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Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology

Volume 32 Number 1 Article 1

1-17-2021

Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology Vol. 32, No. 1

Kansas State University. Architecture Department

Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/eap Besides “Items of ,” and “citations received,” this issue includes the following items: Zoologist Stephen Wood’s commentary relating to the phenomenology of animal welfare; Environmental psychologist Claudia Mausner discussion of liminality, place, home, and multiple “homes”; Architect Tim White’s firsthand examination of the human-sustaining walkability of Florence, Italy; Geographer Edward Relph’s overview of the future of places and place experiences in the 21st century; Architect Levent Şentürk’s effort to summarize graphically the work of urban designer Kevin Lynch’s seminal The Image of the City (1961).

Recommended Citation Kansas State University. Architecture Department (2021) "Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology Vol. 32, No. 1," Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology: Vol. 32: No. 1.

This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology

Vol. 32 ▪ No. 1 ISSN 1083–9194 Winter/Spring ▪ 2021

his EAP begins 32 years of pub- means a graphic form providing his semi- The EAP editor thanks Thiis-Evensen’s lication and includes “items of nar students an assessible introduction to son Thomas Bernhard Thiis-Evensen interest” and “citations re- Lynch’s work. and Scandinavian University Press’s com- T ceived.” The issue includes five Throughout the years of EAP’s publica- missioning editor Helge Årsheim for essay entries, beginning with zoologist tion, we have emphasized the possibilities providing this information. The book was Stephen Wood’s commentary relating to of graphic presentation for picturing and originally published by the Scandinavia the phenomenology of animal welfare. clarifying essential phenomenological University Press in 1987.The direct link to Next, environmental psychologist Claudia themes and principles. Though Lynch is the English digitized version of the book: Mausner draws on her firsthand experi- not directly phenomenological, Şentürk’s https://www.idunn.no/archetypes_in_ar- ence of shifting residences to point to some manner of presentation points to one way chitecture?languageId=2. key dilemmas relating to liminality, place, in which graphics might be used to home, and multiple “homes.” The third en- strengthen understanding of qualitative Below: Architect Tim White’s drawing of a try this issue is architect Tim White’s themes relating to architectural and envi- street view toward the dome of the Cathe- firsthand examination of the human-sus- ronmental behavior, experience, and dral of Florence—better known as the taining walkability of Florence, Italy. He meaning. “Duomo.” See White’s essay on the walk- points to several ways in which Florence ability of Florence, p. 11. can be seen as an important model for cur- “Archetypes in Architecture” rent-day urban design and planning. available in digital version Fourth, geographer Edward Relph Scandinavian University Press has draws on a wide variety of empirical stud- recently uploaded an open-access, ies and environmental data sets to consider digital copy of Archetypes in Ar- the future of places and place experiences st chitecture, Norwegian architect in the 21 century. In discussing the impact Thomas Thiis-Evensen’s seminal of climate change, for example, Relph phenomenology of architectural points out that it is a “slow-moving ver- experience. sion” of our current Covid-19 pandemic in Drawing largely on a hermeneu- that both are “global in range, ignore na- tic study of both high architecture tional boundaries, put the poor and vulner- and vernacular buildings, Thiis- able at greater risk than wealthy elites, and Evensen defines architecture phe- involve exponentially increasing conse- nomenologically as the making of quences that are easily dismissed before an inside in the midst of an outside. they become obvious by which time it is He argues that the architectural too late to do much to mitigate them effec- inside-outside relationship can be tively.” At the same time, however, there clarified by considering how the are differences in that, “if concerted ac- three architectural elements of tions to mitigate climate warming are not floor, wall, and roof express a wide taken very soon, consequences will be range of human experience and much more severe and longer lasting than meaning that he summarizes Covid-19.” through three “existential quali- We end with architect Levent Şentürk’s ties” of motion, weight, and sub- creative effort to summarize graphically stance. the work of one key figure in urban design The book is available in individ- and environment-behavior research—ar- ual chapters in html. It can also be chitect Kevin Lynch’s seminal The Image read and downloaded in high-reso- of the City (1961). Şentürk calls his series lution pdfs, both for the book as a of drawings an “explicator,” by which he whole and for individual chapters.

ISSN: 1083-9194 1 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No.

Items of interest and Freedom: On the Possibility of Ed- Not “Ready for the Shelf.” ucational Moments” (Tone Saevi); Journal of Aging and Envi- Because of Covid-19, we are not providing “The School Building and the Human: ronment. information on professional conferences in An Intertwined Relationship” (Eva https://doil.org/10.1080/26892618.2020.185838 2021. The conference situation is currently Alerby); “Active and Interactive Bod- 2. fluid, though it seems that most profes- ies” (Stephen J. Smith); “‘Awakening sional groups will be holding conferences to the World as Phenomenon’: The These researchers used semi-structured virtually. Readers should check the Value of Phenomenology for a Peda- “go-along” interviews to understand how webpages for conferences in which they gogy of Place and Place Making” (Da- seven older adults with homeless histories are interested. In relation to conferences re- vid Seamon); and “Between Having created a sense of place, and the supporting lated to EAP, we have provided infor- and Being: Phenomenological Reflec- and undermining situations they encoun- mation on the following in the past: tions on Having Been Educated” (Pat- tered in their placemaking after being Architecture, Culture, and Spirituality rick Howard). Further information: housed. The researchers identified two key Forum (ACSF); https://www.routledge.com/Phenome- themes: home as safety; and sense of place Back to the Things Themselves! nology-and-Educational-Theory-in- as purpose: “Although most expressed (BTTTT!); Conversation-Back-to-Education/How- for the safety their housing pro- Environmental Design Research Asso- ard-Saevi-Foran- vided, it was not enough to feel in place. ciation (EDRA); Biesta/p/book/9780367209889 Sense of place as purpose was facilitated by three subthemes (self-determination, Interdisciplinary Coalition of North American Phenomenologists (ICNAP); employment and education, and technol- International Association of Environ- Citations received ogy) and three barriers (discrimination, transportation, and income).” See the side- mental Philosophy (IAEP); Deyemi Akande, 2017. “Medieval International Human Science Research bar below. Masons and Gothic Cathedrals.” conference (IHSR); Society of Architectural Histori- International Making Cities Livable Older people experiencing ans’ Connects, July 18. conference; https://www.sah.org/publications-and-re- homelessness Society for Phenomenology and Exis- search/sah-blog/sah-blog/2017/07/18/medieval- Over the past two decades, as the num- tential Philosophy (SPEP); masons-and-gothic-cathedrals#com- ber of homeless people experiencing Society for Phenomenology and the Hu- mentsWidget. homelessness (OPEH) has continued to man Sciences (SPHS). rise, particularly in urban contexts, ger- This architect considers why medieval ca- thedral stone masons expended so much ontological researchers have focused Phenomenology and care and craft in their work: “What makes their attention on identifying different Education the mason so exceptional …? Why, in pathways into and out of homelessness. of the odds, are they so meticulous? What The literature suggests that later-life Edited by Patrick Howard, Tone did building a cathedral mean to masons homelessness, like homelessness at Saevi, Andrew Foran, and Gert for them to give sweat and blood to it even other life stages, is a complex phenom- Biesta, Phenomenology and Educa- in low pay and less than ideal construction enon caused by individual circum- tional Theory in Conversation conditions? We know now against popular stances (i.e., addiction, mental and (Routledge, 2020) considers teaching notions that many were not even men of physical health, family breakdown) and learning in terms of relationality, the —such that we could argue that and structural factors (i.e., lack of suit- intersubjectivity, and pedagogic empa- they do it in and worship to God. able jobs and housing). thy. The aim is to “offer insights that Yet, they offer their skills with the highest Research has also focused on differ- connect fully and concretely with the conduct exalting royalty—both heavenly ent subgroups of OPEH, including everyday lives of educators and stu- and earthly in the most astounding figural those experiencing persistent and first- dents.” and architectural display that human be- time homelessness in later life. While The 19 chapters include: “On the ings may ever know. Why?” Includes a research has focused on older people’s Givenness of Teaching: Encountering fine set of the author’s photographs of experiences during homelessness, there the Educational Phenomenon” (Gert Gothic cathedrals. has been little attention on OPEH’s ex- Biesta); “Approaching Education on perience after being stably housed. its Own Terms” (Joris Vlieghe and Pi- Victoria F. Burns, Natalie St- This represents a critical gap in otr Zamojski); “Pedagogical Practice” Denis, Christine A. Walsh, knowledge considering that with age, a (Andrew Foran); “A Phenomenology person’s home becomes increasingly of Reading: Textual Technology and and Jennifer Hewson, 2020. important to maintaining a positive Virtual Worlds” (Eva-Marie Simms); “Creating a Sense of Place sense of self and well-being (p. 2). “Reality Testing Subjectivity, Naivety after Homelessness: We Are

