What, then, do we mean with the word ‘place’? Obviously, we mean something more than abstract location. We mean a totality made up of concrete things having material substance, shape, texture, and colour. Together these things determine an ‘environmental character’ which is the essence of place. In general, a place is given as such a character or ‘atmosphere.’ A place…
01. Architecture, City, and Landscape as a Total Environment I conclude this series of three articles focused on place, architecture and urban planning. While in The Place of Architecture The Architecture of Place – Part I: The Identity of Places I discussed the concept of place identity, proposing that the identity of a place should be understood in holistic and…
This article offers a critical response to the conventional interpretation of architecture, rooted in the second half of the nineteenth century, which takes space as the discipline’s primary interpretive key.[1] This long-standing view often overlooks a fundamental fact: for any space to exist—whether architectural, sociocultural, or even pseudo-physical—place must already be on the stage. As I argue at RSaP, that…
In the article The Identity of a Place: Place-Based Interventions Between Land and Society, I argued for the necessity of a place-based document or report—a tool that could assist practitioners working with places (architects, planners, policymakers, social scientists, and others) in making informed decisions whenever the character of a place must be understood from a holistic perspective—or, as I prefer…
This article is about a distinction we often tend to overlook: the difference between ‘place’ and ‘site’. Although both terms refer to a territory or land, I argue, as others have before me,[1] that the shift from ‘place’ to ‘site’ involves a loss of meaning, which is not just a matter of scale, as a site is typically a specific…