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…
1. Prologue: A New Vision of Nature ‘Since the mid-nineteenth century, many of the traditional certainties of science began to dissolve under the impact of new discoveries in physics, chemistry, and biology… The rigid boundaries separating these disciplines started to blur as a convergence emerged between the physical, biological, and even social sciences. Researchers began to observe striking similarities between…