction or most people. When shopping areas are designed, the products with the greatestturnover are oten positioned to the right o the entrance. Furthermore, planned circuits usuallyoperate with systems in which the customer is first led to the right and then ollows a path that

continues counterclockwise. Such a pathway or movement spaces with items or sale is a reac-tion to studies that demonstrate customers’ natural orientation toward the right. This “pull tothe right” can be explained by our dominant let brain or movement patterns, which controlsthe right side o the body.

The question arises as to the ways in which an architect can react to a human being’s physiologicalunctions while designing and realizing spatial transitions. He could use unambiguous designmotis to give those arriving recognizable signals that acilitate orientation in the space. Suchclarity can guide the users and lead them to their destinations. Particularly in entrance contexts,weak contrasts in spatial demarcation conuse those arriving and leave them—disoriented—totheir own devices.

In summary it can be said that transitions, and thus traverses o thresholds, are particularly as-sociated with intermediate states. First o all, percipient humans find themselves in spatialbetween-ness. Moreover, the intermediate state between two spatial areas, or example insideand outside, also plays a role. One could even speak o a double intermediate state.

Between-ness also offers users a certain flexibility, insoar as they can change their minds—thereis a chance to “go back.”

The ollowing section examines characteristic examples in architecture history that have contrib-uted to the topic o transitions. First o all, the structural element o the threshold is elucidated;subsequently the spatial dimension o the threshold moment is studied in greater depth.

The Acropolis plays a key role in this selection, as it provides a particularly clear example o the

spatial relations between inside and outside. The exterior space links the secular world with thato the gods.

The Pantheon in Rome, with its compact portico, provides an archetype or the creation o atransition.

A Gothic portal is based on the conceptual design o the Pantheon in that it can be perceived asa symbolic spatial delimiter. The transition space o a Gothic portal is kept relatively compact;it achieves high intensity with the richly illustrated sculptures on its walls and it introduces theprocessional path.

The transitional spaces o Japanese homes call or a different interpretation than that o Gothicportals. An approach guided by ritual is possible here, too. What is missing, however, is the stag-

ing o an entrance as an easily readable element. The ocus is on the link between exterior andinterior and their layered ordering through the use o sliding elements.

Historical Threshold Spaces

Hans-Georg Häusel, Brain Script (Freiburg: Haue Mediengruppe, ), –.



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The subsection “The Dissolution o Floor Plans in the Twentieth Century” points out analogies be-tween the architecture that sees itsel in the Modern Movement and the architecture o tradi-tional Japanese homes. It demonstrates how spatial ambivalence is built up and spaces create anopen—or closed—transition. How can an entrance area with an open floor plan define—in steps

and yet clearly—the transition between inside and outside?

The historical examples provided are designed to serve as a basis or studying contemporary archi-tecture. The selection was made with the aim o finding representative examples relevant to ananalysis o transitions.

The threshold is a undamental structural element. As a sort o beam it creates the lower edge othe opening in the wall and, in connection with a door, closes or opens that wall. From the begin-ning this structural element is given a double unction; a threshold allows or passing throughand shutting out. This basic unctionality can be ound in the most diverse building cultures. Thedetails o a threshold are realized in many different ways. Diverse building cultures with theirdifferent methods develop complex structural solutions or threshold details according to theirbuilding traditions. Thresholds made o wood, natural stone, metal, and concrete have beendeveloped. The development o threshold details is also influenced by threshold rituals. Arnoldvan Gennep deals with this topic in his publication The Rites of Passage, describing the analogiesbetween rites in various cultures and also the relationship between rites and space. He divides“spatial transitions” into three phases:

“rites o separation, rites o transition, and rites o incorporation.”

The special experience o crossing a threshold leads to the cultural development o rituals. Theserituals set the moment o transition by influencing the design o the threshold, made visiblethrough exaggeration and/or detailed artistic decorations.

The thresholds in Roman buildings were executed very precisely. One well-preserved example isthe doorsill o the Roman trading house in Walheim. It dates back to the year AD . The granitethreshold displays complex notches and different levels. It was very clearly designed to connectinner and outer spaces.

Thresholds have also been given pronounced details in Chinese cultures. The wooden doorsillswere raised or practical reasons, namely to prevent animals rom entering the home. Thus thedoor could remain open and there was a direct connection between outside and inside. This unc-tion was ritualized in palace buildings and is particularly prominent in the “Forbidden City” inBeijing. The doorsills are up to cm high and are supposed to protect the inhabitants rom evilspirits.

Thresholds—Doorsills

Arnold van Gennep, The Rites of Passage, trans. Monika Vizedom and Gabrielle Caffee (Chicago: University oChicago Press, ).

— HIstorical Threshold Spaces


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The Acropolis

Victoria Neueldt and David B. Guralnik, eds., Webster’s New World Dictionary, rd College Ed. (New York:Simon & Schuster, ), .


