Architectural liminality: the communicative ethics of balconies and other urban passages

Abstract

In this article, I offer a phenomenological examination of the communicative nature of architectural features located between the private and public spheres of the city. These include balconies, porches, doors, windows, fire escapes, and entrances, which enable important communicative practices for inhabitants and passers-by. Focusing specifically on their liminality as an elemental condition for communication, I use the umbrella term Urban Liminal Architecture and explore their simultaneous, paradoxical operative modes of connectivity and separation, along with playfulness and freedom. This builds up to the critical examination of communication in relation to architectural liminality, with a specific focus on interactions between stranger inhabitants and passers-by and ethical practices. I argue that liminal architecture contributes to the values of 'the communicative city' and to the understanding of the essence of communication as transmitting and sharing, while it embodies the materiality of communication. I call to view the site of urban liminal architecture as a symbol and a condition of an ethical relationship with the Other.

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