The Concept of Place
The author presents us with a case saying that the concept of "place" has recently been given much attention by those who discuss problems of urban design and architecture. However, this concept of "place" is no longer meaningfully described in our lives today, having given up the human environment of stable places such as houses, cities and countries in exchange for a more mobile living. Technology plays a part in depriving us of physical contact with others as well, along with modern means of transportation allowing most of us to move about, making it even harder to truly communicate. Although this mobile living is accepted by some, many remain skeptical as to whether or not it will help or 'destroy' us. The study of Lynch implies that the lack of direct human contact may produce psychic disturbances and mental disorder. I strongly agree with the author's views especially when he added that 'when place is abolished, we simultaneously demolish architecture'. Architecture is a defined space, hence it obeys the site requirements and takes its context into consideration. If place is abolished, architecture loses its sense of site, and a mobile home would probably not feel like much of a home if it were to be somewhere else instead of say, 'home'. I answer the author's ending question with, we need to have an imageable and architecturally articulated place. Mobility is something people may want to work towards or even desire, but i feel that the architecture of a building is just as important as the architecture of the site. If we were to put our house anywhere else rather than where it is now, it would no longer be called a 'home'.
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Existential Space
Piaget states that "an object, is a system of perceptual images endowed with a constant spatial form throughout its sequential displacements and constituting an item which can be isolated in the causal series unfolding in time.". This simply means that man is able to construct an image of a structured world, in which existential space (which is the notion of space) forms an integral part. Each of our concept of 'space' is abstract. It consists of universal relations such as 'outside', 'inside', 'under', 'over', 'before' and 'behind', along with more specific geometrical structures. Gestalt psychology describes abstract "principles of organization" rather than the structures of concrete existential space. Hence, an existential space need not be something visible or concrete, it has to be something a person is familiar with, or rather, a point of departure. When the center of our immediate space coincide with the center of existential space, we feel 'at home'. If anything else, we are 'away' in the sense of 'elsewhere' or 'lost'. Existential space is defined by particular actions in particular places. When an action takes place, the place where the action takes place becomes meaningful.
I must say that this article requires further review as I feel I'm not getting the full message. However, in relation to the previous article on concept of place, I feel that this is in relation with what was presented by the author in said article. The existential space consists of a place created by someone in familiarity, as in something familiar as the so called 'departure point', often his/her own home. Hence mobility becomes an issue where a person may be at the point of being 'elsewhere' or 'lost' in their very own homes.
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Architectural Space
Architectural space would describe the concrete structure or space that man lives in. And if it does not permit the development of a satisfactory existential space, man himself has to modify the environment. We open and close windows and doors, move pieces of furniture, but we can only have minimal influence on the more general system of places which comprises our personal space. The task of the architect is then to 'concretize' a more or less common existential space. And as always, the genius loci of a place comes into play. The architectural space is simply to define the inside and outside of a place, in which a person truly dwells. The American architect Robert Venturi enhances the importance a wall gives by allowing it to curve. The concave surface gathers and creates space like "a parabolic mirror". Existential space is hierarchical and comprises of different zones, while architecture concretizes this. Architects like Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe understood this concept and divided space-defining elements from the load bearing elements.
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Conclusion
I would agree that architectural space may comprise of mobile elements, but in totality it cannot be mobile. This is because the mobility would make the development of existential spaces impossible. As we familiarize ourselves with routines and things in repetition, a mobile world where these things are forgotten would only serve to impede human development. Piaget states that a mobile world would limit man where he could only be liberated with an image of a structured and relatively stable world, with it, his ability to understand and feel. In addition, a sort of spiritual emptiness would manifest, a feeling described by perhaps the lack of a place of belonging. The concept of place is defined through existential space, and following it, architectural space which would give a person a feeling of belonging, a structured and stable world. The contribution of each individual to the totality consists in the articulation of the place to which he belongs. Human identity indeed does depend on the possibility of concretizing existential space. Only then can we truly feel that it is a place we belong.
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