Titled 'Activated Thresholds', this project investigates how Mahogany Hall’s architecture in Storyville staged porous boundaries between front-of-house spectacle and back-of-house intimacy, with thresholds continuously being redrawn by the movements and performances of musicians. It studies how early jazz publishing mobilised symbols, colour and composition to frame the visibility of jazz spaces, performers and audiences, treating print as another site where thresholds of access and perception were designed. These insights inform a jazz venue in Brussels with on-site accommodation for touring musicians, where a central stage, surrounding stair atrium and layered apartments act as adjustable thresholds, allowing degrees of privacy and exposure to be recalibrated through live musical use over time.