The Acropolis is situated on a -meter long, -meter wide, and -meter high flat-toppedmountain. It is meters higher than the city o Athens and meters higher than its immediate

surroundings. To the north, east, and south, the sides o the mountain are very steep; on thewest side the decline is more gradual towards the Areopagus. The plateau on top o the mountainhas an area o , square meters.

The first wall structures appeared between and BC. From BC on, the flat-toppedmountain was used solely as a holy district, with the entrance gate on the west side. Ater thePersians destroyed the temple in BC, there was debate as to whether the site should bereconstructed or maintained as a memorial. In the end, Pericles commissioned Phidias with theplanning. The ollowing buildings were erected:

Parthenon – BCPropylaea – BCTemple o Athena Nike – BCErechtheion – BC

The Acropolis is o undamental significance or the study o thresholds and transitions. Thesacred sites have been rebuilt and fine-tuned but remain in their places. The Parthenon shits thearchitectural weight to the southern part o the site. The central square is developed with thestatue o Athena where the Old Temple o Athena had been located, between the Parthenon andthe Erechtheion. This new space becomes part o a connected space o experience. The overalldesign o the Acropolis breaks down the autocracy o the individual buildings and rather orms anew whole out o the individual architecture and the spaces in between. The path through thisexterior space allows or “step by step” immersion and acilitates an exceptional architecturalexperience. Together with the walls and paths, the separate temples become space-delimitingelements. As limits, they orm an interconnected exterior space (fig. ). The spatial structure isno arbitrary entity but rather presents itsel as a planned in-between space (figs. and ).

It is also important to consider the Propylaea as a gateway; they orm a differentiated constric-tion and raming o the exterior space and mediate between outside and inside. The ramp in theflight o steps very cleverly guides approaching individuals and provides a path or experiencingthe space.

The flat-topped mountain, raised as it is, orms the beginning o the staging. Coming rom below,the approacher first sees only the silhouette o the individual buildings. The perspective o the“distance view” makes the Parthenon seem smaller and subordinate, creating a balance with theErechtheion, which is in reality the smaller o the two. The very small Temple o Athena Nikebecomes the ocal point. The serpentine processional path ends, or the moment, in the three-wing Propylaea. This orecourt to what is “beore the gate” leads through a colonnade withlimiting elements on both sides. The Propylaea are staggered in height and depth, with a broadtrough in the middle o the steps that continues the Sacred Way upward. The broadening o the

middle bay emphasizes the centered upward movement. The space seen by those ascending isalternately narrowed and widened rom without, creating an exciting, dynamic spatial continuum.


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Fig. : Acropolis, exterior spatial delimitations

Fig. : Acropolis, exterior spatial body

Parthenon

Propylaea

Temple oAthena Nike

Erechtheion



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Auguste Choisy, Histoire de l’architecture, vol. , . Le Corbusier, Vers une architecture, .

Fig. : Acropolis, spatial sequence Fig. : Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, spatial sequence

Parthenon

Statue oAthena

Propylaea

Temple oAthena Nike

The columns on the inside o the Propylaea rame the Parthenon laterally and aim axially at theslightly rotated statue o Athena and the square. The Parthenon is slightly turned, allowing it topresent its spatial volume. It is ramed by the columns and looks particularly imposing in this“embrace.”

The walk continues in a natural way around the entire temple (fig. ). The sanctum, protected,can be entered rom the rear o the temple. The intimate space o the cella with the cult imageis hidden. The walk around the building heightens anticipation and emphasizes the importanceo the unhasty approach. Both Choisy and Le Corbusier note this archetype o a traffic patternand it serves as a model or many designs. The entrance sequence or Jean Nouvel’s Musée duQuai Branly in Paris, which was completed in , demonstrates surprising parallels (fig. ).

The higher east pediment accentuates the gate building as the third main element in the overallplan and emphasizes its status with respect to the other two main temples. Furthermore, theDoric acade columns and the Ionic columns on the inside define the building as “hermaphroditic.”Such a combination has never been used on temples; a unique type o design is created.



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The Pantheon

The Pantheon was constructed on the site o the octagonal temple built under Agrippa in BC,with the Piazza della Rotonda in ront o it. Under Hadrian’s rule, between AD and ,

the central-plan Pantheon with its portico was built. Its role as a temple was probably or theworship o the seven planetary gods. Ater the temple was given to Pope Boniace IV in AD ,it was converted into a Christian church. Today it is used as a mausoleum.

Like the Acropolis, the Pantheon plays a undamental role in developing an understanding othresholds and transitions. The transition sequence in this compact structure is finely dividedinto a number o steps. The complex, continuous transitional space is in marked contrast to thesymmetrical floor plan o the main room. The latter is very strictly based on a sphere with adiameter o orty-three meters. The transition is ormed by three structures and their space-defining elements, namely the portico, the transitional element, and the opening to the mainroom (figs. and ).

