Keywords: Sense of place, spirit of place, geography, virtual reality, authenticity
A phenomenological exploration into ‘place and existence’ discloses three interlinked elements:
- Physical Setting: Place, Buildings, Parks, Streets
- Activities: What occurs within the physical settings, shopping, gardening, running
- Meanings: The desired sense of being or belonging or identity. Meaning derives from the experience of living within a place.
Spirit of Place
The term derives form the Latin genius Loci. It was believed that all spaces were sacred and occupied by a pantheon of gods. Now a sense of place is more secular (in most cases) and relates to ones own identity or position within a given space.
A place with a distinct spirit or identity is attractive to us. For me I have strong emotional attachment to the countryside and more particularly woods. Even now living in the city I find myself attracted to the nearest woodland cemetery for ‘the spirit’ it holds. I recount memories of the woods, create stories within them and and explore the woodland world at a heightened state of imagination. I would also note the woods act as a physical and sonic barrier to the outside bustling city that distracts and sometimes overwhelms me. Moving away from my Wordsworth waffle, the architect Christopher Alexander (1979) found it extremely hard to pin down the ‘spirit’ or what defines the pleasurable spirit of a particular space.
Alexander chose to use the term; “The quality without a name” to characterise places that we recognise and accept as attractive. Interestingly this description brings to mind the saying “architecture is frozen music”, which, if we contrast to the original would read; “the quality without a face”. Maybe the missing ingredient Alexander failed to realise or hear was that sound is the crucial element in the attractive makeup of a place. I would strongly argue that this is, for thinking back to my own spirit of place, the woods restrict outside sound but also amplify the living world in my immediate periphery, such as muntjacs, birds, streams, rabbits. The living world of the woods is loud, quite, soft and harsh, it is freeing and frightening.
Sense of Place:is synaesthic, combing sight, hearing, smell, moment, touch, memory, imagination, anticipation.
A particular quote I liked; “We live in an age when feelings are in the foreground and reason is in the background”
Literature Reference
- Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (M.McLuhan)
- Life Between Buildings (J.Gehl)