ABSTRACT
This chapter first discusses some threshold spaces between public space and service areas, like visible and/or accessible storage spaces and working spaces in museums, and spaces between service space and served space in markets. The concept of the Schaulager by Herzog & de Meuron is both a provocation and an artistic idea. The concept also has socio-political impacts, as it makes visible spaces that are usually hidden from the public. Architectural expressions of the concept are MMCA (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) in Seoul and Aukio visible storage for EMMA (Espoo Museum of Modern Art).
This chapter also discusses thresholds in front of retail shops. These can have a positive impact on public space. One example is the Retail Shop in Lockhart River, Australia, which functions as a gathering space, especially for members of Aboriginal communities. Threshold spaces for communities have a political benefit. The discussion of the potential of architectural space echoes contemporary debates about a Third Space as an in-between zone of negotiation between Indigenous and Western viewpoints.