Fig. : Spatial delimitations

Fig. : Body o the threshold space

—

Portico

Plazza della Rontonda

Transitional element

Body o the threshold space

Main room

Main room

HIstorical Threshold Spaces


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The orecourt, the Piazza della Rotonda, which is nowadays higher than it was when the Pan-theon was built, provides the first view o the higher-lying Pantheon. The portico, along with itssteps, is understood as denoting an entrance. The columns create a permeable border, a thresh-old. The porch collects those arriving in a spatial state o between-ness. The visitor is still in the

exterior space, the space-defining elements o which, however, define an open interior space.

The transitional space and its geometry cannot be understood as a whole when you walkthrough it. Only the granite threshold indicates that you are now between the portico and themain room. Within the transitional element, the door with its deep granite threshold effects adeceleration o the approach and a consciously experienced traversing. Nonetheless, the visitoris not yet in the main room, but rather in the opening o the outer ring that, as a slight spatialwidening, borders on the constriction o the door rame. Only now do you leave the continuoustransitional space and find yoursel in the main room under the dome and the opening o thedome.

The space described along the path prepares you or the rotunda. It is a careully sequencedspace that, with its complexity, clearly mediates between the directions o outside and inside.The ocused transitional spaces orm a severe spatial narrowing and a perceptible contrast,one that is necessary or the spatial experience o the rotunda. The spatial sequence o the thresh-old spaces makes it possible or the human eye to adapt to the lighting, so as to properly experi-ence the light coming through the oculus.

The Gothic portal is an artistically designed and constructed entrance. The model or this Westernportal is the Roman triumphal arch. Noteworthy renditions can be ound in church buildings.From the Romanesque period, an intensive exploration o the entrance area began to maniestitsel. The portals provide a very representative miniature version o the concepts o orm andspace o the architectural epoch. With its richly artistic design and its spatial dimensions, theGothic portal achieves an exceptional status. Sculptures on the jambs and the tympanum wereused to tell stories. The combination o this narrative unction and the angles o the jambs

creates an extreme spatial effect.

In some churches, even the trumeau in the axis o symmetry is decorated with a figure, as orexample in Chartres Cathedral. Here, the steps also heighten the spatial experience as youascend them.

The Gothic portal could be described as a threshold space (fig. ), as the stories normally depictedin the interior o the church are shited to the figures in the exterior space. The stories are ex-perienced through the sequence in which they are approached. The figures appear to turn theirbodies toward those who enter and to speak to them. From a distance, the figures are part o auniorm whole. The preacing gesture o the portal prepares the approacher or the churchinterior. In large Gothic cathedrals, the depth o the portals is substantial; in Chartres, it is morethan three meters in the central north transept portal. The tripartite portal complexes repro-

duce the three-nave structure o the cathedral interior on its outside. They are a symbol o accessthat can be recognized rom a great distance, and with the help o their spatial gradations theyestablish a oreshortened pull on those approaching. The connected spatial body (fig. ) can beexperienced as a sort o room.

The Gothic Portal



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The portal complex o the Cathedral o Reims is another example rom the Gothic era. Joedickeemphasizes the importance o the sculptures as preparatory elements. “The transitional space

into the church is signalized in the iconography o Salvation History.”


Wilried Koch, Baustilkunde: Das Standardwerk zur europäischen Baukunst von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart (Munich: Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, ), .

Joedicke, .




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Japanese Homes

Japanese homes are o interest in the examination o transitions in two respects. Firstly, Japaneseentrance areas are simply remarkable as transitional spaces. In his book Houses and People of

Japan,

Bruno Taut gives a very detailed description o entering his new home in Japan. Heexplains the unction o transitional space, or example, in the ritual o taking off shoes. Secondly,the particular spatial relationship between inside and outside has a general influence on designconcepts in modern architecture. The flexible wall elements provide the living space with alayered transition between interior and exterior, which in turn produces ambivalent spaces obetween-ness.

Simply raising the living space orty centimeters above the level o the surrounding terrain andleaving the vestibule at the terrain level establishes the clear spatial relationship between thetransitional space and the exterior space (fig. ). The floor is either cement or tiles and highlightsthe contact with the exterior. A orty-centimeter-high wooden step orms the connection to theliving space and takes up a third o the space o the square vestibule. This fixture has a direct unc-tional link to the ritual o removing shoes (fig. ). The person entering stores his or her shoes hereand can sit on the step to take them off. Thereater, standing on the step, he or she can slide asidethe second door that orms the entrance to the living space with its flooring o tatami mats.

Bruno Taut, Houses and People of Japan (Tokyo: Sanseido, ), –.

