Thresholds in Space and Time

In architecture there is perhaps no better opportunity to capture movement and change than in the design of thresholds. They can be a simple strip of metal beneath a doorway, barely noticed as you pass over it, or a grand atrium that you stop and marvel at on your way into the office. They can manifest as a change of materials or finishes, or of some parameter such as ceiling height. They might even be immaterial altogether, like the boundary between light and shadow. Thresholds transcend the physical to effect a psychological experience. They can be spatial or temporal or some combination of the two, but whatever form they take, all thresholds can be said to be mediators of our movement from one spatial status to another. Inside to outside, public to private, here to there. Too often our buildings relegate these changes to doors or openings that have little connection to the buildings they are a part of, and so our awareness of passage from space to space is diminished. This thesis explores ways to enrich the architecture of the threshold so that it doesn't merely recede to the bounds of our perception.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Architecture

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Architecture

Department dc:contributor.department

Architecture

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Asbell, Jonathan Clark

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Jones, Kevin William

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Jones, James R.
• Ermann, Michael G.

• threshold
• space
• time
• change
• perception

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:27889

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/100920