Morphogenesis of Thresholds in Hyperdense Setting: Revealing the Negotiating Techne of a ‘Scaleless’ Volumetric Tactics Network in Hong Kong

The conceptualization of ‘techne’ (Foucault, 1984) offers an alternative perspective on technology, shifting the focus from technology’s functional rationale to human capacities for intervention. Spatially, a ‘threshold’ typically acts as a physical demarcation signifying transitions and interior-exterior passage. Etymologically, the conception of ‘threshold’ evolves and reveals that it encapsulates a shift between interiority and exteriority, necessitating the human mind and body to actively experience and engage in certain spatial conditions. This habitually produces and expresses temporal specificity in societal-cultural means. For instance, the western meaning of ‘threshold’ refers to ‘to treat and to thresh’ in ancient practice, while the Chinese perspective couples an object of ‘door’ [門] and the potential activity of ‘crossing’ [檻]. Drawing from an empirical study on the public Tsuen Wan Footbridge Network, this research problematizes its operation as negotiating techne – a multiplicity of potentialities for individuals to interact and experience tactical interventions beyond walking. This paper positions the footbridge network as the ‘morphogenesis of thresholds’, uncovering the living operation of volumetric hybridity as an assemblage of negotiating societal-cultural techne – a multiplicity of liminal habitual genres that constitute a totality of ‘identity-less’ lifestyles in a ‘scaleless’ volumetric city. Initial conclusions will highlight the importance of reinventing thresholds, viewing them as portals to human potentialities, rather than solely as markers of spatial usefulness to connect fragmented components or facilitate movements. Thereby, to consider the negotiation between individuals and the shared environment as a creative genesis of ‘tactical techne’ that generates sequence of liminal conditions.