Cooperation with the Bauhaus University: The inbetweeners
What happens when we enter or leave a building? What is our perception of the experience, what role does the architecture play, what is the influence of technology? These were the issues deliberated by students at the Bauhaus University Weimar in cooperation with Siedle. The book "Threshold spaces" which has now been published looks at the results. The model demonstrates one of the student designs, the Welcome Booth by Christian Müller. This design is a response to modern needs of individuality, communication and security. Photo: Tobias Adam.
The architecture faculty of the Bauhaus University in Weimar dedicated a seminar of its Masters Degree Course to the subject of "Threshold Spaces". As part of this seminar, 25 budding architects considered complex issues relating to the subject of the threshold:

What is an architectural threshold?
How can a threshold space be defined?
What is the function assumed by the threshold space in terms of opening up and experiencing forms of architecture?

The students initially analysed real examples of architecture and then designed their own models of threshold spaces. The event was initiated by Siedle, which also offered insights into the development and production of systems for building communication and got to grips with the various designs.

Photo: David von Becker.
The Welcome Booth by Christian Müller is a reception furniture concept for apartment buildings which is a response to today's aspirations of individuality, communication and security. Letterbox and bell become a room in their own right. Messages can be left using screens which are individually programmed. The photo booth is used to transmit physical or virtual messages or to provide an additional security barrier (Threshold spaces", page 73 ff.).

Illustrations: Christian Müller
The threshold space designed by Ekaterina Galinka provides a staged entrance to a cube-like exhibition space. Slits in the outer wall allow the rhythmical ingress of light. This effect is exacerbated by points of constriction; by modifications to the inside of the room and the ceiling: This creates a stepped, funnel-shaped space ("Threshold spaces", page 52 ff.).

Photo: Tobias Adam
The Meander by Fanny Pirschel was conceived as a spatial sequence, following on from the spatial concepts of Mies van der Rohe and his space continuum. Visitors are guided and led with the aid of wall panels. The wall panels are initially placed only loosely in relation to each other and open up a range of options. The more closely you approach the threshold, the more closed the path becomes ("Threshold spaces", page 49 ff.).

Photo: Tobias Adam
An initial conclusion: Every threshold is about communication. Not just in terms of the technology integrated within it, but through its pure existence. It gives off varying signals, it can be inviting or stand-offish, it opens itself and the building, or it closes them off. It does all of these things whether we want it, plan and design it, or not. It makes sense for us to deliberately choose what sort of statement an entrance makes.

Photo: Till Boettger, Chair of Architectural Space and Design, and Peter Strobel, Head of Corporate Communication at Siedle.

Photos: David von Becker
© 2020 S. Siedle & Söhne OHG
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