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 have spoken about the identity of places, proposing that the identity of a place should be understood in holistic…
The Place of Architecture The Architecture of Place – Part I: The Identity of Places
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 that could assist practitioners who work with places (e.g., architects, planners, politicians, social scientists, etc.) in making decisions, whenever they are concerned with understanding the character of a place from a holistic or, as I…
On the Modernity of Patrick Geddes (1854-1932)
1. Prologue: A New Vision of Nature ‘Since the middle of the nineteenth century, many traditional scientific certainties faded away, because of discoveries in Physics, Chemistry and Biology… A convergence between physical, biological and social sciences began and similarities between processes in living, non-living and social systems were noted. This led to hypothesize the existence of similar laws behind processes…
This article is about a distinction we often tend to overlook: the difference between ‘place’ and ‘site’. Even if the two terms are both used to denote a territory or a piece of land, I hold – as others have done before me – [1] there is a reduction of meaning in the passage from ‘place’ to ‘site’: a reduction…
The Identity of a Place: Place-Based Interventions Between Land and Society
A few weeks ago, I answered a call launched by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), in association with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, for one of their programs – the Multidisciplinary Research Project. That project aims to promote ‘new modes for collective research’.[1] This year, the sixth edition of the Research Project had the following theme: In the Hurricane,…