Architectural Responsiveness of Entry Threshold Spaces of Public Buildings: Physical Attributes and People’s Perceptions

Abstract

Entry Threshold Spaces of public buildings serve as transitional spaces from the outer world to the inner space. Therefore, they play a vital role in making buildings well perceived by people. Poorly designed entry threshold spaces of buildings often misguide the public. Therefore, this paper aimed to explore how to design Entry Threshold Spaces of public buildings in an architecturally responsive manner that can be perceived well by the people. The literature survey carried out identified five physical attributes of responsive architecture and components of each physical attribute. Mixed mode research approach was employed to explore the architectural responsiveness and to identify the people’s perception of Entry Threshold Spaces of three selected cases. Data was collected via interviews, document reviews, and observations and through a questionnaire; and were analyzed within case and cross case wise. The paper reveals that height-width ratio and human scale of Entry Threshold Spaces contribute least to people’s perception of public buildings. Facade details, materials used, signs, symbols, etc. that contribute to the richness of the experience are well perceived by the people. Further, this paper finds that the Entry Threshold Spaces of public buildings are well perceived by the people despite their poor responsiveness to physical attributes of Architecture.