Leticia Du Plessis

We are born dwellers of space, yet screens have quieted our bodies, hollowed our perception, and eroded our sense of presence. This dissertation asks: How can architecture mediate between the physical and digital realms through thresholds? It explores strategies to restore bodily awareness and rekindle sensory and emotional engagement in digitally mediated spaces, framing these transitions as charged liminal zones.

Thresholds are understood as spaces where bodies, atmosphere, and code converge. They are not fixed edges but processes of becoming, where memory, identity, and perception intertwine. Drawing on thinkers, from Heidegger to Pallasmaa, Turner to Grau, this research examines these spaces through theory, making, and psychogeographic dérives, using them to question how we inhabit increasingly hybrid environments.

Braamfontein’s Tshimologong Precinct became a living laboratory, a dense weave of heritage, innovation, and human activity. Mapping movement and digital engagement revealed how people and architecture co-author presence. From this study emerged a spectrum of thresholds, spanning hyper-physical edges to fully immersive digital realms. Iterative modelling, speculative diagrams, and design experiments shaped a vocabulary of cuts, porosities, and elastic geometries—tools to sharpen awareness and ground perception.

The architectural proposal unfolds as a three-part spatial strategy: the Cut carves through Tshimologong, grounding the body; the Weave interlaces the precinct’s existing layers into this journey, allowing old and new to resonate; and the Modular introduces new layers, extending and activating the site with creative digital practices.

Rather than resisting or glorifying technology, these thresholds make presence tangible, forging a blueprint for an architecture that anchors us in a hybrid world and sharpens how we sense, move, and belong.