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Chad Engelland, 2020. Phenome- themes: situating place; the qualities of their visitors to think about what kinds of nology. Cambridge, MA: MIT place; identity and place; power, regulating atmosphere they really want and are happy Press. and resisting place; displacement, loss and to be complicit in producing.” The follow- emplacement; economic geographies of ing sidebar reproduces the authors’ percep- It is curious how all the major academic place; and creative engagements of place. tive comments relating to the soundscape publishers have decided that they must The huge with this vol- experience of zoo animals. have a series of short introductions on ume is that there are no entries relating to “fashionable topics.” This small book is phenomenologies of place. Even though Atmosphere and animals part of MIT’s series on “Essential the key work of the last three decades on We might … what the effect of Knowledge,” which aims to “offer accessi- place and lived emplacement has been en- a soundtrack chosen to create the ble, concise, beautifully produced pocket- visioned and actualized by phenomenolog- “right” atmosphere for the zoo’s [hu- sized books on topics of current interest.” ically-inspired thinkers—e.g., Anne man] visitors might have on the ani- The series is said to draw on “leading Buttimer, Edward Casey, Janet mals in the enclosure. Perhaps croco- thinkers,” though, in this case, the EAP ed- Donohoe, Karsten Harries, Bernd Ja- diles in an exhibit where sounds are itor had never before heard of Chad Engel- ger, Jeff Malpas, Robert Mugerauer, used to create a “swamp-like” effect land or noticed his name in any major phe- Edward Relph, Christopher Tilley, Da- experience these sounds very differ- nomenological literature (though, to be vid Seamon, Ingrid Stefanovic, Yi-Fu ently from the exhibit’s human design- fair, Engelland does cite two books on phe- Tuan, E.V. Walter, and so forth—none of ers and visitors. Perhaps the noise wor- nomenology in his references). this work is represented in this volume, ries them and should therefore be con- So, is the book useful? As one might ex- which instead emphasizes the currently- sidered a potential welfare hazard. pect, Engelland is a philosopher and breaks fashionable conceptual perspectives of Also, given that people may not be the book into ten conventional chapters, poststructuralism, social constructionism, affected by a soundscape in the same with titles like “to the things themselves,” critical thinking, non-representational the- way, it is quite possible that individual “world,” “flesh,” speech,” “life,” and so ory, and assemblage thinking. animals in the zoo experience the arti- forth. As is typical with too many philoso- One wonders why a major academic ficial acoustic environments in which phers, Engelland appears to have no publisher would allow a so-called “hand- they are obliged to live in various, but knowledge of the large, growing literatures book” to ignore the most important work equally atmospheric ways …. on phenomenological research outside phi- on the topic the handbook supposedly co- Whether non-human animals actu- losophy, including the important work on vers. The volume is a considerable misrep- ally perceive atmospheres is of course “phenomenology of place.” resentation of the work on place and an- an open question …. But if they do, we Philosophers should be proud that a phil- other example of how current fashionable cannot necessarily expect those atmos- osophical tradition like phenomenology thinking and theories obscure more valua- pheres to be similar to the ones we per- has garnered great attention in academic ble, accurate work grounded in the lived ceive in the same situation, simply be- and professional circles—nursing, educa- reality of place. cause how we perceive the world, how tion, social work, medicine, architecture, it affects us, depends very much on the geography, sociology, anthropology, ecol- Michael Hauskeller & Tom way we relate to that world: our human ogy, and so forth. When will philosophers Rice, 2019. “A Jungly Feel- needs and , and , writing introductions like this book realize ing: The Atmospheric Design likes and dislikes. that the conventional phenomenological By the same token, however, we themes remain important, but also let read- of Zoos.” In T. Griffero & M. should fully expect, from what we ers know, especially undergraduate stu- Tedeschini, eds., Atmosphere know about atmospheres, that non-hu- dents, that phenomenology has become a and Aesthetics. London: Pal- man animals also experience them, be- major conceptual and methodological ap- grave/Macmillan, pp. 147–58. cause atmospheres are there for us not proach in both the human and natural sci- insofar as we are thinking beings, but ences? This philosopher and anthropologist con- insofar as we are animals: embodied, sider the meaning of atmosphere for zoo world-inhabiting beings in a world that Tim Edensor, Ares Kalan- design: “The atmospheric design of zoos can harm and destroy us, or sustain and provides a good example of the need to dides, and Uma Kothari, eds. support us…. (Hauskeller and Rice, pp. balance the real enough and the not-too- The Routledge Handbook of 155–156). real.” In their conclusion, they ask “What Place. London: Routledge, atmospheres should we want at zoos? 2020. What atmospheres might be best for all Michael R. Kearney, 2020. concerned, animal residents as well as vis- “The Phenomenology of the The editors of this 756-page volume claim itors and keepers? ‘Thinking atmospheri- to provide “a compendium of the diverse Pipe Organ.” Phenomenology cally’ might also present a means of stim- & Practice, vol.15, no. 2, pp. and growing approaches to place.” The ulating reflection: challenging zoos and book includes 63 entries arranged in seven 28–38.

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An illustration from Merleau-Ponty’s Phe- Andrew M. Manshel, 2020. its unique location. Movable chairs, nomenology of Perception describes the in- Learning from Bryant Park. outdoor movies, elaborately planted terplay of habit, sedimentation, and inter- gardens—none of these would work at subjectivity in the practice and perfor- New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press. the corner of Sixth Avenue and Forty- mance of a skilled organist. In this article, Second Street, we were often told, be- Kearney takes up Merleau-Ponty’s exam- This book recounts the remarkable trans- cause of the special conditions there. ple to describe some of the phenomenolog- formation of New York City’s 1980s Now all of those strategies seem like ical characteristics of embodied musical obvious successes. performance. These characteristics point crimeridden Byrant Park to its successful reopening in the early 1990s, which helped Nothing about Bryant Park’s success toward an intersubjective event of “conse- was inevitable, and several elements of cration,” as Merleau-Ponty describes it, in revitalize midtown Manhattan and became an invaluable model for other urban revi- the park’s redesign were failures (alt- which the musician adopts the role of rhe- hough none of the tactics that didn’t tor, inviting the audience into a shared talization projects. Manshel draws on his experiences of helping with Bryant Park’s work were among the recommenda- dwelling place. See sidebar below. tions made by [William] Whyte in his transformation and asks, “What about ur- ban policy can we learn from Byrant 1979 analysis of the park’s problems). “Gestures of consecration” Park?” An appendix reprints urbanist Wil- However, when programs didn’t seem This investigation into Merleau- liam Whyte’s original 1979 grant proposal to be working, failures were quickly Ponty’s description of the pipe organ to the Rockefeller Fund for funds to revi- identified, and new programmatic or contributes to a richer understanding of talize the park; the proposal includes design solutions were created to ad- the phenomenology of practice. Prac- Whyte’s analysis of the park’s problems dress them. tices involve not only a specific set of and design solutions for its invigoration. At the center of great public space actions but also the habits that com- The sidebar below presents a portion of management is an iterative process of prise an individual’s character or ēthos. Manshel’s comments on effective place- observing how real people use public And practice, in the singular, is embod- making. space and adjusting strategies to deal ied engagement with the materiality of with issues as they arise (Manshel, pp. an instrument which prepares for the Taking small risks 114–115). performative possibility of this charac- One of the principal strategies of place- ter to become apparent. making is to take small risks and cor- Tom Martin, 2020. “Relational The habitual practices that constitute rect mistakes as they are observed. It is Perception and ‘the Feel’ for virtuosity at the organ prepare the per- generally impossible to predict how Tools in the Wooden Boat former for hermeneutic engagement people will behave in a particular phys- Workshop.” Phenomenology with the texts of instrument and score ical situation. People’s expectations for and provide the possibility for temporal what they may find in a space differ, & Practice, Vol. 15, no. 2, pp. meaning to emerge. Skilled interpreta- topographies differ, density of use var- 5–23. tion at the organ bench sacralizes ordi- ies from place to place. You can make nary space and time for the intersubjec- your best estimate of what might work, Martin presents insights into the lived ex- tive experience of communication. but you can’t really know. That’s why perience of maritime carpentry practices, The organist works in the role of rhe- it is important to carefully observe the based on six months of sensory-ethno- tor, offering ethical and aesthetic ges- implementation of placemaking tactics graphic fieldwork as a wooden boat tures that invite the audience into a mo- and be prepared to adjust them—de- builder’s apprentice. He examines the ment of understanding, reflection, and pending on how people respond …. widely-reported experience of tools “with- transformation. And this observation At the same time, that doesn’t mean drawing”’ from consciousness as crafts- speaks to the domain of human com- that because places are unique or dif- people master their use. Without contra- munication more generally. ferent, successful public space or eco- dicting these interpretations–many of The gestures of the rhetor, like the nomic revitalization strategies that which are constructed by way of reference gestures of the organist, are “gestures work in one place aren’t transferable to to ideas from Merleau-Ponty–the author of consecration” (Merleau-Ponty, another place. I have been told the suc- suggests further theoretical resources to 1944/2012, p. 147), and they offer cess of Bryant Park is exceptional be- examine the perceptual experience of work those who wander past the doors of a cause it is Manhattan or Midtown and after tools cease to be the main focus of the communicative dwelling place, the op- therefore programs and strategies that craftsperson’s attention. Heidegger’s idea portunity to pause for a moment and worked in Bryant Park won’t work in of “circumspection” is presented as a way even, perhaps, to come in (Kearney, p. other places to illuminate the relational nature of the 38). In fact, before Bryant Park reo- subsequent mode of perception, in which pened, we were told many of our ideas the work as a whole fills consciousness, ra- were impossible in the park because of ther than the individual instruments through which the work is achieved.

