Deconstructing the threshold: a new architectural language for the three nations border crossing

Abstract

Deconstructing the Threshold: A New Architectural Language for the Three Nations Border Crossing confronts the philosophical framework of the international border between Canada and the United States. By identifying three fictions, following Peter Eisenman in his essay “The End of the Classical: The End of the Beginning, the End of the End,” the thesis categorizes the language of a border crossing into three fictions: Identity (Meaning), Truth (Threshold) and History (Borders through Time). By understanding these fictions to be the message that Ports of Entry (POE) are designed to convey, how can they be deconstructed, to be read by groups of people who do not acknowledge the border? The study site and location of a building proposal is located at the Seaway International Bridge Crossing spanning between Cornwall, Ontario and Rooseveltown, New York. The site plays an important role in the ideas presented in the thesis as the site is the location of Akwesasne First Nation, unceded Mohawk territory which is bisected by this border, reinforcing the idea of borders as abstract constructs. As borders are not percieved in the same way by everyone this thesis poses the question - how can a threshold become a space that embodies the idea of shared collective difference?