Threshold space for a placeless momentary community

This thesis investigates the conceptualization of exhibition spaces as threshold-spaces by extending the related concepts of threshold and liminality. The work tends to explore how applied concept of liminality can augment spatial experiences and extend perception of a public space in terms of architectural design. The concept of liminality is pronounced clearly in the context of contemporary Tokyo and in the framework of Tokyo’s urban life and it is easy to read in the circuit of anime society, taking in account related activities (escapist in the majority of cases), such as cosplay, games, production of derivative works etc. The threshold-space as a built form which demarcates an escape from everyday life and comprises a parallel reality. In this framework, architecture represents a background and canvas for reading the exhibition. The exhibition space is a blurred space, where different realms and realities are being overlaid. In addition, physical artefacts such as figurines, paper editions, and hand-drawn manga have a very important meaning in subculture of otaku (despite the fact that this community is generally virtual and placeless). Communication through Web and virtual games do not require physical space, but physical space is still needed to provide this experience of liminality The theoretical base of this thesis refers to a basic set of concepts that come from various disciplines, all related to the idea of threshold (basically to the works of French ethnographer Arnold van Gennep, who advanced the theory of passage which implied the existence of three sets of rites and Victor Turner, who first rediscovered the term ‘liminal’ and ‘liminality’ in 1967 in his book ‘The Forest of Symbols and work of Japanese anthropologist Azuma Hiroki “Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals). The boundary is a very important concept, regardless the shape: physical/abstract, spatial/temporal Etc. The boundary speaks of dualities by separating two different states/spaces/realities etc. However, it also speaks of relation through the thresholds connecting them and tag the passage from one to another. The route and passage establish the liminal rite, by participating to a parallel reality, with different expectations than those of the daily life.