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DOI: 4 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. A Fishkeeper’s View of Animal Welfare Stephen Wood

Wood is an independent researcher in phenomenology and the environment. He has a PhD in systematic zoology from the University of Cambridge and has held fellowships in the Theoretical Physics Research Unit at London’s Birkbeck College; and at the Nature Institute in Ghent, New York. [email protected] © 2021 Stephen Wood.

his essay is inspired by my ex- know, but rather a certain manner of Merleau-Ponty devotes many pages of perience of keeping Gustav, a treating the world, of “being-in-the- The Structure of Behavior to reflex ac- betta, or Siamese fighting fish, world” or of “existing” (Merleau-Ponty tions and conditioned responses. The the- while working in California, (1942/1963, pp. 124–25). ory of associative conditioning gained T2007–2008. I present the notion of animal great influence after Ivan Pavlov’s exper- being-in-the-world as described in Mer- In this study, Merleau-Ponty shows a iments on dogs (Pavlov, 1897/1902). leau-Ponty’s phenomenology of nature concern for the lived experience of ani- Dogs trained to associate the ringing of a (Merleau-Ponty, 1942/1963). This sets mals in their surroundings and for distin- bell with the presentation of food began, the stage for the agency-based approach guishing between normal and abnormal after a certain number of trials, to salivate to animal welfare advocated by re- behaviors. He draws extensively on the on hearing the bell even when no food searcher Françoise Wemelsfelder (1997, work of the phenomenological psycholo- was present. A phenomenon as appar- 2001, 2007). gist Frederik Buytendijk (1920/1928, ently complex as learning was reduced to I describe the observations of experi- 1930) and indirectly on the work of proto- a simple reinforcement of stimulus and enced betta keeper Marcus Song (2006) ethologist Jakob von Uexküll (1909). response. Merleau-Ponty (1942/1963, p. and show how Song shares with These authors see the animal as an active 52n6), however, refutes such a mechanis- Wemelsfelder a concern for the behav- agent, setting the terms of its own milieu, tic interpretation, reporting the results of ioral style and body language of animals or Umwelt, choosing not only the sensory an experiment performed by Buytendijk under human care, a concern that springs impulses to which it responds, but also (1930, pp. 50–52): from their appreciation of animals as per- the meaning it attributes to them and its sonal, sentient beings in their own right. characteristic ways of responding. A dog left at liberty can be trained to Wemelsfelder (1997) has cited Buy- choose a door marked with a triangle, Animal being-in-the-world tendijk and Uexküll as providing the even if it is different or even reversed from In The Structure of Behavior (1942/ founding philosophy of her approach, the one which was used in training, on the 1963), Maurice Merleau-Ponty frames a which might be called “agency-based condition that the difference be not too phenomenology of nature in terms of welfare”: great at first. A dog kept on a leash can- three orders of existence—the material, not acquire any reaction at all to an im- The notion of ‘agency’ asserts that in the vital, and the human. In distinguishing mobile triangle after one thousand trials. spontaneous and unpremeditated obser- the vital from the material and challeng- vation of animals, we do not see just ‘be- To demonstrate associative learning in ing the doctrine of animal machines, he havior’, but, over and above that, what the dog, the experimenter relies on the invests the animal body with intentions we see is a ‘behaver’, a dynamic agent. stable relation of the animal to its sur- addressed to its natural surroundings, or We do not merely see sitting, walking or roundings. Kept on a leash, the dog is un- milieu. In his vision of the human order licking going on, we see an animal who able to express itself according to its na- embracing and at the same time trans- sits, walks or licks. It is not the legs that ture, and its ability to respond to the stim- forming the vital order, consciousness is walk, or the tongue that licks; it is the an- ulus of the triangle and to the associated seen to be supported and made possible imal who walks with its legs or licks with reward is impeded. The distress of being by a stable bodily being-in-the-world: its tongue. Thus, the behaving animal as constrained deprives the animal of a full The gestures of behavior, the intentions a whole is not just an emergent by-prod- and reciprocal engagement with its sur- which it traces in the space around the uct of walking legs, licking tongues and roundings. The leash, so to speak, animal, are not directed to the true world wagging tails; it is not merely the sum of “cramps” the dog’s style. or pure being, but to being-for-the-ani- its parts. The animal as a whole is the dy- In designing his experiment, Buy- mal, that is, to a certain milieu character- namic, integrative centre of action, the tendijk had the intuition that the dog, by istic of the species; they do not allow the very point of origin for any behavior or nature a hunter and used to move freely showing through of a consciousness, that movement (Wemelsfelder, 1997, p. 80). when chasing prey, would not react in the is, a being whose whole essence is to same way at liberty as when leashed and

