ABSTRACT
The threshold in architecture is, much as Eisenstein argued for montage in film, one of the key sites of creativity. Mediating between one spatial condition and another, the threshold is a crucial element of architecture, representing a much more subtle beauty than the decorative arts or geometric acrobatics which can be argued to be borrowed or appropriated from the other arts. Threshold is a condition wholly of architecture, and is often when the building sings, has something to say in a uniquely architectural manner. Katsura Imperial Villa, on the outskirts of Kyoto, is a complex consisting of a villa, various tea houses and pavilions for music, moon viewing, and contemplation all set along a meandering path around a landscaped lake. The Nezu Museum is a case in point, as it uses devices of deflecting, turning, translucency, and occluding to take the visitor out of the city of Tokyo and into a self-contained garden.