Fig. : Isometry based on sketches by Bruno Taut

Fig. : Body o the threshold space withdelimitations o the threshold space


Raised level cm

Shoe shel

Entrance door


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The sensitive gradation rom inside to outside is particularly clear in the case o both the verandaand the mat room (fig. ). The transition system is executed on two levels with sliding doors tothe inside and the outside. The floors are almost level with one another but the mat flooring onthe inward side is our centimeters higher to protect the mats rom rain. The height o the ceiling

draws attention to the mat room and slopes downward over the veranda. The inner mat roomis separated off using a transparent sliding door wall. On the outer side, the neighbouring verandais bordered by a second translucent set o sliding screens. The second, middle layer can only belocked rom within. This is true or the entire house. The third, outside layer can be locked usingadditional wooden elements. The shutters can be recessed into pocket-like units on the side othe window.

The system described here makes it possible to react to seasons and times o day in the house.Each o the various positions o the sliding elements defines a different kind o transition. Theblurred boundary between inside and outside is achieved through the different possibilities o thesuperimposed systems (fig. ). This principle has been used in many contemporary variations.In his design or the Fondation Cartier, Jean Nouvel, or example, uses gradated transparentlayers, some o which are in ront o the building. The spaces in between that are created by thissystem orm a threshold space.

Fig. : Japanese home, floor plan

Fig. : Japanese home, “extendible border”

—

Veranda

Mat room

Exterior

Entrance

Interior



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Arcades

By virtue o their special atmosphere, arcades are a source o inspiration. Walter Benjamin, orexample, uses the term in the title o his philosophical treatise The Arcades Project. In his

comprehensive work, he describes the atmosphere o Paris. “[T]he project Benjamin worked onor thirteen years, rom until his death in , […] would have become nothing less thana materialist philosophy o the nineteenth century.”

In addition to Benjamin’s philosophical approach, Johann Friedrich Geist creates an irreplaceablebasis or considering the arcade in the context o architecture and urban planning in his publica-tion Arcades: The History of a Building Type, which has become a standard reerence. Arcades arecatalogued and compared in illustrations. Examinations o the term “arcade” contribute to anunderstanding o transitions. Geist lists terms that are oten substituted in everyday language orarcade—street, lane, driveway, passageway, thoroughare, transit—and elaborates, “Inherentin all the meanings, whether they maniest themselves in terms o space or time, is the com-mon element o a transition, a threshold, a process, a measured route or something that passes.Something happens—the movement becomes an experience.” It becomes clear that an arcadecan per se be a threshold space. It contains ambiguity; it connects street spaces and at the sametime bonds the street rontage o the blocks o buildings. It welcomes a stroll. The displays in theshop windows can be examined without the weather causing problems. Moreover, the straight-orward spatial structure o the arcade makes it easy to orient onesel within it. The flâneur canlet himsel drit and be tempted without being “misled.” Franz Hessel writes in In Berlin: Day andNight in :

“Walking slowly down bustling streets is a particular pleasure. Awash in the haste o others, it’sa dip in the sur. But my dear ellow citizens o Berlin don’t make it easy, no matter how nimblyyou weave out o their way. I always catch wary glances when I try to play the flâneur among theindustrious. I believe they take me or a pickpocket.”

Originally, an arcade was defined as a glass connection between two street spaces, which wasenhanced with additional unctions such as shops (fig. ). It becomes living space with its own

atmosphere o between-ness. The space is neither inside nor outside (fig. ). Its strength lies inthe link between the private and the public. Geist provides a definition: “The illusionist elemento an arcade is the passage area: imaginary exterior space as interior space—a acade with exte-rior architecture pulled inward.”

Particular materials, or example the flooring, create the impression within an arcade o being“outside.” Crucial to the eeling o stepping into an exterior space is no doubt the large openingand the lack o a door or a gate. You drit quite naturally into the spacious area. The hall, with itsextensive glass spaces, is characterized by bright and sympathetic lighting. We find ourselves inan exterior space in an interior setting. Herman Hertzberger elaborates:

Walter Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften: Band V: Das Passagen-Werk (Frankurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, ). Peter Osborne, ed., Walter Benjamin: Critical Evaluations in Cultural Theory (London: Routledge, ), . Johann Friedrich Geist, Passagen, ein Bautyp des . Jahrhunderts (Munich: Prestel, ), . Franz Hessel, In Berlin: Day and Night in , trans. Amanda DeMarco (Berlin: Readux Books, ), . Geist, .



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“The high, long passages, illuminated rom above thanks to glass roofing, give you the eelingo an interior; thus they are ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ at the same time. Inside and outside are so

strongly relativized vis à vis each other that you cannot tell whether you are inside one buildingor in the space connecting two separate buildings.”

Herman Hertzberger, Lessons for Students in Architecture, trans. Ina R ike (Rotterdam: Publishers, ), –.



—

Street space

Block o buildings

Stores



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The Dissolution of Floor Plans in the Twentieth Century

The notions o space at the end o the nineteenth and beginning o the twentieth centuries havea particular influence on perception o transitions. More and more, modern architects reuse to

connect spaces in an additive manner and instead design a spatial continuum.

