Introduction to Urban Studies Final Paper
The Concept of Liminality in Abandoned Spaces
Martino Sciarra Andy Chou
Introduction The word liminality was first coined by the French Antropologist Arnold Van Gennepp in 1956 to indicate the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of rituals. Since the concept of liminality was introduced, the word found application not only in religious terms but also in many other fields, one of which is Architecture. In this paper we would like to analyze how an abandoned space can respond to the concept of liminality, in particular how the threefold phases elaborated by Van Gennepp in his book “Rites of passages” fits perfectly the condition of an abandoned space. Before entering our analysis, it is necessary to present the definition of Liminarity by Arnold Von Gennep, and what the tree phases are consisted of.
Liminal Space in Von Gennep “Rites of Passages”
In the book “Rites of Passages” published in 1906, Von Gennepp anylize the ambiguity in context of rituals in small scale societies. He introduced a threefold structure: preliminal rites (or rites of separation), liminal rites (or transition rites) and postliminal rites (or rites of incorporation). Actually Van Gennepp found that this three-stages structure could be applied to all rituals, no matter religion or country. Liminality means something in between, a transition period where no rules or definition can be applied. Von Gennepp also divided the rituals in rites of initation, the one that mark the passage of an individual or social group to form one status to another and those which mark transitions in the passage of times , like new year or harvesting rituals. Van Gennepp found that the rites of initiations responded better to this threefolded pattern. In many religion, the rite of initiation is usually performed when a boy who changes his status from a youngster into adulthood; a separation from his family (rite of separation) that involves his death as a child. A second stage called (rite of initiation) the new initiant must proove his adulthood through a test and the third state (rite of incorporation) that imply a celebration of the new birth of the adult that is accepted back in the society as a “new man”.
“Liminal” in Abandoned Spaces
Abandoned spaces reflect perfectly the concept of liminality used by Van Gennepp and later by Turner, in the urban- architechtural context. Before anylizing in depth our case study, it is necessary to explain how the concept of liminality can be applied to abandoned space. A space is considered abandoned when it is left without care or protection*. In the majority of the cases, the space itself is in a “in-between” condition, since there is no human activity (at least that utilize the space as it was planned) and the structure doesn’t fulfill to the original expected plan. The concept “Space In-between” was first used by the scottish author Rory Stuart in his travel novel “The places in-between” published in 2004, designating the area of Afghanistan occupied by the american troops in 2002. An In-between space is an area where it’s impossible to give a determinate definition, where layers of different natures are melting together. Liminality, in-betweeness and marginality are concept that can easily be applied to the nature of an abandoned space. An abandoned space is a place where no rules can be applied due to the ambiguity of the space itself; his marginality is a key feature to our understanding. For example, an old abandoned village has lost its primary nature of giving people shelter giving us hard times to actually categorize it. In this case, the concept of liminality and marginality reflect the actual hybrid nature of the space. The action of building a structure modifies the space by giving a frame to an empty area but also giving it a purpose. For this reason usually an architectural structure has a fixed nature, meaning that the structure is built to fulfill a precise need for society, like a hospital or a bridge. But what happens when the structure is no longer used to fulfill that intent? In this case the structure acquire most of the meaning of “liminality”. In particular, for Van Gennepp Liminality as in-betweeness, is a dangerous zone since no rules can be applied.
As Thomassen state in the book “Liminal Landscapes: Travel, Experience and Spaces In-between”, empty spaces are potentially dangerous due to their paradoxcally permanent liminality. For Thomassen the state of liminality implies not only on an in-between condition of space, but also cultural, historical and temporal conditions. The three staged elaborated by Van Gennepp can be applied to an abandoned space, where each stage represents a condition of the structure and it’s evolution from normal space to an abandoned one. At the beginning, when the structure is built, has a concrete and fixed nature. When the structure is abandoned, meaning it doesn’t fulfill that need anymore, we can apply the first stage of separation from the previous fixed nature of the structure into a indefinite (ambiguous) nature. At the next step, the initation phase, the nature of the structure is shaped by time and human activity, leading to the third phase of incorporation, where a new nature of the structure is decided. In our case study, the Kasumigaoka abandoned residential area through this tree-folded stage has shifted from a residential purpose area to a human oriented public space.
