The thesis seeks to investigate the relatively new reality that we face in our cities, where protection of buildings of political power has become one of the top security priorities. The constant threat of terror attacks forces us to challenge our understanding of the city as an open, public space. The buildings of political power are the modern sanctuaries in which we need to protect. The sanctuary is defined as a space set apart within an open territory and as such a the safe meeting point for different clans or fugitives. The sanctuary is both open to different subjects and parties and closed in order to preserve its safety towards everything outside itself, which gives them an inherent dialectic of openness and exclusion. This dialectic makes these buildings and areas especially interesting as architectural research objectives. How we as architects deal with the security issues in the city could be essential to how the urban space is perceived in the future. By working on two scales with thresholds withing safety architecture, and by seeing centers of political power in the light of being modern sanctuaries within the city, the diploma aims to give new ways of understanding and facilitating for governmental power centers.
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