Where: The hallway of a large communal apartment on the edge of one of the central neighborhoods of St. Petersburg.

What: A half-opened door stands between the corridor and a family's private space: there is an entranceway where people take off their shoes and put on slippers before going into the room. There are small rugs on both sides of the threshold (cut from larger carpets).

The rug on the outside of the room is clearly older and more worn than that inside the doorway (although both rugs belong to the same family). This is clearly seen in the close-up. Even in this apartment, where residents maintain an unusually high level of cleanliness for a communal apartment, the boundary between private and public space is noticeable, and here, as in other apartments, it lies on the threshold of a room.