Urban thresholds presented here are the spaces or moments that evoke a different kind of awareness of being in the place, or simply, being. Those are the moments of transformation occurring within everyday urban life. The inquiry is set on the street scale, following the moments of transition and a sense of the extraordinary within the ordinary. Located in Yanesen, the selected area is yet another ordinary residential precinct in Tokyo (if such spaces even exist there), however it is a space with a peculiar urban character ― a place associated with traditional, small, ordinary architecture and roji. However, within this sense of old and historic urban character there are no preserved buildings from the past but rather the sense of domesticity and immersive familiarity associated with Shitamachi(eastern part of the city). In a recent issue of the popular magazine, the author recounts strolling through neighborhoods in Tokyo and comments, "The more I walk through this neighborhood, the warmer feeling I get."(Yoshinaga 2019). This intimate closeness is identified as the unique urban character in Yanesen. The sounds from the thoroughfare disappear, birds are singing, and it is calm, without the rush and crowds; the scale of smallness arrives, with a slowing of time and a sense of being embedded in this world. Such spatial thresholds are essential points - critical moments of transition 一 within this experience. Where are the boundaries of this immersive familiarity of smallness and domesticity? What are the spatial elements that contribute to the sense of enclosure?
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