A sense of place

For those hard to define aspects of buildings, some might say esoteric.

A sense of place

Unread postby Barrie Christian » 10 Aug 2012, 09:51

Urban design has a significant concept of "a sense of place". It is used a lot in planning guidance. The word 'place' seems obvious enough, but 'sense'? Our senses are usually limited to sight, sound, touch and smell. But sense has another meaning - feelings, and "a sense of place" includes our feelings about being in a particular place.

An obvious illustration for architecture would be inside a church or cathedral. We feel and behave differently when we are in a cathedral, even if as a tourist, than we do in a disco or shopping mall. These places have an impact upon us, and we feel differently when we are in them.
Are these feelings resulting from the design of the place?
How is it possible to design for 'feelings'?
Barrie Christian
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