Pattern 112: Entrance Transition

Studying architecture these last four years has brought to my attention, habits and strategies to life. For example, I make a point of sleeping in a room with an East facing window to rise with the sun which also happens to be pattern 138 (sleeping to the East). Another of these subtle applicabilities is entrance transition. It’s probably obvious that people tend to construct a façade while walking down the street and shed their façade once they get home. Shedding usually happens between arriving home and entering through the door but if the entrance looks anything like the title photo, that shedding is less a process, more an event.

Alexander explains it thusly;

“The experience of entering a building influences the way you feel inside the building. If the transition is too abrupt there is no feeling of arrival, and the inside of the building fails to be an inner sanctum.”

I think Alexander underestimates peoples’ ability to relax and find comfort indoors. I agree that there should be a feeling of arrival but I think it is equally if not more important for the sense of departure. As an arguably mild introvert and leaseholder of an apartment with terrible entrance transition, I find some of the most solace and sanctity in my own space with all my own things. I would be more inclined to leave if the process of leaving was enjoyable.

From a design point of view, entry conditions are invaluable for more than residential applications. Alexander goes as far as referencing a study in exhibit design (Robert Weiss and Serge Bouterline, Fairs, Exhibits, Pavilions, and Audiences, Cambridge, Mass., 1962) where an observation was made regarding an exhibit’s ability to hold an audience regardless of content. The exhibit in question had a “…huge, deep-pile, bright orange carpet on the way in.” This stark difference in ground condition was enough to transition people away from a street façade into a more comfortable, focused manner.