Siedle research into the threshold

09.03.2009
The 191/192 issue of the architecture magazine ARCH+ is dedicated to the "Architecture of the threshold“. The publication was produced in cooperation with Siedle. To mark the publication of the magazine on March 13, 2009, a symposium will be held at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich) featuring experts from cultural science, philosophy, sociology, architectural history and art. Here too, Siedle will be taking part in a floor discussion which will provide an interdisciplinary exploration of architectural threshold elements and open up exciting new approaches.

Thresholds link and separate, act as an entrance and exit point, as an interface between inside and outside. With the financial support of the Schwellenatlas and the ETH Symposium, Siedle is encouraging discussion of an issue whose further development is highly significant for the company. Siedle's role has long since expanded from simple door communication to take in every aspect of the entrance area - the threshold.

The ARCH+ feature issue is concerned with space-related aspects of opening and shutting. Guest editor is Laurent Stalder, assistant professor of architecture theory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. Various authors have been invited to submit essays dealing with different aspects such as the monitor (Georges Teyssot), the telephone (Christoph Asendorf) or the door closer (Bruno Latour). Also broached are aspects of security, privacy and communication affecting the relationship between people, technology and architecture. The publication addresses the transformation taking place in design, the significance of building thresholds and of how perceptions of space can change over time.

Following publication of the ARCH+, this issue will be dealt with in greater depth at a symposium staged by the ETH Zurich. Scientists and artists will talk about the architectural and technical design of transition points, about the social interaction which takes place on the threshold and how this impacts on its design. The symposium will be led by Laurent Stalder and Philipp Ursprung (Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Institute of Art History, Zurich University) and by ARCH+.

> ARCH+ complete directory and Threshold Atlas
> Program for the ETH Zurich symposium

Graphic: Katja Gretzinger, Assistant Professor of Architectural Theory at the Institute for History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zurich
© 2020 S. Siedle & Söhne OHG
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