In , Frank Lloyd Wright linked the main rooms in his design or the Willits House with thehelp o a central built-in unit that integrated the chimney and the supports. This reestandingstructure appears to orm extremities that extend into the next spaces. Transitional spacesemerge that mediate between the various main rooms, with little daylight and spatial constric-tion. As you enter these transitional zones, you are led seamlessly around the corner to therespective next room. These spatial sequences are determined by the staging o leaving onespace and arriving in a new one. The transition makes it possible to experience various spatialatmospheres in a continuous sequence.

Mies van der Rohe radically opens up the closed floor plan in his design or the Barcelona Pavilion.He separates the structural rom the space-defining elements and thus has more reedom tocreate continuity in the spatial sequence. The alternation between closed and open areas providesthe visitor with this new spatial experience. “As in Wright’s work, one can recognize here aprinciple whereby broad spaces are separated and at the same time linked by narrow transitionalelements.”

In , in the Villa La Roche in Paris, Le Corbusier designed a complex interior promenade archi- tecturale that was intended to acilitate a new perception o cubistic art.

A urther important aspect o spatial design in the twentieth century can be ound in the newuses o glass and transparent plastic, affording new possibilities or opening and closing spaces.The transparent panels are used as space-defining elements and orm a see-through boundary.In some projects, it seems possible to shit the spatial boundary. An example o this designconcept is the panorama windows o the Villa Tugendhat by Mies van der Rohe, which could becompletely sunk into the ground. Similarly, in his design or Lovell Health House, Richard Neutra

shits the spatial boundary into the landscape. He does so with hidden profiles on the windowelements and spatial layering o the interior and the exterior spaces. The glass panes and theslim steel construction provide a wide, ree view into the surrounding landscape. Richard Neutraintentionally allows materials to run over the boundary between inside and outside. Spatialconditions are achieved that suggest an exterior space in the interior.

As Joedicke points out, it is possible to identiy a commonality in how space is defined in theModern Movement. “It is characterized by sequences o linked, interpenetrating spaces, by openspaces, spatial sequences that, on proceeding through them, open up ever new perspectivesand that undergo constant changes.”

Joedicke, . Joedicke, .



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Gerald Staib explains the developmental history o the new spatial sequences in conjunctionwith “iron, concrete, and glass construction” and “the growing dissolution o the traditionalsolid cubic building. Frank Lloyd Wright reerred to it as ‘the destruction o the box’.”

These commonalities lead to the conclusion that there is a new, modern approach to thresholds.There is a new transitional space, a threshold space, that has been conceived and designed as acontinuum. The transition is expressly designed and given its own place.

Toward the end o the twentieth century, more and more artists began to deal with the concepto space and spatial thresholds have requently been examined. The threshold is used as a deviceor slowing down the person perceiving it. Various artists deal with spatial transitions and withraising awareness o transition situations. Notable among these are Dan Graham, Olaur Eliasson,and Dani Karavan. All three artists have in common the act that they see public space as a labo-ratory or their spatial installations. Their works can, in a way, present a “pure” spatial transi-tion, as neither the artist nor the passerby is concerned with its usability. Artistic spaces can, incontrast to architectural spaces, ocus more directly on the spatial experience per se, as theyhave no unctions to perorm.

Dan Graham’s installations present to observers their positions in a space. In addition to hisvarious installations with video and screen hook-ups, he has created a series o pavilions in differ-ent contexts that lead to extraordinary perceptions o surroundings. The Fun House for Münster invites the visitor to step into a transparent, open space and at the same time subtly blurs thesensation o being inside or outside the spatial configuration. Transparent mirrors create dou-blings that cause the visitors to wonder whether they are looking at the image or a body.

Close examination o the different art installations reveals the complex nature o a “threshold”as a device, a phenomenon, and an allegory. The various approaches complement one anotherin some respects and enable observers to orm their own interpretations. Art installations witha ocus on an experience o space are given particular attention here.

Christian Schittich, Gerald Staib, Dieter Balkow, Matthias Schuler, and Werner Sobek, Glass Construction Manual (Munich: Birkhäuser Verlag, ), .

Ibid.

Transitions in Art

— Transitions in Art


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Dan Graham: Present Continuous Past(s), New York,

With his installation, Dan Graham creates a closed, cube-like perceptual space that conrontsvisitors with the spatial position they have just experienced (fig. ). The construction uses a

monitor to present to the beholders their own past.

