Today, I turned 30. This feels bigger than it should since that first digit changing indicates not just a new year but a new decade. I’m no longer in the ranks of the twenty-somethings. This brings about an inevitable reflection. This sort of milestone, perhaps more so than the annual New Year’s reflections, invites a deep introspection - a fundamental realignment of goals, dreams, and ideals. Have I done what I intended with the previous decade of my life? Am I on the right path going forward? What are my goals for the next decade? Some transitions, like my shift from a twenty-something to a thirty-something, are purely arbitrary. Other transitions are significant and mark fundamental shifts in life. In my life my wedding and the birth of our first child marked particularly significant transitions - certainly more important and full of change than my current transition to a new decade. Whatever the significance, transitions are the demarcations of life that tell us who, what, and where we are. They inform us of our roles and responsibilities along with our rights and privileges.
Transitions don’t just occur in time but also in place. Details that relate to a public-private continuum are important in conveying context and meaning while providing functional separation of the various parts of our lives. The public-private continuum manifests itself in many ways but it is important to recognize where certain built features exist on this continuum. There is the public square, the public street, the semi-public steps leading to the semi-public stoop, the semi-private door leading to the semi-private foyer, and even within the home there are the more public gathering spaces and the extremely private bedrooms and bathrooms. The transitions between these various states of public and private are important for denoting to the inhabitant what kind of space they are in. Cultural conventions are directly tied to the perceived context and providing the right clues and transitions help a person correctly interpret the context and adjust their behavior accordingly.
Consider a townhouse that lacks any front stoop or even any grade separation. This building lacks the appropriate transition elements to adequately portray the sense of privacy that people desire in their homes. The same design raised several feet with steps and a stoop can be immensely more desirable because the subconscious clues are there to indicate what is public and what is private. The transitions give value and meaning both to the person who inhabits the home and to the stranger on the street as they both are given clues as to what is appropriate. The semi-public buffer provided by the steps, stoop, and change in elevation gives the home the privacy it needs while allowing the street to function as a fully public space without the creating a feeling of intrusion or imposition.
Take the name of this site for another example. I chose The Studio Stoop for very deliberate and specific reasons. I like the concept of a studio as a place for creative effort in a wide array of arts - design, architecture, photography, music, etc. But I also like the concept of a stoop as a transition from public to private - from the outside world to the private creative realm. The stoop is the place where one can pause and reflect on the world in a way that is welcoming to the public yet still retains some of the comfort of the private. So this site is my digital studio stoop - a semi-public place where I can discuss ideas from the studio with friends and colleagues around the world.
While transitions can occur at any scale from the smallest detail of material change to the largest shift from wilderness to city, I think that the transitions that occur along the public-private and the rural-urban continuums are particularly important. The simple gestures, from a grand ceremonial gate to the humblest threshold, inform us as to the nature of the place. The act of transitioning helps us understand our context. The ascending of steps, the crossing of a threshold, the knocking on a door, the alighting on a porch - these are the acts that inform us of our roles, our responsibilities and expectations, and our rights and privileges. In life, transitions are often accompanied by celebrations - important transitions are often marked with special ceremonies (such as weddings and graduations). We intuitively recognize the value and importance of transition - of reflecting on what was and preparing for what is to come, of celebrating our growth as individuals, of publically acknowledging the changes we are making. The same values hold true for transitions in the physical world. The porch is a celebration of transition from public to private. The threshold is the symbol of entering the private domain. Certain physical transitions such as the steps of the Capitol or a torii are steeped in tradition and ceremony. Transitions, whether in time or in place, tell us who we are and what we must do. Our lives are defined by transitions. So, too, must be our places.
September 10, 2012 | 