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forced to wait for food to be brought to it translation, cf. Merleau-Ponty, certain elementary situations, as if it en- (Buytendijk, 1930, p. 50). 1942/1963, p. 150). tertained familiar relations with them, as Another body of experimental work To demonstrate tropisms relating to if they were an “a priori of the organ- that Merleau-Ponty addresses is that of light or gravity, the experimenter is ism,” privileged conducts and laws of in- Jacques Loeb and his followers, who seek obliged to perturb the stable expression of ternal equilibrium which predisposed the to demonstrate tropic in ani- the animal’s behavior and create a situa- organism to certain relations with its mi- mals. The theory of animal tropisms was tion of distress. Young plaice move to- lieu (Merleau-Ponty, 1964, p. 4). modelled after the tropic reactions in ward the light when confined in a small plants, where sunflowers, for example, glass cup, but this is simply to seek Merleau-Ponty summarizes his central turn toward the sun (positive photo- greater space at the surface (Buytendijk, point when he writes that “the theory of tropism) or seed roots dig their way into 1920/1928, p. 60). animal-machines is a resistance to the the soil (positive geotropism). Tropisms The tube-dwelling sea-anemone Ce- phenomenon of behavior” (Merleau- were defined as forced reactions of the rianthus exhibits geotropism for a certain Ponty, 1945/1963, p. 127). Researchers animal to environmental conditions: a number of experimental manipulations on who seek to show that higher behaviors, given stimuli would mechanically pro- a wire mesh but is perfectly able to disen- such as learning, are mechanical, take the voke a given response from the organism gage itself when conditions are no longer normal expression of the animal in its sur- (see Loeb, 1900, for examples). to its liking and choose its own anchoring roundings for granted. Those who seek to Merleau-Ponty, after reviewing the in the sand: “After a day or so it pulls its show simple mechanical responses to en- criticisms presented by Buytendijk foot out of the wire and seeks a new vironmental stimuli must limit the range (1920/[1928, pp. 59–62), favors an inter- abode” (Jennings, 1906, p. 150). The in- of expression from the normal to that re- pretation in terms of animal agency: correct conclusion of geotropism comes quired by the experiment. from not continuing to observe the sea- A study of behavior should not aim to In fact, tropisms, which were long consid- anemone for long enough (Buytendijk, study all reactions of an animal that are ered to be reactions to the physical and ibid., p. 62). possible in laboratory conditions, but chemical agents of the milieu, do not seem Jennings identifies six criteria for Ce- only those reactions proper to the animal to exist in this form in the normal life con- rianthus to remain at rest (Jennings, 1906, under the conditions characteristic of its ditions of the animal. Positive photo- p. 196). These involve not only the orien- species (Merleau-Ponty, 1945/1963, tropism in young plaice does not take tation of the body axis in line with grav- p.151). Such a study should aim to respect place in a large aquarium. The sea-anem- ity, with the head free, but also the contact the normal expression of the animal in its one, placed on a trellis, sends its pedicle of the foot and body surface with the natural surroundings—an expression that downward; and if the trellis is turned over sand, and the presence of food. These takes the form of “... acts ... addressed to several times, the pedicle enlaces the resting requirements testify to an active a certain milieu, present or virtual; the act meshes of the trellis. But, after a certain search for a certain stable relation be- of taking a bait, of walking toward a goal, number of trials, the animal disengages tween internal and external milieux. “If of running away from danger” (Merleau- its pedicle and will settle itself in the sand. these conditions are largely unfulfilled, Ponty, ibid.). Which is to say that ... behavior cannot be the animal becomes restless, moves Direct, sensitive observation to animals defined as an adaptation to the given con- about, and finds a new position. But no as active agents has more to offer than ex- ditions and that the organism itself poses one of these conditions is an absolute re- periments that expose animals to unusual the conditions of its equilibrium (Mer- quirement at all times, unless it be that of stimuli and record the resulting behavior leau-Ponty, 1945/1963, pp. 149–150). having the head free” (Jennings, ibid.). over short periods of time. Buytendijk (1920/1928, p. 61) sees, on Buytendijk (1920/1928, p. 59) points the part of organism, “a choice of the Charles, recalcitrant octopus out that the abnormal conditions imposed most favourable milieu and not a forced in the laboratory tend to induce a flight re- In the 1950s, Peter Dews joined a movement towards it.” As Merleau-Ponty group of octopus researchers at the action in the animal. Schneider (1912) ob- explains: serves that, in the event of a fire, horses Naples Zoological Station to investi- gate learning behavior in the soft-bod- will in their run toward the flames. In the conditions of life—if not in the la- ied invertebrate. He chose as his sub- Horses would, therefore, be considered to boratory—the organism is less sensitive jects three individuals of the common be positively phototropic! “What does a to certain isolated physical and chemical octopus (Octopus vulgaris), naming man do when seized by great or ter- agents than to the constellation which them Albert, Bertram and Charles. ror? He , rushing blindly about, they form and to the whole situation He attempted to teach them to pull making either for the dark or the light” which they define. Behaviors reveal a sort a lever which turned on a light and at (Buytendijk 1920/1928, p. 59, author’s of prospective activity in the organism, as the same time delivered a small piece if it were oriented towards the meaning of

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of fish. With Albert and Bertram, As Peter Godfrey-Smith explains, standing of what it is like to be these ani- Dews obtained “reasonable consistent mals will grow” (Wemelsfelder, 2001, p. lever-pulling behavior.” Charles Animals of a given species will start S136). proved to be somewhat more of a out the same, on this view, and if they For example, I inherited my Siamese challenge: diverge in behavior this must be be- fighting fish, Gustav, from a friend during cause of rewarding (or unrewarding) my time in California. He was a beautiful Whereas Albert and Bertram gently experiences ... However, one message male betta, with trailing red and orange operated the lever while free-floating, of octopus experiments is that there is fins. Whenever my wife approached Charles anchored several tentacles on a great deal of individual variability. wearing a red top, he edged menacingly the side of the tank and others around Charles, most likely, was not an octo- toward the glass, puffing out his gills to the lever and applied great force. The pus who started with the same behav- make himself look as large as possible. lever was bent a number of times, and ioral routines as the others and was He danced too, turning slowly and grace- on the 11th day was broken, leading reinforced for squirting experiment- fully through the water, fins trailing, ac- to a premature termination of the ex- ers, but an octopus with a particularly tively displaying his beautiful colors. periment. feisty temperament (Godfrey-Smith, Much of what I learned about Gustav is The light, suspended a little above 2016, p. 37). based on Marcus Song’s excellent guide the level of the water, was not the for keeping bettas (Song, 2006). Song ex- subject of much "attention" by Albert Octopuses are known to direct jets plains that bettas belong to the labyrin- or Bertram; but Charles repeatedly of water at , such as a po- thine fishes, named for the labyrinth or- encircled the lamp with tentacles and tential predator that comes too close gan that, while moist, allows the fish to applied considerable force, tending to to the octopus’s den. Charles “was ei- breathe air. In fact, bettas need to come to carry the light into the tank. This be- ther annoyed by the researcher or had the surface to breathe from time to time. havior is obviously incompatible with a low tolerance for annoyances in Bettas have a variety of interesting behav- lever-pulling behavior. general. Individual octopuses have iors. The male is territorial, repelling Charles had a high tendency to di- different personalities, and octopuses other males, hence his pugilistic behavior. rect jets of water out of the tank; spe- with some temperaments just aren’t Once established in his territory, the male cifically, they were in the direction of suitable for this kind of experimenta- creates a bubble nest to attract the female the experimenter. The animal spent tion” (Mather, Anderson & Wood, to mate with him. much time with eyes above the surface 2010, p. 98). The ideal size of tank for a betta is a of the water, directing a jet of water contentious question, even among experi- at any individual who approached the enced fishkeepers. In California, we saw tank. This behavior interfered materi- Fish welfare as bodily expression slim tanks being sold especially for bet- ally with the smooth conduct of the How is it possible to characterize the be- tas. In the wild, the fish are to be found in experiments and is, again, clearly in- havior of animals very different from us small pools and, according to one school compatible with lever-pulling (Dews, as human beings? In the previous section, of thought (e.g. Julian, 1974, p. 35, 37), 1959, p. 62). I pointed out how mistakes were made. they prefer confined spaces. Experiments that do not respect the nor- Song’s bettas always made use of all the Dews was at a loss to explain mal expression of an animal’s nature or tank space available to them. He reports a Charles’s recalcitrant behavior: “The its normal milieu, provide misleading re- case of one fish, Charlie, that was sickly variables responsible for the mainte- sults. and lethargic in the little vase he had been nance and strengthening of the lamp- Criticisms of these experiments are kept in at the pet shop. Now in a large pulling and squirting behavior in this lodged by experimenters who have ob- tank, the fish spends his days “frolicking animal were not apparent” (Dews, served the animals for longer periods, in through the water, exploring pathways ibid.). conditions more closely resembling the through the plants, and flinging around Dews was working within the animals’ natural habitats and acknowl- his gravel” (Song, 2006, p. 25). framework of Alfred Thorndike’s the- edging how they would express them- When confined, the betta is likely to ory of behavior, where an animal’s selves in nature: “... by spending plenty of manifest its distress by swimming in cir- spontaneous response to a stimulus is time with geese, fish or bees, and by ob- cles or pressing against the glass (Song, conditioned through reinforcement. serving their behaviour under a wide va- 2006, p. 13). Rather than becoming The reinforcement can be either posi- riety of circumstances, these animals’ ex- simply listless, more a sign of ill-health tive, in the form of a reward such as pressions may gain transparency in in- (Song, 2006, ch. 6), bettas are said to be- food; or negative, in the form of a creasing detail ... Gradually, an under- come “sulky” if conditions are not to their punishment such as a disgusting taste liking (Wainwright, 1976, p. 129). or a painful sting (Thorndike, 1898).

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ISSN: 1083-9194 7 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No.

