This topic was raised last night at Ken Woodmans' thesis presentation and I never really appreciated what was meant.
I was in a hotel tonight where there was some live music being played, in another room there was pool being played and in another that weired Aussie rules footie was on TV. Then I got it!
Each of these activities was taking place in a space within a place.
I understand that this may seem obvious to many but I think it helps to frame the objective of many projects, It can help define the type of spaces we are seeking to achieve within the places we are asked to provide them.
I know what you mean. My current project has 9 courses moving to our East End site, all want their own designated spaces within the same place. They want to see more of a community which is really good, they want their own zones but recognise that some facilities need to be shared. ie expensive kit.
ReplyDeleteGood to read your thoughts mate, getting into a different place philosophically too eh?
Philosophy. Now there's a place I never thought I would visit. It is surprising where ones mind goes with time to think.
ReplyDeletePerhaps we should introduce thinking time within the working week, I suspect some enlightened companies do this. Those of us working in the service departments of HE are rarely afforded this luxury. I can't speak for academics but would hope they are allowed much more thinking time. If not we are in trouble.
Hi Nigel,
ReplyDeletePlace - now there is a thing. Place was originally thought as by Heidegger as an emotional attachment to a location. Massey more recently thought of it as a hesitation of social trajectories of people and thus took the spatiality out of place. Very recently Dovey at Uni Melb is thinking of place as an assemblage between spatiality and sociality. An assemblage brought together and held together by desires and repetitive practices. These can change and alter, dissolve and reform thus your pool room may be a place to the regular pool players but mean little to a visiting Welshman. However if that pool room was changed to a music venue the attachment to the pool room place would dissolve and new place assemblages come into being as a result of the connection between the music venue, the music and the new appropriators of the place. Place is not permanent but constantly being made and remade.