Doorway

Though we may take them for granted, doorways impinge on our lives in many ways. Their powers are even richer and more varied than those of the wall. They can change the ways we behave, and alter how we see our surroundings. They challenge us and protect our territories. They punctuate our experiences as we move from place to place. They set the geometry and measure of our relationship with space. They frame the in-between and stand as crystalisations of the moment. With its many dimensions, the doorway is an essential component of what might be called the common language of architecture .

Illustrated with numerous drawings and photographs, Doorway is a stimulus to thinking about what can be done with architecture. The notebook style offers an example to student architects of how they might keep their own architecture notebooks, collecting ideas, sorting strategies, generally expanding their understanding of the potential of architecture to modify the world in practical, philosophical and poetic ways.

Simon Unwin is Professor of Architecture at Dundee University. He has lived and taught in Britain and Australia, and lectured on his work in China, Israel, India, Sweden, Turkey and the United States. His book Analysing Architecture has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Persian and Spanish.