Bettas thrive if their tank is enriched with a warm that his fish remem- more acute awareness of whether the ani- with plants that provide hiding places and bered and recognized him. mal is thriving or distressed. An experi- with aquarium gravel, which encourages My colleague had got to know his enced keeper, with the benefit of long ex- the growth of waste-filtering bacteria fish—how best to feed it and to recognise perience with the animal in question, is in (Song, 2006, p. 27-29). The fish respond when its water needing changing. The pet a privileged position to understand the well to stimuli coming from outside the responded by coming near and being con- “welfare-for-the-animal.” tank: the presence of caregiver, or the tent to stay in his caretaker’s presence. swirling images of a TV or lava lamp Human emotional reactions testify to the References (Song, 2006, p. 18). presence of in fish, as the two Buytendijk, F. J. J. (1920/1928). Psychologie des animaux. Paris: Payot. Flaring, the aggressive puffing out of are linked by . Coming to under- Buytendijk, F. J. J. (1930). Les différences essen- the gills, is a part of normal behavior and stand animal behavior requires a sensitiv- tielles des fonctions psychiques de l’homme et to be encouraged for the well-being of the ity to “the entire animal’s interaction with des animaux. Cahiers de Philosophie de la Na- fish (Song, 2006, p. 17). Betta keepers ar- its surroundings ... an engagement with ture 4: 35–94. Dews, P. B. (1959). Some observations on an oper- range for their fish to flare—either at their the animal’s situation and is essentially ant in the octopus. Journal of the Experimental own reflection in the side of the tank, or built on relationship and empathetic com- Analysis of Behavior 2 (1): 57–63. preferably another male kept safely be- munication” (Wemelsfelder, 2007, p. 30). Godfrey-Smith, P. (2016). Other Minds: The Octo- hind a wire mesh (Song, ibid.). With his sensitivity to the behavior of pus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Conscious- ness. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. A betta manifests its well-being as an bettas, Song identifies many individual Jennings, H. S. (1906). Behavior of the Lower Or- engagement with its surroundings, seek- peculiarities (Song, 2006, p. 15). Differ- ganisms. Columbia University Press, NY: Mac- ing hiding places among plants, making ent individuals have different tempera- millan. use of the full length of the tank for swim- ments, from very calm to very aggressive. Julian, T. W. (1974). Encyclopaedia of Tropical Fishes. NY: Dell. ming, and flaring at real or supposed ri- Some, often females, are very particular Loeb, J. (1900). Comparative physiology of the vals. Well-being represents a fullness of about cleanliness and will always defe- brain and comparative psychology. NY: Putnam. the animal’s bodily expression and en- cate in the same spot in the tank, under- Mather, J. A., Anderson, R. C. and Wood, J. B. gagement with its surroundings. Distress, neath a plant. One fish, Paul Bunyan, (2010). Octopus. Portland, OR: Timber. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1942/1963). The Structure of on the other hand, takes the form of a would follow Song around while he was Behavior. Boston: Beacon. withdrawal of bodily expression or of at- cleaning the tank of debris and point out Merleau-Ponty, M. (1964). The Primacy of Percep- tempts to escape from the distressing sur- pieces that he had missed! tion and other Essays. Evanston, IL: Northwest- roundings. ern University Press. Pavlov, I. P. (1897/1902). The Work of the Digestive Wemelsfelder, in her studies of animal Getting to know animals well Glands. London: Griffin. welfare in farming, expresses the polarity A perception of animal personalities is Schneider, K. C. (1912). Tierpsychologisches Prak- of well-being and distress in the same shared by ethologists who choose to study tikum in Dialogform. Leipzig: Veit. terms: their animals over extended periods of Song, M. (2006). Caring for Betta Fish. Athens, GA: Spring Water. time: “When observers spend hours re- Stevenson-Hinde J., Stillwell-Barnes R. and Zunz Are the animals contented, sociable, play- cording behavior, they end up not only M. (1980). Subjective assessment of rhesus mon- ful, or do they appear irritable, unsettled, with behavioral data, but with clear im- keys over four successive years. Primates 21: 66- uncomfortable, or withdrawn into them- pressions of individuals” (Stevenson- 82. selves? These seem important questions, Thorndike, E. L. (1898). Animal intelligence: an ex- Hinde and coworkers, 1980, p. 66, quoted perimental study of the associative processes in not just for farm animals, but for all ani- in Wemelsfelder, 2007, p. 26). The study animals. The Psychological Review: Monograph mals under our care (Wemelsfelder, of temperament and personality in ani- Supplements 2 (4): 1–109. 2007, pp. 29–30). mals, now a burgeoning field, is based on Uexküll, J. von (1909). Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere. Berlin: Springer. methods of assessment “often applied and If a good relationship of care develops Wainwright, N. (1976). The Observer’s Book of tested by animal caretakers and owners, Tropical Fishes. London: Warne. between keeper and betta, the fish will who, having observed the animals over Wemelsfelder, F. (1997). The scientific validity of come to greet his caregiver by dancing or long periods of time, tend to know them subjective concepts in models of animal welfare. waggling its tail (Song, 2006, p. 15). One Applied Animal Behaviour Science 53: 75–88. well” (Wemelsfelder, ibid.). of my colleagues at London’s Natural Wemelsfelder, F. (2001). The inside and outside as- The experienced animal keeper sees pects of consciousness: complementary ap- History Museum had just such an experi- that characteristic behaviors differ among proaches to the study of animal . Animal ence with a tench that he kept in a tank in individuals and that unusual behaviors Welfare 10: S129–139. his office. Each morning as he arrived for Wemelsfelder, F. (2007). How animals communi- may simply be the expression of a unique work, the tench would greet him by wag- cate quality of life: the qualitative assessment of personality. Familiarity with the behav- behaviour. Animal Welfare 16 (S): 25–31. gling its fins. My colleague told us this ioral repertoires of individuals brings a

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DOI: 8 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. Out-of-Place in Liminal Space Claudia Mausner

Mausner is an environmental psychologist and Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute’s Urban Placemaking Program (New York City), with expertise in public space and the psychology of sustainability. Her teaching applies theory to practice by introducing architecture, planning, and design students to a social-science perspective and the creative problem-solving potential of phenome- nological investigation. [email protected]. © 2021 Claudia Mausner.

eckoned by a neon highway sign ittle can be taken-for-granted while same direction on a dangerous collision flashing “MISSING ADULT,” I living this “fragmented mode of ex- course. I soon conclude that this space had wondered …. Could that miss- L istence” [4], residing simultane- better remain a kitchen-for-one! ing person be me? Certainly, ously in one of the Rivertowns and in my B hat does it mean to lack a per- this would hold true if “who we are is childhood home in New Jersey. I maintain partly where we are” [1]. I find myself jet- heightened awareness of where I am at all manent address? I’m surprised tisoned from an area where I lived for the times, careful to avoid interfering with the W to discover that, despite our past two decades because of skyrocketing habitual patterns of my gracious hosts. My highly mobile society and the dearth of ad- rents amid proliferation of luxury housing, body-space routines are also upended as I equate housing, the expectation that every- high taxes, and no “affordable” housing. adjust to life in two distinctly different one has (at least) one single, permanent During this transitional period, I am for- built structures. residence remains deeply entrenched in tunate to have friends and family who gen- In one house, I race up and down the both practices and privileges of our public erously offered interim accommodations, staircase, safely lost in thought and oblivi- and private institutions. It is notable that albeit in liminal space. In this essay, I ex- ous to my body movements; in the other the term “transient,” in its Latin origin, re- plore my dis-placement and experience of house, the same unself-conscious behavior ferred to the process of “going across” or life in-between, where British philosopher causes my knees to scream in agony, as the “passing through” without any negative J.G. Bennett’s constructs of “interaction” stairs were not designed in accordance connotation; this is in stark contrast with and “identity” have been temporarily up- with more recent building codes that re- present day use of this term as a pejorative rooted [2]. quire lower riser heights. for “home-less” individuals [6]. I reach deep within myself for resources In one residence, my behaviors must According to my employer’s change-of- to keep afloat during this “transitory em- heed shared occupancy with two cats: I am address form, our living options are binary: placement” [3], unanchored as I sojourn careful to close toilet lids; leave inside place of residence can be “permanent” for between two places of residence. My new doors open and outside doors closed; and employees living in their own home, or homes are in the adjacent states of New clear food off the kitchen counter after “temporary” for those living in the “local” York and New Jersey, separated by the each meal. Both homes demand focused at- area within commuting distance to work. Hudson River and about 25 miles apart as tention when using the dishwasher: I care- An explicit category for liminal status is the crow flies. Soon after making this tran- fully adjust my arm and finger positions to offered by the U.S. Decennial Census: peo- sition, I go hiking along the Palisades cliffs match the appropriate latch and carefully ple who “stay” at a residence during hours high above the river’s edge. Peering across calculate my arm kinesthetics to avoid ca- of wakefulness and sleep for an “indefi- the river from one state to the other, I feel lamitous slamming or dropping of either nite” but temporary period of time. More- the cold sting of my exile status. dishwasher door. over, this definition specifically excludes I am homesick for a permanent abode in Place ballet is especially precarious in “visitors” who have a permanent address the Hudson Valley’s “Rivertowns,” the kitchen of one residence [5]. Upon ar- elsewhere. As mandated by the United revered for their natural beauty, expansive riving at this new home and preparing my States Constitution, the Census also enu- views, and direct access to the water’s meals, I casually open the fridge door with merates people with no home address at edge. My belongings remain boxed and outstretched arm, only to find my house- all—in short, those living a life that reflects ready to move at a moment’s notice, elim- mate striding across the room and abruptly a more profound degree of liminality. Ac- inating any suggestion of an extended pres- encountering my arm-as-blockade. I reach cording to the Census, individuals “experi- ence in either abode as I eagerly anticipate for the dish towel with hands dripping wet, encing homelessness” must be counted emerging in some as-yet-undetermined discovering after-the-fact a pile of bills un- wherever they are “known to sleep,” place of my own. derneath with their now-bleeding ink. whether at an indoor or outdoor location Swinging from kitchen sink to cutting [7]. board with chopping knife in hand, I closely miss my host as she pivots in the

