Rethinking the notion of place

The paper discusses the aesthetic aspects of place ‑making practices in the urban environment of Western metropoles that are struggling with the progressive undifferentiation of their space and the weakening of communal and personal bonds. The paper starts by describing the gen‑ eral characteristics of an urban environment as distinct from the traditional vision of a city as a well ‑structured entity, and in relation to formal and informal aesthetics and participatory design ideas. The author then focuses on two contrary but complementary tactics for translat‑ ing a space into a positively evaluated p l a c e: by domesticating it through introducing nature into an urbanscape; and by accentuating its alienness with the example of the urban explora‑ tion movement. The growing popularity of the latter is presented in relation to the discourses related to the decline of cities and the romantic endeavours for reaching into the realm of the unknown or the uncanny in order to rediscover and enrich the unique identity of a place. The paper ends with conclusions that present the necessity for the cultivation of a multidimen‑ sional aesthetic awareness and an aesthetic engagement as a crucial issue in the complex task of endowing places with a density of meaning.

Proceedings 6th international Space Syntax Symposium, 2007

This paper investigates the role of spatial structure and "urban narrative" in individual's experience of a "place". The spatial structure describes the actual space that individual navigates and occupies through its everyday activities. Whereas the term "urban narrative" describes the factors in urban history and social culture that create an imagined space that evolves through historical time and is navigated through city's cultural mythology. A main challenge that urban designers and planners are facing is of creating recognisable and valued "places" that people would like to live and work in. This paper deals with the nature of neighbourhood as spatial, social and economic phenomenon and brings to the fore the "sense of place" as its intrinsic characteristic. It is acknowledged that the latter has a long history of investigation. However, to date the research has focused either on individual's perceptions or attitudes towards geographical spaces or the local design features of urban areas with a lack of methods to deal with the physical and attitudinal together. This currently forms the major scientific challenge: to develop methods to bring together the analysis of urban structure, design and morphology with the broadly qualitative investigation of individual and community perceptions, attitudes and aspirations. This paper does not report new research results but it suggests a finer grain of analysis of neighbourhoods by differentiating the concept of "configured" space from the notion of "place". Setting the Scene The last decades that residential mobility has increased with a great number of people relocating themselves to new neighbourhoods, cities or countries, the challenge for recognisable and valued "places" became imperative need for distinctive urban environments that reinforce and sustain social and economic networks. Decision-makers and urban designers are in quest either for creating new sustainable urban neighbourhoods that will reinforce economic and demographic growth or for "re-designing" the old ones and creating a new positive dynamic for the existing social and economic forces within them. Haughton and Hunter (1994) describe a sustainable city as 'one in which its people and businesses continuously endeavour to improve their natural, built and cultural environments at neighbourhood and Keywords: Neighbourhood "Place" "Configured" space "Place" identity "Sense of place" Phenomenology Irini Perdikogianni

IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), 2024

This article aims to discuss the concept of place based on its evolution since the 1970s. It is argued that the existing places reaffirm the experiences of space that have meaning, while the uneven development of capitalism produces metropolitan fragmentation-often materialized in renovation and re-signification projects. The sociospatial transformations observed in the contemporary metropolises tend to de-characterize traditional urban fabrics and their identities, and this reality is engendered above all by current urban services supported by the entrepreneurial management of space and the consumer culture. In this sense, the research focuses on the possibility of the existence of places in the context of fragmentation and loss of local identities. The articulation of the different processes of space modification legitimizes new paradigms that suggest questions about the relationship between space and its places, their contexts and scales of influence, the conflicts they entail and the search for maintaining places of meeting and exchange. The main assumption of this work is: the place can exist in the midst of a reurbanization process, which results in renewed landscapes contiguous to interstices that, sometimes, differentiate into voids or places. These interstices can symbolize the potential for resistance and permanence and currently allow for experiences of identification towards the urban-contrary to the context of permanent transformation and of the loss of symbolic references. In this context, this work aims to contribute to the discussion about the relationship between the unstoppable urban transformations and the manifestos and representations seen in small localities that survive the imposition of the socioeconomic interests of the capitalist society.

