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 doesnt 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 its 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 its 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 doesnt 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 Eycks 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 Eycks ideas
about structural ordering principles were influenced in particular by Martin
Bubers 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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