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ISSN: 1083-9194 9 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. Recent controversy around U.S. election of place attachment and place identity that Although it is reasonable to conclude protocol has further amplified the im- evolved while living in this County for so that “stability of home allows people to portance of one’s residential address, as many years. [more effectively] . . . address their prob- citizens lacking a permanent residence In contrast, upon returning to my home lems” [9], my recent personal experience may be unable to vote. Even individuals town in New Jersey during this transitional suggests another possibility. Despite the with a permanent “home” may be excluded period, I’ve been dismayed to discover my intrinsic lack of equilibrium in liminal if they have not lived in-state or at their limited assemblage of mental maps. With- space, perhaps there are occasions when listed residence for a legally mandated pe- out sufficient knowledge to guide me, all living in-between can offer a measure of riod of time prior to an election. destinations feel distant and I remain an freedom and flexibility that facilitates Other examples of institutional demand “existential outsider” even in my place of transformation and allows fortuitous new for permanent residence include the public origin [8]. Except for the George Wash- designs-for-living to unfold. library, where borrowing privileges re- ington Bridge that spans the Hudson River, Straddling my life across state lines, I quire written proof of residence, and the few landmarks were imprinted on my have learned how to be-in-place with a Division of Motor Vehicles, which prohib- memory from childhood. In fact, the Hud- lighter step and a smaller footprint. Over its use of a post office box address for the son has served as my north star for dec- time, it has also become easier to resist the license application. Whereas my automo- ades: an internalized compass and longitu- temptation of being “there” when my em- bile insurance company requires a single, dinal grid guiding me during my travels bodied self is “here.” As I acclimate to this permanent address to link vehicular cover- throughout the northeastern United States. transitional space, I consider whether my age to the location where a car is regularly Months pass before I realize that certain search for permanent, solid ground might driven and parked, my renter’s insurance is errands could be done while en route be- be expressed most aptly in the Welsh con- less place-based, protecting the owner’s tween my transitional homes rather than cept of “hiraeth,” the “yearning for a home possessions wherever they may be housed. relying on past time-space routines from that you cannot return to, no longer exists, my former home in Westchester County. or maybe never was” [10]. For me, “hi- eelings of disorientation engulf me I’ve been reluctant to change habits-in- raeth” may simply be an alluring mirage when I travel within and between space, however, as less mental energy is re- that distracts from the uneasy truth that F my current places of residence. With quired to follow familiar routes and rou- liminal space is in fact where much of life familiar mental maps now tucked away in tines despite the inconvenience. When I re- is actually lived [11]. the far recesses of my mind, I struggle to luctantly make the effort to adopt new pat- recall preferred driving routes; navigation terns, my unconscious remains disoriented Notes is no longer taken-for-granted and operat- and unsettled. Acting on instinct, I search 1. D. Seamon Life Takes Place, London: Routledge, ing on automatic pilot. Instead, my inter- 2018, p. 2. for and assume I’ve recognized familiar 2. J.G. Bennett, cited in Seamon 2018, p. 74. nal GPS swings wildly as it continuously faces in a parking lot or store aisle, only to 3. Seamon 2018, p. 49. “recalculates,” accompanied by the con- experience and disappointment 4. J. E. Malpas Comparing Topologies, Philosophy stant refrain of “Where am I?” and “Where with the unpleasant realization that I’m not and Geography, 4 (2001), p. 232. am I going?” 5. D. Seamon, A Geography of the Lifeworld, NY: St. where I think I am and “they” are not who Martin’s Press, 1979. I have derived great satisfaction and I think they are. 6. Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 11th edn., Spring- pride from the place-based knowledge I field, MA: G. & C. Merriam Co., 2003. amassed over the past 20 years while living had hoped this essay would conclude 7. How the 2020 Census Counts People Experiencing in Westchester County, 500 sq. miles with my emergence from liminal space Homelessness. D-1254; https://www.census.gov/con- tent/dam/Census/library/factsheets/2020/dec/census- reaching from the Long Island Sound to the onto solid ground, in a home of my I counts-homeless.pdf (retrieved Oct. 14, 2020). Hudson River. My mental maps for this own where a new life could take root and 8. E. Relph, Place and Placelessness, London: Pion, extensive area are broad and deep, integrat- flourish. But my world has recently taken 1976. ing highways, public transit, bike and pe- unanticipated twists and turns, leaving me 9. New York Times, cited by Seamon 2018, p. 4. 10. J. Manley, Longing for a Distant Home amid a destrian paths, and local roads in each of stranded in-between. An unexpected fam- Pandemic. New York Times, Sept. 14, 2020, p. B6. the towns where I’ve lived here. ily death reshaped my relationship to and 11. I dedicate this essay to friends and family who Access to this knowledge has enhanced responsibility for my transitional residence have generously shared their homes with me, and to my quality of life by offering myriad op- in New Jersey. And who could have pre- the built and natural places that have sustained me with much-needed respite during my transitional pe- portunities to enjoy scenery; efficiently dicted a devastating pandemic with “stay- riod of dis-location. I express appreciation to Gina complete errands; escape from poorly de- in-place” and “shelter-at-home” mandates, Sharpe for inspiring this essay and to Mary Ellen signed traffic patterns; and, most im- forcing so many into their own liminal ex- Lewis for editorial comments that challenged and portantly, avoid hour traffic. Given istence? Together we experience life-on- helped to clarify articulation of my liminal experi- ence. my present circumstances, I more fully ap- hold, living in suspended animation with preciate this rich palette of mental maps— our only certainty being the here-and-now an insider’s gift mirroring the strong sense of both time and place.

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DOI: 10 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. Why We Don’t Mind Walking Joys and Lessons of Florence Streetscapes Edward T. White

White is a retired professor of architecture at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida. He has travelled extensively in Eu- rope with a special interest in travel drawing and urban form and urban public space. He has authored or co-authored 26 books on architecture, design process, design communication, travel drawing, and the piazzas of Florence. Before retirement, he was a li- censed architect in Arizona and Florida. A version of this essay was presented at the conference, “The City and Complexity,” held in June, 2020, at the University of London. [email protected]. Text and drawings © 2021 Edward T. White.