A perceptual space spans the area between two mirror walls and a monitor-camera wall. Intuitively,visitors position themselves between the monitor-camera wall and the opposite mirror wall.Providing the visitor’s body does not directly cover the camera lens, the camera records the spaceand the reflection rom the mirror, which includes the image to be seen in the monitor. The videocamera records both what is happening at the moment in the space and also the reflection romthe opposite mirror wall. The recorded image is presented on the video display monitor with aneight-second delay. The viewer sees not only the picture taken eight seconds ago, but also whatwas reflected rom the monitor eight seconds previous to that. Eight-second-long pasts are created,clearly recognizable in the picture within the rame o the monitor.

“An infinite regress o time continuums within time continuums (always separated by eight-second intervals) within time continuums is created.”

Another mirror wall connects the monitor wall to the reflecting mirror wall. The third wallreflects the present and displays the real-time image.

Birgit Pelzer, Dan Graham (London: Phaidon Press, ), . Doug Hall and Sally Jo Fier, Illuminating Video: An Essential Guide to Video Art (New York: Aperture, ), .

Fig. : Threshold spaces in ramed monitor


Monitor

Camera

Mirrors

Pasts


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The video camera records movements in ront o it and plays them back to the viewer eight secondslater. Seen rom a central perspective, the ramed images o the past vanish into the infinity oillegibility. The viewer is conronted with his or her immediate transition rom the past into thepresent. The simultaneous experience o pasts in the present and the immediate becoming past

o the present unsettles and recontextualizes the viewer.

Furthermore, Dan Graham creates closed spatial situations that, by means o the camera in therame o a monitor, record the between-ness o the viewer in the space. The individual momentsin the space are ramed in eight-second pasts and individually presented as such.

It seems as though the viewer is entering spaces, one ater another, which are located eightseconds away rom each other. The ramed window becomes a time threshold. In addition, theinstallation provides insight into the time dimension o threshold experiences; it separates whatlies in the past into “eight-second time intervals” and projects it orward. The individual pasttime continuums are captured and made visible in isolation.

In , Karavan’s Passages, a memorial to the German philosopher Walter Benjamin, was com-pleted in Portbou, a small Spanish border town in the Pyrenees and on the Mediterranean. Itis assumed that Benjamin took his own lie there in to avoid his imminent deportation toGermany, and he is buried in the small town cemetery. The open area in ront o the cemeterywas chosen as the site or the memorial. From the high cliff line, Karavan discovered a whirlpoolwhich he wanted to highlight spatially. He designed or the slope a m long, . m high, and m wide traversable steel construction that ocuses on the whirlpool. This rectangular passage-way digs into the slope at a thirty-degree angle and is made negotiable by the inclusion o steps.

In ront o the open our-cornered shat, Karavan places a long steel plate, flush with the ground.The width and material o this threshold allude to the passageway. The plate lies between thetunnel and a section o dry-stone wall that has been set back to give the threshold a spatial mo-ment. The straight path o motion is interrupted and rerouted resulting in the preace to the

traversable steel construction, the threshold space.

In the upper part, the passageway is closed on all our sides, but in the lower part the top is open.The entire hollow structure, including the steps and the floor, is made o corten steel (fig. ).Karavan offers a dark, narrow, elongated space that invites the visitor to take leave o the sur-rounding world and do nothing but concentrate on the sea. In the confinement o the steelstructure, gazing at the whirlpool, the visitor can have a threshold space experience. The muffledecho o his or her own steps intensifies the narrowness o the hollow structure. Benjamin’swords only become—weakly—legible when you are near the end o the path. Karavan chosethe ollowing quote and had it etched into the pane o glass:

“It is a more arduous task to honour the memory o anonymous beings than that o amouspersons. The construction o history is consecrated to the memory o those who have no name.”

The words are superimposed on our view o the whirlpool.

Ingrid Scheurmann and Konrad Scheurmann, Dani Karavan: Homage to Walter Benjamin (Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, ), , , .

Scheurmann, .

Dani Karavan: Passages, Portbou, Spain −



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The entire installation could be described as an elongated, linear threshold space with the ad-ditional unction o acilitating immersion in Benjamin’s inner thoughts. The area in ront o thecemetery appears as an exterior space rom which you can visually immerse yoursel in the whirl-pool. The passageway orms a transition between two exterior spaces. It demonstrates intense

spatial confinement and thus makes between-ness something to be physically experienced. Thepassageway was initially designed to be closed throughout, but was redesigned by Karavan onsite and opened up in the lower section. The spatial expansion allows the visitor to sense the skyand it heightens the effect as an in-between element. This opening and the threshold plate at theentrance are the sot transitional zones o the threshold space.

The shat could be understood as a visual aid that brings Benjamin’s words into ocus. The whirl-pool is a point to be aimed at. Seen symbolically, the passageway builds up a threshold spacerom a eeling o hopelessness into the expanse o the sea. The spatial body lies between thecemetery and the sea—between lie and death.

Fig. : Delimitations o the threshold space and body o the threshold space

Threshold m length Whirlpool



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Bill Viola, “The Threshold” Accessed May , .