Abandoned liminality of Kasumigaoka
Through our research, we have used an apartment complex located in Kasumigaoka as a base research. Located just off the heart of Shinjuku, Kasumigaoka is an area of tranquility surrounded by famous Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, Meiji Jingu, and Yoyogi Park, offering a quiet, peaceful environment for the residents to live in. Toei Kasumigaoka Apartment Complex is an apartment complex composed with 9 big block apartments, which was built in the post-war period. The first phase of the three-fold structure (Preliminal rites) created separation between private space of the owners and the tenants, and public space. At the end of the 1980s, the area was dismissed for a renewal project, and all the tenants moved away, but there were no signs that showed any progress with the project. Then the apartment complex took shape as an abandoned area, and the structure had
lost its purpose as an apartment building when the residents moved out. Intregingly since the area was not closed to the public, people started utilizing the apartment as a part of their daily lives. The common garden located inside the complex served as a public-like space where people dined, socialized, and relaxed during their leisure. Such formation of private-public space may be refered to the postliminal rites, in which it created a harmonious interaction between a privately owned space and the people using the abandoned space. The concept of liminality took over the apartment complex to incorporate both the private aspect and the public aspect of this abaondoned space. The dissolution of order during liminality creates a fluid, malleable situation that enables new institutions and customs to become established, and it has overtaken the abandoned architecture of Toei Kasumigaoka Apartment Complex to form a community which allows private and public to coexist.
Aldo Van Eyck Liminality in architectural praxis
Liminality has a contradictory and indeterminate condition; Victor Turner commented on Van Gennepp thesis, saying “This coincidence of opposite processes and notions in a single representation characterizes the peculiar unity of the liminal: that which is neither this nor that, and yet is both”. The concept of coexistence of both condition is re-elaborated by the Dutch architect Aldo Von Eyck. Aldo Van Eyck was a former participant of the “Team 10” (1953-1981), a group of architects who had a profound influence on the development of architectural thoughts in Europe starting from the 1950s. Later on Van Eyck took part to the structuralism movement, togheter with the other Dutch architect Jacob Bakema. Herman Hertzberger define structuralism as a movement in which one differentiates between a structure with a long life cycle and infills with shorter life cycles. Aldo Van Eyck’s approach to architecture is yet simple and strong, the freedom of interpretation of the structuralistic movement allow the architect to utilize the structure as a framework.
As Karin Jashke wrote in his chapter “City is House and House is City: Aldo Van Eyck, Piet Blom and the Architecture of Homecoming”, Van Eyck’s ideas about structural ordering principles were influenced in particular by Martin Buber’s theory of “In-Berween” and Turner analysis of Van gennepp Liminality that conceived of society as a structural entity. Van Eyck continued his research on interrelations between human life and architecture, which led him to develop and introduce his concept of liminality in the architectural praxis; he suggest that a transitional space or threshold must involve the correlation of the two phenomenon rather their opposition. In this way the hybrid and mixed nature of liminal spaces is defined. In the same way we can apply this concept of coexistence at our abandoned space.
Conclusion The Stalker Collective
Another example of liminality and abandoned spaces can be found in the practice of the Italian architect/collective Stalker. Stalker are a group of architect active in the Rome from the beginning of the 1990s; interested in the renovation of abandoned, unused and marginal spaces, they occupy them beyond any legal architectural practice norms to convert it in a new urban structure. The stalker interest in the “indeterminate” and void space of the city is accomplished through a 5 step praxis: appropiation, dissemination, empowerment, networking and subversion. The final purpose of the collective consists on the reutilization of existing abandoned buildings for purpose other than those that were designed for. The awareness of the liminality aspect of the occupied spaces by the italian collective can ultimately support our connection between the concept of liminality found in abandoned spaces. In conclusion liminal as threshold, in-betweeness, marginality and coexistence of opposite phenomenon can be used to define the nature of the majority of abandoned spaces.
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