n this essay, I consider the grew, new walls were built to surround walkability of the streets of the expanding city area. The final walls Florence, Italy. I highlight were built in the late 13th and early 14th I some of the ways that Flor- century. These walls were demolished in ence might offer useful lessons the late 1800s to modernize Florence as for planning and designing to- Italy’s new capital, a title that lasted from day’s urban projects. At the start, 1865 to 1870. The footprint of these ear- I emphasize that my observations lier walls is now the Viale, Florence’s are personal and, in that sense, ring road that surrounds and defines the modest and provisional. I make historic city core. no claims for generalizability One result of a settlement surrounded other than the common-sense rel- by a succession of walls is that, within the evance of lived experience and walls, land was finite, valuable, and ur- the possibility that one person’s ban development compressed. Streets observations might apply to more were sized for foot, horse, and cart traffic. generalizable human situations. Any unused land was first employed for I compiled these descriptions agriculture until it became required for of Florence’s streets and street city expansion. life while teaching in Florence Piazza space was reserved for im- during the 1996–1997 academic portant buildings, usually churches and year and during seven subsequent government buildings; later, palaces. Pi- six-week summer terms. My last azzas honored these structures by front- Florence teaching assignment ing or surrounding them with generous was summer, 2016. I taught two open land in a city of otherwise tight, util- courses, one involving the ori- itarian urban space. Piazzas also provided gins, evolution, history, architec- open areas for large crowds and citizen ture, piazzas, and street patterns; functions associated with the honored the other, a drawing course fo- buildings’ purposes—for example, reli- cusing on Florence’s public spaces. streets and foot traffic. Despite its legacy gious celebrations and political ceremo- As an architect, my commentary empha- as the cradle of the Renaissance, the city’s nies. sizes urban form, public space, path typol- core is essentially medieval in character. Because the present urban environment ogies, environment–behavior relation- Post-World-War-II reconstruction, when in the Centro Storico was formed centuries ships, and signature building patterns ver- Florence was temporarily the Italian capi- ago, current-day Florence cannot take sus the fabric of ordinary, everyday build- tal, has not appreciably altered the city’s credit for its walkable streets in the historic ings not typically distinguished aestheti- twisting web of tight, bent, narrow streets city core. Much of the charm of Florence’s cally or architecturally. punctuated by open piazzas. pedestrian environment is due to the odd The evolution of Florence was typical of marriage and happy accident of a current- The physical form of Florence many Italian city-states with urban growth day culture inhabiting a medieval urban Florence’s origins and its shaping forces enclosed and protected by a series of con- fabric. are important for understanding the city’s centric, defensive stone walls. As the city

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ISSN: 1083-9194 11 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. Inside the Viale, the city’s urban form is of pedestrian life. This street savvy arms us This dwelling situation originally re- largely the result of the founding of Flor- with strategy, technique, and etiquette to sulted from settlement compactness stem- ence by Roman soldiers in 68 BC and the reduce or avoid many typical walking neg- ming from medieval perimeter wall limits gradual extension and growth of the city atives. and necessary urban compression and den- out from the original rectangular, gridded, The habit of walking in Florence has a sity, from medieval social and economic Roman-camp geometry. The lines of the cultural and social component. There is a stratification, and from the Italian genius of camp’s main north-south road and east- life-enhancing spirit, attitude, toward crafting quirky, workable apartments from west road are still major arteries in Flor- walking in Florence—an of impossible leftover space geometries. ence today and serve as important organiz- going out, being out, being with, joining, These limited interiors are in sharp contrast ers of city layout. The outer walls of the belonging; sense of being a citizen; em- to the carefully planned, generous, open, Roman settlement, together with the grid- powering of a body that moves; sat- sunlit, lively piazzas with their expansive ded streets inside the camp, are still evident isfaction of a journey free of technology skies, beautiful signature buildings, and in Florence’s street pattern at the center of and mechanical assistance; inherent posi- welcoming accommodation of vibrant ur- the city. Many of Florence’s major build- tives of exercise. ban life. ings and public spaces are located and re- With the exception of the palaces, Flor- lated in significant ways to the original Ro- Medieval carryover entine life has always happened in the man camp geometry. Another aspect of history’s influence on streets and piazzas. Florentines have liter- Florence’s walkability is the carryover of ally been squeezed out of their apartments Walking in Florence the medieval relationship between housing into the city’s life-enhancing public Florence’s walkability begins with its size, and public space. Florence’s apartments spaces. They fill squares and streets and shape, and compactness. The historic core have always been small with pinched, un- support commerce, urban vitality, and inside the Viale is approximately 1250 eventful views, odd layouts, walkup stairs, sense of community. This tendency to join acres in area and roughly 1.5 miles across. and little sunlight. publicly is supported by the Italian of Using the Duomo’s Baptistry as Florence’s contact, participation, engagement, and be- geographic center, one finds that it takes longing. Florentines love their city and roughly the same amount of time love walking in it. Witness the pas- to walk to the Viale’s edges in all segiatta, the tradition of strolling in directions. The diameter of the the evenings and on Sundays with city core can be covered on foot in no particular place to go. about 30–40 minutes. Most of the frequented walking destinations Walking in history can be reached from any point in Walking in Florence is walking in 15 minutes or less. This sense of history. The city itself is a mu- the city-in-reach-on-foot pro- seum—a sweeping story with grav- motes a general disposition of itas laced with drama, feuds, in- city-at-hand for pedestrians. trigue, mystery, heroes, and villains. Because of the challenges of Walking the streets and piazzas is driving in Florence, the dense more meaningful, enjoyable, and housing inside the Viale, and the edifying if we know these stories. availability of necessities of daily Even in a short time, being in life in the city core, most Floren- Florence we become aware of its tine residents traverse their city on history. A street is not just a street if foot. Walking in Florence is habit, we know who lived there and what tradition, and necessity. Daily happened there. There is a delicate walking cultivates knowledge of sense of personal elevation when city layout and discovery of effi- immersed in Florence’s history. We cient routes and leisurely routes, somehow borrow a bit of its value locations of desired destinations, and dignity. There is an abiding and path options to reach them. mental and emotional backdrop of Cognitive maps are refined over reverence, appreciation, and grati- time to approach the reality of ac- tude behind all we do as we move tual city geography. We learn through the central city. what to expect in the streets and This positive predisposition to- are less thrown by the inevitable ward place and story can move us to discomforts and inconveniences look past and forgive the necessary

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DOI: 12 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. and inevitable of city walking of bicycle bells navigating and to feel that our lives play out on a through pedestrians, and car higher plane. horns. Florentine scents fill the Beauty streets. As we move past To move through Florence is to move open shop doors and street through beauty. Not the pretty, ornate, col- vendors, we detect leather, orful, light, open, delicate, water-based candle wax, soap, baking beauty of Venice, but a rugged, muscular, bread, coffee, pasta and brown, heavy, protective, thick kind of se- sauces. In the winter, roast- vere Spartan handsomeness. Venice is a ing chestnuts and fireplaces. she. Florence is a he. These welcome scents are Tan and cream, stucco and stone, green joined periodically by dump- shuttered fabric facades with roofs of ter- sters, bus exhaust, and horse racotta tile shape Florentine streets and pi- manure. azzas. These colors and elements are fitting Palette is in play if we frames and settings for intricately marbled pause for street food along signature buildings, elegant store win- our path. Gelato, pizza dows, piazza and street space, the city’s slices, glasses of wine, pa- bustling urban life, and the river Arno with nini, fresh fruit are all in the its handsome bridges, including the Ponte street or open to it. A quick Vecchio. espresso and brioche in the Vegetation is scarce in Florence’s his- morning are a tradition and toric core, though greenery is to be found of course the world class at the Centro Storico’s margins, at the hilly Florentine cuisine is there south side of the river, and in church clois- when we want to pause for ters. When one does encounter trees, one an extended leisurely meal. notes the surprising color and texture con- A particularly enjoyable Florentine prac- circulation. Streets are often narrow with trast with the otherwise paved, built-over tice is aperitivo. After work and before the thin sidewalks inadequate to sort out and environment, the predominance of which dinner hour, restaurants and bars offer a separate the different pedestrian types, di- renders the lacy greenery a soft, gem-like sumptuous buffet of free finger food when rections, and speeds. gift. we order drinks. These pathway configurations regularly In the streets, our haptic sense fields and force pedestrian circulation into the street Sensuality processes the city: uneven pavement under and compress walking bodies into a messy In encountering Florence’s streets, our foot, shoulder brushes of passers-by, cool vitality of homogenized incompatibilities. senses are awake, not as a disconnected se- door handles, weight of purchased goods, On foot, tour groups, students, and locals ries of isolated experiences but as a steady feel of merchandise we’re browsing, grip move briskly with purpose toward serious stream of variegated, layered sensuality. of handshake, support of bench or café destinations. Elders stroll slowly, enjoying Christmas season is particularly lovely in seat, flatware at lunch all engage sense of walking for its own sake. Mothers push Florence. Festive lights are strung over touch. buggies. Older women walk their dogs. streets and reflect in fractured patterns off As we move, we feel our bodies in mo- Shoppers slow and stop in front of store wet stone pavement while enticing dis- tion. Air on our face, clothes moving over windows. Friends meet and huddle in quiet plays fill store windows. skin, muscles working, shifting perspec- conversation. Store owners stand outside Our hearing is treated to the sounds of tives, sense of progress past stone facades their shop doors waiting for customers. conversations, music lessons, and clinking are a few of the kinetic experiences. Beggars sit in the street or approach for a pots and pans coming from apartment win- handout. dows on quieter streets at dinner time. In Integrated circulation This great variety of movement results in the busiest part of the city, we hear such When we walk in Florence, our attention is pedestrian pinball that must be finessed. To contrasting sounds as sirens, church bells, engaged, alert, and occupied, navigating this challenging variety of interwoven foot street musicians, horse hooves on pave- the unlikely jumble of mixed movement traffic, now add vehicles sharing the same ment, barkers touting fresh fruit, cars rac- types in the crowded streets. Despite Flor- narrow street space. Cars, delivery trucks, ing off from traffic lights, homogenized ence’s ongoing project of converting mini-busses, and horse-drawn carriages hum of street-crowd conversations, loud streets in the historic core to pedestrian- part the pedestrian and force crowds arguments, guides informing tour groups, only paths, many streets remain a com- temporarily to the street wall to let vehicles organ music from open church doors, pings pressed mix of pedestrian and vehicular pass. Scooters use the noise of their revved

