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originally referred to the wooden beams that lie on the floor
of a half-timbered structure, as well as to door sill as the low-
er element of a doorframe. As a staggered section of the floor,
the threshold forms the lower doorstop. It thereby delimits
interior from the exterior, or two rooms from one another;
as a raised edge, it demands attention when passing through
a doorway to avoid tripping. Together with the doorframe, it
forms a flattened space within which one abides briefly when
traversing – that is to say, unless one lingers on the threshold.
Conceived more broadly, the concept of the ‘threshold’ refers
to architectural constellations in which spatial delimitation
and the transgression of boundaries condition one another
reciprocally. When the threshold involves an expanded spa-
tial volume, or threshold space, then we are dealing with an
> intermediate space of the kind that plays a substantial role
in architecture in the context of > ingress and exit. The se-
quential crossing of a threshold that separates the public and
private spheres is thematized by the > introduction.
The essential effect of the threshold lies in the inter-
play of an inhibition and its overcoming. Spaces or condi-
tions that are attained through the forceful overcoming of
a threshold are experienced as having heightened value. For
visual perception, the elevated edge of a threshold is part of
a frame that is completed by a doorframe or by other facade
elements, and which functions as an image frame for that
which it announces, frames, and hence endows with value.
The higher the threshold, the more ambivalent its effects; ini-
tially, it excludes, but then offers exclusive access. In extreme
cases, the effort of climbing over an extremely high threshold
seems almost humiliating, since one lowers one’s head in or-
der to clear the lintel; as a consequence, however, crossing
it becomes even more meaningful. Where the impact of the
threshold is reduced by means of uniform floor levels and the
harmonization of materials, for example in order to reduce
the anxiety of those entering, distinctions are abolished. Play-
ing a role in the impact of a threshold as well is the need to