93A particularly complex situation is opened up by the
door of a private house or an apartment by virtue of the
manifold modulations of invitation or defence, of orientation,
communication and control. Before a stranger’s door, the in-
dividual – who stands either outside or in a kind of transition
space, on a doormat, entrance grating, beneath a porch or
in a protective door niche – signals his or her desire to enter
by knocking or ringing a bell. The visitor is then perhaps ob-
served or interviewed, through a crack in the door, window,
a spy hole, or an intercom system, before the door is opened
hesitantly and distrustfully, or flung open joyfully. By taking
hold of a knob or latch (the house’s hand, so to speak) the en-
trant has his or her first tactile contact with the house. A door
handle may be large or small, may move smoothly or stiffly,
may lie in the hand smoothly or have sharp edges, may be
polished or rusty, perhaps reflecting the house’s character out-
wardly. Equally eloquent is the character of the entry door, its
materiality, thickness or transparency, and the direction of its
opening, whether towards the visitor or into the house. Then
there is the resistance it offers, the sluggishness with which it
opens, thereby according the act of entrance a certain weighti-
ness, and finally the noises, the tell-tale creaking in contrast to
the soundlessness that allows arrivals and departures to take
place without notice, or perhaps the rich sound with which a
heavy door swings shut, conveying solidity and security.
Directly after the door is opened, the entrant experiences
all of this as bodily graspable, immediate expressive quali-
ties, in contrast to the image or symbolic character exploited
by many homeowners in designing entry doors. Seen from
the outside, the door is a key element in a house’s facade, as
is a door seen from the corridor in relation to a room and
its contents. Things are different from inside, where the door
is ranged between the other openings in the walls. The door
in the wall has the effect of a counterpart, a kind of place-
holder for a person who enters or exits. This correspondence
seduces us into engaging in play with its gesture, an example