Bill Viola: Threshold, Frankfurt am Main,

Bill Viola assembles a cubic room with a square floor plan o six by six meters and a height o. meters to walk into (fig. ). The box has an electronic ticker on the outside that is synchro-

nized with news rom a press agency. On the inside, three sleeping people are seen in a videoprojection that is repeated cyclically. The presentation o the outside and the inside worlds isemphasized using a number o contrasting pairs. The bright orange ticker messages displaycurrent news items and move noiselessly. Conversely, the interior black-and-white video projec-tion is set up as a loop and presents supernaturally loud breathing noises.


Ticker

Projections



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“The intersection in the middle o the electronic ticker provides access to the inner room o theinstallation. The spectator has to pass through the silent, but optically very ‘loud’ electronic flowo data in order to reach a dark space. Here, he will find himsel conronted by the vast, blurredimages o the heads and upper torsos o three sleeping figures, projected onto three o the inner

walls ... I the spectator then remains or a while in the darkened space, he will begin to sensethe deep calm o these ’night scenes’ … The sound o regular breathing characterizes the innerroom as an area o unconscious ‘being there,’ away rom the continual urther development owhat is happening in the world.”

The glaring, borderless, silent exterior is juxtaposed with the colorless, interior, abstract placeor sel-reflection. The interplays have obviously been assigned intentionally and allow equivocal,complex atmospheres to develop. These ambivalent moods show parallels to threshold spaceexperiences, which are also characterized by ambiguity and the unexpected. Furthermore, thedissimilar atmospheres establish a strong contrast between inside and outside, which puts thevisitor into a perceptible intermediate state. Visitors not only physically penetrate an inner worldbut also find themselves reflecting on their own inner thoughts. The media space provides a two-old threshold space experience, on the one hand physical, on the other intellectual. The act owaiting inside the installation is bestowed not with a particular effect but rather with orgettingthe outside world. A new threshold space has been entered.

Ursula Frohne, “Bill Viola ‘The Threshold’,” in Kunst der Gegenwart, ed. Heinrich Klotz (Munich: Prestel Verlag, ), .



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Lin Yilin, “Saely Maneuvering across Lin He Road” Accessed May , .

Hu Fang, “Lin Yilin, Saely Maneuvering across Lin He Road, Media Installation ,” in Documenta Kassel /—/,Ruth Noack and Roger M. Buergel (Cologne: Taschen Verlag, ), .


Lin Yilin: Safely Maneuvering across Lin He Road, Guangzhou, , dokumenta

The perormance shows the artist helping a brick wall across a street. The blocks become a loosemasonry bond when Lin Yilin takes them rom one end o the wall to reposition them at the

other.

Thus the wall is continuously adjusted and the traffic on the busy street in China’s third-largest city, Guangzhou, is orced to change lanes. It is striking to note the construction site inthe background, where the same blocks are being used.

In addition to its sociopolitical reading, the installation is particularly orceul in terms o its crea-tion o space (fig. ). This strength intensifies the political statement. Walls are space-creatingelements that must first be opened to allow passage. In other words, walls delimit space, theyclose it, in this case a wall made o blocks that is made into a subject, or a passage. The streetwith its vehicular traffic momentarily loses its significance as a linear connecting path andbecomes a space delimiter or the advancing wall. From a spatial perspective it is particularlyinteresting to see how a wall, the epitome o a space delimiter, can express a transition. It seemsparadoxical that a shiting boundary can itsel become a passage. This situation, so unusual inarchitectural space, heightens awareness o delimiters and their space-defining unctions.

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Lin He Road ( m width)

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Dan Graham: Fun House for Münster,

The Fun House for Münster is based on the ground plan o a narrow parallelogram with oneshort, curved side (fig. ). One o the long sides has an open section the width o the short end.

The panes set in a grid o gray rames are made o two-way mirror glass with a high degree otransparency. Dan Graham created a series o pavilions, including the Octagon for Münster andFun House for Münster , that offer diverse contexts or perceiving the surroundings in novel ways.

“Both pavilions are ‘photo opportunities’ or parents and children, places to linger in within apark atmosphere that calls or picnics. Both works are set up within the larger ramework o thepark and the city. The Fun House for Münster reers to a nearby playground; its curved acadeharkens back to the circular town layout established by the Romans. The use o transparent mir-ror glass alludes to newer office, government and bank buildings.”

A visitor to the Fun House for Münster is presented, above all, with his or her own spatial posi-tion. The installation invites the visitor to step into a transparent, open space while it subtlyblurs the sensation o being inside or outside the spatial configuration. Through the transparentmirrors, a doubling occurs that makes the visitor wonder whether he/she is perceiving the imageor a body (fig. ). Many spaces are created by the geometry and the reflective and transparentsuraces o the pavilion. Some o these spaces are only projections, but even these can be walkedthrough like the inside o the pavilion. Sot transitions emerge which do not allow or a cleardemarcation between inside and outside.

