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| 2 -
The Importance of Place |
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| While
man’s world view will strongly affect the physical
construction of a place, the reverse is not necessarily
true. For example, a society that does not believe in the
afterlife will not derive the same meaning from the
pyramids as those who built them. If they had a Platonic
world view, they might look at these pyramids as
‘perfect’ forms, and derive an aesthetic
pleasure from a perception that, in and of themselves, a
beauty emanates from the geometric perfection of the
form. The sense of grounding and place-making afforded by
the pyramids would therefore be different. On the other hand, there will be elements of places that are common to all men, irrespective of time or society. These will be elements that respond to elemental physical or psychic components of man himself. Direction, gravity, horizon, light, warmth, security, fear, and sex are but some of these shared human components. Before looking further at these concepts, it would be useful to look at the concept of the universal. In the words of Plato: I do not mean by beauty of form such beauty as that of animals or pictures, which the many would suppose to be my meaning; buts, says the argument, understand me to mean straight lines and circles, and the plane or solid figures . . . for these I affirm to be not only relatively beautiful, like other things, but they are eternally or absolutely beautiful . . .1 While the subject discussed is beauty, a position of man relative to the world is inferred. That is that there is, outside and independent of man, a fixed and absolute. Whether this is perceived by man or not, does not change the nature of this absolute. In the 1750s Marc-Antoine Laugier in his treatise on architecture stated that ‘absolute beauty is inherent in architecture independent of mental habit and human prejudice.” 2 In more modern times Le Corbusier wrote that: Architecture is a thing of art, a phenomenon of the emotions, lying outside questions of construction and beyond them. The purpose of construction is to make things hold together; of architecture to move us. Architectural emotion exists when the work rings within us in tune with a universe whose laws we obey, recognize and respect. When certain harmonies have been attained, the work captures us. Architecture is a mater of “harmonies,” it is a “pure creation of the spirit.” 3 Taken together, the above concepts argue that the meanings derived either from or through architecture are universal in nature, not rooted in time, and are not dependent upon place to derive its meaning. |
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| Fig 5 - Vitruvian man | Fig 6 - Theatre and temple of Apollo at Delphi | Fig 7 - Sea Ranch from Norberg-Shulz’s Meaning and Place | Fig 8 - Musee des Travaux (A Perret, arch) from Frampton’s Studies in Tectonic Culture |
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