Museum of A(waiting)

Re-imagining Liminal Spaces Through a Dissimilar Lens

Tyler Bingham

BArch Hons 2022

Supervisors:
Unit Leader: Craig McClenaghan
Unit Tutor: Ruby Mungoshi
Unit Assistant: Azraa Gabru

UNIT 21
Phantom Cartographies

An institutional liminal space can be defined as a space where members of the public are forced to wait in and interact with to perform daily life obligations. While liminal spaces are noticeably identified through their physicality, they are also seen as a non-space, a term introduced by French anthropologist Marc Auge defining a space that does not have enough significance in its characteristics and features for the user to regard it as a place. Consequently, this ideation has caused discomfort in user experience within the space. While architects and designers do not intend to create these subliminal spaces, unfortunately, they still occur.  

The project challenges the perception that the public may have of these institutional liminal spaces through offering a new appreciative lens through which they can perceive these same spaces differently - allowing a singular moment for distraction and pause in the fast-paced City of Johannesburg. Through tactics involving the use of the grotesque and satire, the project suggests finding beauty and humour in the ugly through a series of visual, audio and lighting cues curated into drawings and artefacts.

Keywords:
Liminal, Liminal Space, Subvert, Satire, Perception, Public Space