Living edge: the prospect of urban ecological domesticity

“What is an edge? We can think about an edge as having been of two sorts. In one, it is a border. In the other, it is a boundary. A border is a zone of interaction where things meet and intersect. A boundary is a place where something ends”
Architects and planners normally approach domestic borders as a line of separation between the dwelling and city. The current study investigates these borders as zones of interactions, questioning how to constitute a common ground between the inner and outer side of domestic border. The research seeks after the common benefit and gain of the interaction of the involved actors at the border. By doing so, the study underlines a forgotten, yet important, role of this edge zone – being a zone of commonality between the house and city, between indoors and outdoors, between the man at home and the man at the street.
The city of Copenhagen promotes porous borders on the ground level, but there is a lack of recognition in the significance of communicative characters as well at the higher part of the edge. The city’s planning approach is “Consider urban life before urban space. Consider urban space before buildings” This urban strategy neglects the possible architectural contribution to the street atmosphere and its effect on urban life.
Bay balcony has been a common architectural element in Copenhagen’s residential buildings, since the end of the twenties. It is a domestic border with an architectural thickness combining window, door, windowsill and balcony. The bay balcony was originally introduced to enhance indoor qualities including light and view. Throughout the paper, it is argued that these ecological motives have grown to architectural and urban dimensions. The paper analyzes the characteristics and potentials of these dimensions and their interconnections.
The paper is a collection of material from the case study of an ongoing PhD study titled: LIVING EDGE - The Architectural and Urban Prospect of Domestic Borders. The paper includes a description of the problem analysis, research question, method, discussion and conclusion.