2018

Place-what it means to be somewhere, or to be from somewhere-is a common thread running through the many systemic crises of our time. Place is a value under threat from globalisation, gentrification, networked technologies, human conflict and environmental disasters. At the same time, it is an underlying cause of some of the political and social tensions that are intertwined with these issues. Within architectural theory, place is strongly associated with phenomenology, the foundations of which are entangled with the sort of nativist politics that is currently resurgent around the world. In this working paper, I outline an alternative approach to place as a way to address its double-edged quality, building on Ernst von Glasersfeld's radically constructivist interpretation of Jean Piaget. In doing so, I establish points of connection between architectural discourse on place and the cybernetic foundations of systemic design.

NOTE: The ideas and examples in this article are now much more fully developed in David Seamon, LIFE TAKES PLACE: PHENOMENOLOGY, LIFEWORLDS, AND PLACEMAKING (London: Routledge, 2018). The most important shift is the author's realizing that genius loci is part of a broader phenomenon that he identifies as "common presence"--"the material and lived 'togetherness' of a place impelled by both its physical and experiential qualities" (Seamon 2018, p. 87). I would ask readers of thIs article to complement their understanding by studying LIFE TAKES PLACE. ABSTRACT OF ORIGINAL ARTICLE: As recent phenomenological studies have demonstrated (Casey 1997, 2009; Malpas 1999, 2006; Mugerauer 2008; Stefanovic 2000), the phenomenon of place is a multivalent structure sophisticated and complex in its existential constitution. In this chapter, I offer one phenomenological vantage point from which to examine this lived complexity. I contend that, as an integral structure of human life, place can be understood in terms of three dimensions: first, the geographical ensemble—i.e., the material environment, including both its natural and human-made dimensions; second, people-in-place, including individual and group actions, intentions, and meanings; and, third, spirit of place, or genius loci. Drawing on the conceptual approach of “systematics” developed by the British philosopher J. G. Bennett, I argue that these three dimensions can engage in six different ways, each of which relates to one particular lived mode whereby place contributes to human life. These six modes are: (1) place interaction; (2) place identity; (3) place creation; (4) place intensification; (5) place realization; and (6) place release. I argue that place identity is important for understanding the nature of place but is complemented by other modes of relationship that together help clarify the complexity and richness of place and place experience.

2014

From the 1960s and 70s onward, concepts of ‘place’ have begun to be discussed and explored through their specific relationship with people. At the same time many artists have taken creative approaches to address the aerial perspective using new technological advances. The theories on ‘place’, our relationship to it, and our perception of the world from an aerial viewpoint have developed and changed rapidly in our modern, mobile world. New terms such as ‘non-place’, discussed at length by the anthropologist Marc Augé in Non-Places: An Introduction to Supermodernity, have been born, evoking a negative, disconnected state in which we occupy the world. Our ability to see the world we live in from above has also altered and now using satellite imaging the whole globe has become available for us to view at just a click of a mouse. This view from above can often be thought of as a physical and mental detachment from where we come from, a detachment from place, and it is tied up with complex political relationships and technological control across the globe that it makes visible. Does this perhaps point to the globe having turned into one entire ‘non-place’? This dissertation will discuss whether the current definitions of ‘non-place’ are in fact outdated, and whether traditional notions of ‘place’ set down from the 1960s by anthropologists and geographers should be reassessed to improve the understanding of the term. The contexts in which we experience place have changed and despite being christened non-places, this may not be an appropriate phrase to fully describe our current relationship to place. Artists from the 1960s who turned to land art in order to free themselves from the institutional space of the gallery, will also be considered, as a main focus for them was the aerial view. The art and writings of Robert Smithson in particular will be analysed regarding Marc Augé’s statement that ‘We are in an era characterized by changes of scale’1. Carol Rhodes’ painterly, aerial depictions of typical non-places will also be considered as an alternative visual tool by which to examine our current relationship with place. How has our fascination in seeing the world from above, and our newly acquired ability to do so completely changed our perception and experience of physical place and space? It will be useful to investigate the ‘geographical imagination’ stimulated by aerial views and draw on arguments from social theorists, human geographers, anthropologists and art writers as well as analysis of artists, to explore the validity of the term ‘non-place’ as well as our apparent detachment from the world. 1 Marc Augé, Non-Places: An Introduction to Supermodernity, p.26

