Material Translation and Artistic Representation of “Breathable Boundaries” in the Contemporary Urban Context

Abstract

In contemporary urban life, home can no longer be understood simply as a stable architectural shelter. Rent, migration, domestic labour and the constant circulation of information have weakened the traditional promise of privacy, rest and belonging. This paper redefines the concept of the “breathable boundary” from a technical architectural interface into a psychological, visual and material threshold. Rather than focusing on ventilation, façade systems or ecological performance, it examines how boundaries operate between protection and exposure, withdrawal and connection, image and lived reality. Drawing on theories of domestic space, urban alienation, transitional experience and social reproduction, the paper analyses how home is shaped by memory, labour, social relations and material perception. It also responds to the problem of architecture as image, especially in artistic practices based on painting, photography, textile, traces and installation rather than built structure. Through the discussion of Do Ho Suh, Rachel Whiteread, Mona Hatoum, Project Row Houses, Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland and Jae Ho Jung’s painting practice, the study argues that material translation does not merely convert one material into another. Instead, it transforms unstable spatial experiences into visible, tactile and critical forms. A breathable boundary is therefore neither a solid wall nor a condition of total openness, but a fragile threshold that allows the subject to pause, recover and reconnect without being entirely absorbed by external pressure.