The Transition Translations: How Marginality, Vagueness, and Egalitarianism Allowed an Australian Architectural Periodical to Become a Shared Object and Cross Disciplinary Boundaries

Published between 1979 and 2000, the Australian independent architectural periodical Transition was central to the transfer and translation of global architectural theory into Australian architectural discourse and practice. A hybrid periodical that resists simple classification, Transition was able to span boundaries between academia, practice, and theory, thus providing a shared object through which actors from varied disciplinary and professional backgrounds were able to work collaboratively. Framing the periodical as a boundary object, this paper identifies three characteristics that made it effective in the translation of ideas: its marginality, vagueness, and egalitarianism.