Beyond the Postmodern: Space and Place for the Early 21st Century, 2015

This paper will investigate the validity and consistency of the discourse created around French anthropologist Marc Augé's concept 'non-place', considering its internal ambiguities and the contradictions arousing from different critics about the concept. Although Augé's clear and logical definition of non-place seems like a tautology, it's one of the most popular concepts in the discipline of architecture which is used as key theme in academic papers, workshops and theoric lessons related with post/super/hyper modernity, cinema, urban planning and especially with space in the general sense. The understanding and use of the concept seems mainly divided in two opposite absolute meanings. One of them positions Augé as an existentialist (in the Heideggerian sense) and a sedentarist metaphysicist advocating place against space, and the other one as a pioneer in the field of antropology breaking the authority of place and showing new possibilities of space (in a Deleuzian way) in the age of supermodernity. In addition to these, there is a research area dealing with the 'subjectivity problem' of the notion and in relation there are 'expansionists', who doesn't limit the non-places with transitional [transport, transit, commerce, leisure] spaces. This paper will try to show different oppositions and claim that the ambigious and contradictory position of Marc Augé is caused by his transitional position between postmodernity and over-modernity, by his requirements and restrictions coming from the discipline of anthropology and the related contradictory configuration of his theory. However, despite all the ambigious and contradictory character, the concept of non-place can still be used as a theoretical tool to expose and change the controlled spaces of late capitalism.

Within Canada and the United States there is a trend toward placelessness; people do not form senses of place but rather remain transient within spaces. The effects of placelessness impact not only individuals, but also communities, and ultimately the natural landscape as well. The thesis discusses placelessness by deriving themes from those established within the larger field of place studies. Both place and placelessness are then examined in a historical and current context. Though there exists no universal language of place, foundations can be traced to both psychology and philosophy and are influenced by literature and other disciplines. The thesis suggests that relationships to place vary greatly and are dependent, in part, upon populations, economics, technology, and geography. Should the sense of place be absent, then stewardship is impossible for stewardship can only be achieved through the commitment of placed people. Placelessness is finally conceptualized and defined through the discussion of place, and further applications of the thesis’ findings are suggested.

A review of the surge of interest in place, especially since about 1990, with a summary of the diverse aspects of place (such as sense of place, roots, home, placelessness and non-place, placemaking and place fabrication) and a discussion of what I consider to be the essence of place and its inextricable connections with our very existence.

Bagh-e Nazar, 2021

Problem statement: 'Place' has been one of the most critical subjects of architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, and environmental design. However, most of the studies have been influenced by objective-subjective duality. Scholars have studied the place as a fixed issue separated from social structure and the place concept has been limited to the personal perceptual areas. These issues have led to a downward approach to place studies. In this regard, the place even has been reduced to a nostalgic space. Research method: Recently and following the paradigm shift of social studies and philosophy, the reason for the creation and transformation of the place has been discussed. This qualitative research attempts to focus on the nature of place change through reproductive strategy. This article, using a retrospective approach, and with a descriptive-analytical method and qualitative content analysis, tries to categorize previous studies on the place in a qualitative study to address why the place is evolving. And by taking a critical approach, examine the main (problematic) issues of these studies and then redefine the place. Research objective: Available studies on the place have usually addressed the quiddity of place, its perception, and the physical aspects, or the mental aspects of individual perception of the place. The current study examines the reasons "Why" place has been created and the manifestation of the social structures in place and studied the role of the social practice in creating place and explained the components of social practices. Conclusion: The place simultaneously has objective manifestation, physical dimension, and socialeconomic process. In addition to the three mentioned aspects that usually are considered for the place by positivists (Form, function, meaning), the place also has three other aspects that could reveal social structure: difference, convergence, frequency. Through these components, the place would reflect social practices. Through difference, the place results in social interactions and contributes to vitality and improvement of the collective identity. By convergence, the place receives its value, and various groups get together regarding one specific event and goal rather than isolation and being away from the center, and create the place centrality. Through frequency, time could emerge in places.

