A Rereading of the Concept of Liminality in Architecture and the Explanation of its Denotational Hierarchies based on the Etymology of the Term and Architectural Thinkers’ Views

Liminality indicates a state of transition or being in between, as opposed to being at one. In architecture, it refers to a transition between two places on the way to arrive at a destination. The starting point of the present paper is tackling the reduction of the concept of liminality to ‘being at a threshold’, and thereby the threshold itself as a mere connection point and the neglect of is denotational range. The adopted method is qualitative accompanied with logical reasoning. After accurately defining the etymology of the term, and also a search for transitional zones in the literature, the views of significant architectural thinkers in this field such as Christian Norberg Schulz, Christopher Alexander, and Louis Kahn are further scrutinised. Although these thinkers have different perspectives towards the matter, they still share some common views. An investigation into their views shows that on top of wide-ranging meanings to ‘liminality’, there is also hierarchies in terms of objectivity-subjectivity. Liminality is also classifiable, it is shown, into four categories of the physical, the functional, the denotational, and the substantial. The paper then moves on to investigate concepts such as boundary, centre, and threshold in order to analyse the substantial and its relation with other realms. The results show that transitional zones tend to converge into the centre, which materialise in thresholds. These liminal materialisations set the limits for the adjoining centre. The investigation of the bi-existential characteristics of thresholds and their emblematic state proves the denotational stance of liminality, with its existential demand explained in relation with the audience after defining the substance of the concept at a more subliminal stage. To conclude, architectural liminality is hierarchical, and paying attention to its various denotational levels yields a deeper understanding of the concept.