ABSTRACT
Safety is a requirement of social life; however, control of access becomes one of the most important constraints on publicly accessible buildings. The architecture of thresholds in publicly accessible buildings is constrained by access/egress regulations, and in the context of terrorism threats, by counterterrorism guidelines. These constraints combine requirements for enclosure (against fire propagation and control of access of people, for example) and for openness (egress requirements in case of fire, access of fire security, and emergency services).
The most drastic rules and architectural guidelines that impact public space and public buildings are counter-terrorism rules and guidelines. This chapter focuses on the impact of counter-terrorism guidelines on public buildings and especially their thresholds. The chapter analyses how to maintain a balance between the requirements of public space and security requirements. Consideration of real threat level is required not to restrain design more than necessary. These constraints are manageable in most cases but are challenging for publicly accessible buildings in areas of high terrorism threat level. The security requirement of “stand-off distance” between the actual entrance of the interiors and the areas reachable by vehicles can, in some cases, be combined with the design of a threshold space for the building.
