Architecture of the Liminal: Transformative spaces that heal

Abstract

This thesis focusses on the liminal, a state of ‘in-between’ constantly experienced by the author as a newcomer. Being in-between home and a host land, the author experiences a ‘sense of passingthrough a liminal state, a form of rites of passage, as a transient beyond borders and cultures. As the author transcended the vulnerable state, she found her sense of belonging by connecting with her memory. This thesis aims to use memory as a healing tool for newcomers to emerge as spontaneous communitas. Anthropologist Victor Turner uses the term spontaneous communitas to describe an occurrence like a ‘happening’, and here refers to an unstructured group of people who lack a sense of commonality or unity, spontaneously coalescing into a harmonious group of independent individuals.1 Through an understanding of rites of passage and analysis of the author’s personal experience of inbetween- ness, this thesis proposes an adaptable and syncretic urban architectural design for newcomers and Waiwera’s town and foreshore. This thesis proposes adapting a new bathhouse built on the site of an older one, along with a subsidiary bottled water factory and reception centre, for the liminal programme. The programmes are located in Waiwera’s liminal zones: the dying thermal resort site, the estuary that lies between the ocean and land, and the foreshore area where the first 1800s bathhouse stood. The architectural processes that define liminal space in this thesis include blurring, ambiguity, dissolution and dissociation, layering and un-layering, familiarising and de-familiarising to encourage immediacy of intersubjective experience among the newcomers. The proposed design aims to blur the distinction between water and land, and between spatial experiences, to create healing spaces for both newcomers and the town of Waiwera. In the proposed design, newcomers undergo transformations aimed at stimulating a sense of ‘being’ as they move through the three liminal paths and ten healing nodes that use water to create events of familiarity in order to trigger memory. The intention is not to create a state that is just in-between, but rather an in-between state that encourages potential transformation—a place where the mind opens, and boundaries of cultural difference are reduced.