Sense of PlaceNavigating the site:
"The feeling of solitude . . . is a longing for a place."
Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth
of Solitude, p. 208
"Labyrinth -- one of the most fertile & meaningful mythical symbols, the TALISMAN, or the object of restoring health and freedom to a people at the center of a sacred area."
Ibid., p. 209
John Brinkerhof Jackson, architectural and landscape interpreter argues that any place is a distinct cultural transformation of a natural territory, as implied in the French term place, as in Place de la Concorde, in Paris.
The concept of a place (topos in Greek) is derived from ancient associations with deities or what Rene Dubos called the genii of a territory, and is closely akin to the Dutch idea of landskyp, from which the English derived the word landscape.
Places are, in the absence of cultural associations, distinct areas, the territory of which is recognizably unlike the adjacent vicinity. This apparent differences may be due to water, vegetational changes, animal life or contours of the terrain.
Grand Canyon of the Colorado River
Technology and places
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The earth, North America and the Florida peninsula are three different scales of placement. Each is within the other like a set of nested boxes each is a gradually larger container for the other! They are all joined or tied together; co-dependently related. |
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Conveying a sense of place |
To make sense of our planet requires us to make connections between seen and unseen, obvious and hidden things. The more relationships we discover, describe and nourish, the greater becomes our understanding of the ecological integrity of a place. All places have integrity. That is each piece fits or conjoins to another part so that a functional whole operates to sustain more than the mere sum of the constituent elements of a place.
The significance of plants in defining a place and creating livable places.
For example plants need soil, moisture, sunlight and nutrients to live. I living the produce oxygen which is used by anything that needs to respire on earth. This oxygen is a gift in that the plant is not able to use it.
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The giant Sequoia tree
of California, like all plants provides several benefits by growing.
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Last Updated on 3/12/04.