Lund University Dissertation, 2003

In this thesis the notion of place is studied by way of investigating the “non-place” which is excluded or opposed, whenever a place is defined. “Non-place” is used here as a meta-concept, covering various recurring types of opposition to “place,” and it therefore represents a profoundly incoherent spectrum of realities and concepts. Hence, a “non-place” may in this investigation appear as “leftover areas in urban planning,” as “passage,” as “site,” as “utopia,” and as “inauthentic architecture.” The study is made in relation to a set of authors and artists chosen for their influence on contemporary aesthetics of place, and for their explicitly stated dichotomies as regards architectural, geographical or social space. These dichotomies (and authors) have been studied in three parts. In Part I: Places of Preference a group of authors and artists are discussed as conveying a negative view of the modern place-forms where “placelessness” replaced a traditional and culturally dense place. In Part II: Other Places the discussion of polarised notions of place is continued, but now with authors who may be regarded as having a view of non-places as useful. Here, deviance from a normal condition is seen as a prominent theme. Finally, in Part III: The Site-Specific, the notion of place is discussed in relation to the recent historical changes of the concepts of site-specificity and regionalism in art and architecture. The overall aim of the thesis is to show that when place is viewed in terms of dichotomies there is a risk of losing the perspective where social interaction, cultural multiplicity and individual activity is regarded. By focusing instead on placial variants, where the dichotomies are discussed in relation to a set of modalities, places may be regarded in their sociospatial and cultural diversity. The “wants,” the “needs,” the “musts,” the “wills,” i.e., the subjective or actantial influence on a spatial negotiation or an architectural realisation is then put into the foreground. To sharpen the modal approach a concentration should be held not on mere modulation of form where a house, a square or a park is given a slightly new shape, but on the significant alteration of a given comprehension, or use, of a place. This means also that several operators, on different actualising and realising levels, have to be considered when a place or a site-specific work is maintained or changed. Here, such place-formative processes have been studied as the modalities that apear in for instance exploitation, privatisation, domination and identification.

Open House International, 2018

This study aims to explore the concepts of ‘place’ and ‘place-experience’ within the context of Post-phenomenology. During 70’s, humanistic geographers have introduced ‘phenomenology of place’ as a revolutionary approach toward place, which has been largely condemned by Marxist, Feminist and Post-Structural critiques through the last three decades. Accordingly, this study attempts to merge these place-related critiques in order to clarify a new framework titled ‘Post-phenomenology of place’. ‘Post-phenomenology’, as a novel philosophical trend, is a merged school of thought, trying to re-read phenomenology based on Post-structuralism, Pragmatism and Materialism. In this study after a theoretical review on the formation of Post-phenomenology, the various aspects of place are discussed in order to clarify distinctions and paradoxes between phenomenological and Post-phenomenological understandings of place.

Journal of Urban Design, 2014

, 2013, Routledge, 352 pp., (paperback), ISBN 978 0 415 66476 9 'Place-making', 'place identity' and 'sense of place' have been widely used by cities in their urban design visions and strategies. Often, however, these notions have been reduced to mere buzzwords that remain undefined and somewhat abstract. Other dimensions of urban design have progressively overtaken 'placemaking' as a design objective, while contemporary societies have become increasingly engaged in delivering functional and environmental targets. The reduced sensitivity to, or awareness of, 'place identity' has manifested itself in the built environment, with the tendency of some design professionals to design independently of context, reducing architecture to symbolic motifs rather than place-specific responses. These phenomena are particularly relevant in the face of our technological age and wider global forces that have broken down boundaries and often created homogenized urban environments at the expense of local distinctiveness. The virtual infrastructure that dominates the contemporary city provides a significant challenge to the physical concept of place by virtue of its nature, due to which, concepts of distance and time cease to retain the significance they once had. In this book, Marichela Sepe skilfully conceptualizes, defines and tangibly analyzes 'place-making', through firmly grounded investigative analysis and an innovative approach that identifies qualities of places that may be assesseddistinct qualities that create meaningful places from otherwise anonymous spaces. The contemporary city is a complex entity due to its different layers and the rapid change that characterizes it. This complexity makes it harder to extract the relevance of 'identity' to urban design theory, and even more so to design practice, which is ultimately the main shaper of our built environment. This book transforms a potentially abstract notion that is 'identity' into an accessible concept that individuals may relate to, through the discussion of how identity may be (1) identified, (2) represented and (3) shaped. Ultimately, place-making, as with good urban design, is measured against the degree of relevance that it has to individuals. This implies the need to go beyond mere physical site attributes (although one must not underestimate their important role in place identity) to a renewed attention on perception. In this sense, the central human focus of Sepe's research brings the discussion of urban design back to its roots, rebuilding on the strong legacy left by Kevin Lynch and Gordon Cullen. 'Place' and 'place identity' are accurately developed in the first section of the book by means of a well-structured account that discusses the different characters of places until arriving at the antithesis of place-non-place. Sepe redefines place in contemporary terms, in recognition of changing societal realities, and illustrates how the fundamental theories of Lynch and Cullen must be rethought and

Philosophy and geography III: Philosophies of place, 1998

Finding Place: Spatiality, Locality and Subjectivity I.