As architects and urban designers, we are drawn to settlement boundaries and the defined transitions between city neighbourhoods. In our search for the moments along the edge where framed views of a world beyond become places to pause, reflect and interact, we have become fascinated by the urban set-piece structures - promenades and loggias - which often define the urban threshold: where boundaries become belvederes. This edition of '&' explores these moments and the nature and importance of boundaries in buildings and settlement design through the study of five of our recent studio projects and framed by two short inspirational essays by Professor Alison Wright and Dr Husam AlWaer. Alison explores the manipulation of ‘perspective’ in renaissance pictorial composition through an examination of framed narrative moments and the important relationship between subject and viewer. Husam examines the rapid evolution of urban form through a study of the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan and the enduring importance of Syrian culture in the humanisation of a place within enforced boundaries.