Dan Graham used these spatial experiments in the design o Caé Bravo in Berlin. When daylightlevels are low, the caé seems very open and closely connected to the inner courtyard, whereasin broad daylight the cubes appear as strong, independent bodies.

At the Fondation Cartier, Jean Nouvel works with the idea o a sot transition in a similar way bylayering acade elements and rows o trees and using mirrorings and openings to create an insideand an outside that can hardly be kept distinct rom one another.


Klaus Bußmann, Kasper König and Florian Matzner, Zeitgenössische Skulptur. Projekte in Münster (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag, ), .


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Fig. : Extension o the threshold space through reflection

Transparent mirror glas elements(. m height)

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Olafur Eliasson: Green River, Stockholm,

In his project Green River , Olaur Eliasson works with the shiting o local expectations, which inturn invert reality. Eliasson seeks out special locations that stage their natural look. Without warn-

ing, the artist uses harmless fluorescein to dye bright green or hal an hour the blue-gray waterthat picturesquely washes around the mainland o Stockholm. In contrast to the earlier project bythe artist Nicolás Uriburu, who dyed a river green in the context o a sel-staging, in Eliasson’scase a perturbing, artificial world is created. The place surprises and sets up its own artistic realitywithout the presence o the artist. This temporary change places the staged naturalness in the ap-propriate artistic context.

The surprise, the unsettling, the contrast all play a decisive role in the perception o Eliasson'sworks in public spaces. He ollows this principle in many o his installations. He uses a passingglance o the passerby and establishes a threshold, provoking the passerby to cross it. Interactionwith the art project arises rom the conusion. The artist seems to play with this moment and totest how susceptible passersby are to his stimuli. He experiments with this means o designingworks o art to the point o exclusivity, where unsettling is an end in itsel.

Eliasson expands on this principle, or example in his new exhibition Innen Stadt Außen (InsideCity—a play on words with statt, which means “rather than”—Out), in which common objects canbe ound in new contexts. The logs distributed in the chaotic urban space o Berlin do not stickout. They are anything but a provocation. Those who notice them have been observing very careullyand have “spotted the difference” in the puzzle picture. This fine appeal to attentiveness calls orheightened awareness and demands close observation. Furthermore, the unsettling objects set thegiven location in a new context. A look, a fleeting moment seems crucial; the present is set in time.

The Schwellenraummaschine (Threshold Space Machine) is designed to heighten the experienceo the instant o spatial transition. The ocus is on perceiving the temporal and spatial dimensions

o the threshold phenomenon. In particular, the ollowing questions were examined: Is it possibleto compress and layer the temporal sequence o experiencing what lies in the past, the present,and the uture? Can the spatial experience o the immediate past be registered concurrently withthe spatial perception that is expected to ollow? In other words, can you experience the pastand the uture in the present? The idea behind the Threshold Space Machine is to make a momen-tary overlap o different time rames possible and to thus highlight the mediating unction o athreshold space as a spatial and temporal connecting element. The installation can be entered andwalked through and provides a threshold space experience that makes the character and capabilitieso the threshold space perceivable and visible. The aim is to project or the visitor what has hap-pened in the past into the uture and thus to show the complexity o a transition in a compressedorm. The Threshold Space Machine is intended to be a visual aid or experiments in spatial per-ception with regard to thresholds. It unctions as a perceptual apparatus or a body in motion,similar to a microscope, which makes it possible to see the invisible.

Nicolás García Uriburu, “Coloration du Grand Canal” Accessed May , . Daniel Birnbaum, ed., Olafur Eliasson: Innen Stadt Außen / Inner City Out (Cologne: Walther König, ), .

Till Boettger: Schwellenraummaschine, Weimar,


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Fig. : Threshold Space Machine

Fig. : Principle o the Threshold Space Machine

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Peephole mirror

Projector

Camera

Peephole mirror

threshold space

Projector

Camera

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The Threshold Space Machine is constructed as an open object. It gets in the way and causesconusion (fig. ). At the same time it creates a threshold space that invites you to enter. Uponentering, the visitor is already in the threshold space, in the perceptual space. Visitors canexperience their own spatial past together with an overlapping o the spatial uture (fig. ).

It becomes possible or them to see themselves rom behind, in motion and lie-size. At the sametime, each visitor can see in this “backward mirror image” the ront view o another visitorapproaching. Both the projection and the space ahead can be perceived at the same time (fig. ).The Threshold Space Machine prompts you to use it more than once. The visitors go back andorth through the installation in order to truly perceive the projection, their physical experience,and the situation that lies beore them simultaneously. It is virtually impossible to ocus on allthree phenomena at the same time.

With the help o two mirror systems, real-time video transmission and projection technology,the user perceives an extraordinary spatial experience as he experiences the space he has justpassed through and the space in ront o

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