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The Threshold of Experience: A Journey Toward Inward Reflection

Romer-Jordan, Zachary L.

Abstract Details

2010, MARCH, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Architecture (Master of).

There are specific programs where the goal of creating space is to elicit a heightened state of consciousness, a separation from the everyday that enriches the lives of those within. In rituals, this is achieved through a prescribed order or specific series of events that builds up to a higher or otherworldly experience. There is a moment in this transition from the mundane to the sublime that is described as the liminal threshold. Similarly with the built environment, the progression through space can lead to a liminal threshold, or shift of experience. In this thesis, this shift of experience is referred to simply as threshold. But threshold here needs to be understood from the most literal interpretation to the most conceptual. Threshold has the physical presence of literally transitioning from one space to another through movement, but it is also the shift of materials, light, and atmosphere. It is through these thresholds that the ultimate goal of transitioning to a heightened state of consciousness can be achieved.

A crematorium is one of these programs that inherently promotes a heightened state of consciousness because the building itself can be seen as threshold and as journey. A crematorium can be seen as threshold because it houses the final threshold, the shift from life to death, from body to ashes, from presence to memory. A crematorium is intended for and experienced by the mourner, and so the focus of the design is the thresholds that that mourner will cross through or experience during the grieving process. Death here can be seen as a catalyst towards personal reflection. So for the user, the final and more abstract of thresholds is shifting from loss to acceptance, and housing a space that allows that cyclical ritual to occur.

Aarati Kanekar, PhD (Committee Chair)
George Bible, MCiv.Eng (Committee Chair)
110 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Romer-Jordan, Z. L. (2010). The Threshold of Experience: A Journey Toward Inward Reflection [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1275667134

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Romer-Jordan, Zachary. The Threshold of Experience: A Journey Toward Inward Reflection. 2010. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1275667134.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Romer-Jordan, Zachary. "The Threshold of Experience: A Journey Toward Inward Reflection." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1275667134

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)