Slide 1
Drawings representing "dementia" and illustrating "passage across a threshold"
Slide 2
Floor plan for a long-term care facility for dementia sufferers
Slide 3
Light thresholds indicate time of day
Slide 3a
Threshold examples: Thickened wall permitting the resident to reflect
Slide 4
Material palette: The milk bottle carrier refers to the familiar delivery on the front door threshold
Slide 5
Model showing surface changes on interior walls which offer tactile stimulation
Slide 6
Offering a door but unfolding a threshold (final thesis presentation)

TRANSITIONAL (OBJECT) SPACE

Thresholds are the interstitial zones which exist between spaces and within places, significant areas which we mark and demarcate for ourselves. This making and marking become part of our existential archive, supported by additional artifacts of remembrance which give us our identity and allow us to be transported in time. At the threshold – this moment of beginning and transition – we call upon these memories to guide us through.

My role as a designer is to reveal the potential of the threshold and what it means for and in the dwelling. My thesis proposes a means of designing the interior when memory fails us but the need for familiarity and reassurance remains.

Thesis Advisor: Peter Wheelwright