Project Description
Thresholds: Enhancing the Experience at the Raymond Farm is a thesis project that analyzes the existing thresholds at the Raymond Farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, along a site transect that includes spaces both inside (Raymond Farm Center) and outside. It is both a personal and empirical exploration of the site and its thresholds that divide space and experience. Through an understanding of the site gained by studying the land and its history, this thesis provides for a few design interventions. Subtle in their presence, these landscape designs are meant to enhance the experience of the visitor and the connection to the beauty of the landscape of the Raymond Farm. The focus of the design is the experience of the landscape itself rather than the design elements. It is not intended to provide a place to experience a specific scene, but is meant to provide an immersive sensory experience.
Three design elements lead the visitor through the thresholds studied: an elevated boardwalk meandering through a woodland, a platform and stepping stone walk along a stream, and an elevated boardwalk through a meadow that ends at a viewing platform. The design includes plants chosen to remediate the landscape and benefit native fauna.
