The Domestic Facade : Inhabitable Thresholds Between Public- And Domestic Domains

Sammanfattning: This thesis takes a step back to evaluate the architecture of the isolated Nordic home, where the exterior wall, or facade, stands out as the element with most potential for creating less isolated living conditions. As the physical threshold between domains of seemingly opposite social dynamics, the domestic- and the public; The façade serves as buildings most instrumental tool for establishing the relationship between the two. In their current state, however, as two-dimensional walls, facades have become limited in their ability to merge these two seamlessly. From having been a spatial composition of distinct elements –each with their own functions, facades of today have been reduced to only the outermost wrapping around buildings. However, when synthesizing research by architects R. Koolhaas, D. Leatherbarrow, M. Mostafavi and P. M. Martinelli, it becomes clear that contemporary facades are better understood as sealing systems that together with the rest of the buildings comprise the protective envelope around buildings. Therefore, in order to reverse the notion of facades only being superficial skins, and in hopes to create a more gradual separation between private homes and their public surroundings, this thesis speculates how facades could be distilled into distinct elements in order to be reintroduced as layers of a more spatial composition again. This new “Domestic Façade” then, as an assembly spanning between the interior and exterior, would compose an inhabitable threshold that facilitates free movement and living between the private unit and its public surroundings.