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ISSN: 1083-9194 13 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. engines to part the street crowds Activation is supported by narrow streets and clear the street. Bicycles ping that promote close contact between pe- their “coming through” bells and destrians and storefronts. frequently zip past at frightening Many stores display wares on the street speeds just inches from pedestrians’ and, when weather permits, shops often shopping bags and arms. keep their front doors open to the street to While not all of Florence’s streets enhance entrance invitation. This prac- are this movement-dense, walking tice renders typical walled street bounda- most streets in the historic core re- ries porous and transforms the path wall quires skill and full concentration. character at ground level from continu- There are several terms that de- ous solid plane to perforated edge. Our scribe this congested mix of move- sense of street space shifts from sharply ment types. Compressed heteroge- defined channel to a softer undulation neity, muted boundaries, exposure and enhances our journey with side and immersion come to mind. In- glimpses through doors into store space, compatible modes of movement are merchandise, people, décor, and action. squeezed together into narrow path- Store interiors effectively become inte- ways dissolving the sense of bound- grated with the street environment. ary and personal space between dis- parate path users, while the close Path typology quarters between people and vehi- Florence’s city blocks are small, and cles foster a feeling of vulnerability, streets are numerous and frequent. This risk, and openness to city life. dense path network supports fluid, multi- option pedestrian navigation, city con- Serial punctuation nectivity, and promotes building access There is a close fit in Florence’s to street space light and air. The many streets between walking scales and streets configure a rich and varied path speeds and the grain of presentation and family crests, streetlamps, and façade de- typology. encounter the built environment offers pe- tails. Sounds and scents, level changes, The list of attributes over which Flor- destrians. Store windows, curbside dis- pavement texture shifts also provide orien- ence’s streets vary is long as is the number plays, street performers, fruit stands, food tation. Once we learn the city, we usually of streets fitting each category. This gener- carts, signage and graphics, entry treat- know where we are. ous menu of street types enlivens our per- ments, façade detailing are designed, sized, ceptual, attentional, and intentional facul- and positioned to fit the kinds of attention Retail type, scale, and density ties. It invites our continual participation in that those on foot give them. This intimate The density, distribution, scale, and types reading and responding to the walking en- fit has been refined and matured over cen- of retail in Florence’s core contribute to the vironment. turies of walking tradition in Florence. city’s walkability. Tiny shops specialize in Some of Florence’s streets are primarily This movement experience is enhanced one thing and, as a group, satisfy most vehicular, while others are primarily pe- and reinforced by dense serial eventful- daily needs. Hardware, butcher, leather, destrian. Many are an uneasy mixture of ness, inflection, and path punctuation. Pro- newsstand. Café, grocery, pharmacy, art. both. A street may be dedicated to retail, gress and orientation markers along path- Pasta, clothing, wine, coffee. Jewelry, housing, or service such as tenant parking, ways are frequent and varied in type and toys, shoes, candy. Gelato, panini, pizza, deliveries, or trash pickup. Some streets power of impression. As we learn the city, luggage. Soap, perfume, bakery, dairy. enjoy high status and prestige because they we form our cognitive maps. These mental Hats, fruit, books, art supplies. Computers, are formed by famous structures or lead to constructs, together with pathway clues, ceramics, maps, stationary. important piazzas, buildings, or land- provide both bold and subtle reads on foot Store types are randomly spread across marks. Most streets are lined with day-to- speed, progress, and location. the city. This disbursement invites pedes- day errand shops. Certain streets in the Large journey articulations are piazzas, trians to all parts of the city core to frequent Centro Storico are busy tour-group routes, river and bridges, major landmarks, busy favorite vendors. Foot-traffic distribution while others farther out are slower paced cross streets, glance vistas up side streets fosters contact with other shops and sup- and quieter. to fragments of familiar buildings. Less ob- ports economic and street life vitality. Florence’s street network evolved over vious are tops of church towers, glimpses Stores are small and numerous on most centuries of changing historical circum- of Oltrarno greenery, specific shops, and streets, activating paths with a dense series stances and planning pressures. The result street vendors. Small-scale examples are of diverse window displays and shopping is a patchwork of rotated, colliding grids signage, entry treatments, roadside grottos, options that change every 20 or 30 feet. that create bent streets, odd intersections,

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DOI: 14 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. Urban space and surfaces change with sun path, time of day, day length, air qual- ity, and weather. Sense of place and archi- tectural emphasis change when daily and seasonal sun/shade/ shadow patterns fall differently on buildings and walking sur- faces. The front facades of many of Flor- ence’s most important public buildings face west and are dramatically lit by west sun in the late afternoon. Sun path and position shape a piazza’s thermal comfort/discomfort zones at mealtimes and piazza café popular- ity and success. On Sundays, the city is quieter. Streets are less crowded with pe- destrians and vehicles. Pace is slower, en- ergy more relaxed, church bells more no- ticeable. Pathways are littered with debris from Saturday night’s partying.

Reflections and lessons To conclude this essay, I provide a series of statements that gather and focus my ear- shifting vistas, and constant variation in the street qualities and time scales—season- lier descriptions of Florence walkability. walking experience. Very few streets are ally, monthly, weekly, and daily. These maxims are meant as provisional straight over any distance. Numbness and In early morning before the city comes principles relating to pedestrians and Flor- inattention from routine and repetition are to life, streets are quiet and uncrowded. ence streetscapes. They are in no particular opposed by ever-new ways that the city Storekeepers toss buckets of water on the order. presents itself. pavement to scrub and clean their shop en- Street typology includes path profile in trance. Delivery trucks make their runs be- ▪ A tradition and culture of walking, a section. All Florence street space is some fore traffic congests streets and compli- clear advantage of walking over driv- version of narrow and tall. Most streets in cates travel and double-parking for deliv- ing, and an urban geography that is the city center are 20 to 30 feet wide, wall- eries. Street sweepers cruise and clean commonly understood as accessible to-wall, and four to six stories tall. The while pathways are clear of activity. Street on foot are necessary contexts and walking experience is one of moving vendors set up their carts and wares in conditions for a walkable city environ- through canyon-like spaces. Varied build- high-traffic tourist areas. Sidewalk artists ment. A city is walkable because peo- ing heights, bent streets, and randomly jag- set out samples of work and assemble ea- ple expect to walk and do walk with- ged roof-eave patterns create diverse sky sels for the day’s commissions and demon- out questions or complaints. Walking shapes above and, together with time of strations. is simply a given. It is how life gets day and season, illuminate path space and In the evenings, the city quiets down. done. surfaces in endless sun/shade/shadow ge- Tour groups return to their hotels. Vehicu- ▪ The city becomes an extension of self ometries. Compressed path space ampli- lar traffic tails off. Early restaurant dinner when it is skillfully used as equipment fies the contrast of emerging from tight crowds are typically tourst families, while for life tasks. Boundaries between self shady streets into generous, open, large- late-night diners tend to be residents. Some and place dissolve and advance the sky, sunny piazzas. trattorias close the street in front of their person-environment relationship from establishment and fill the road with tables occupancy to habitation to dwelling. Temporal morphing and chairs to expand seating capacity. We come to identify with the environ- Florence’s walking conditions and street After work, popular enotecas (wine ment. qualities constantly change with time, mul- bars) overflow to fill sidewalks, streets, ▪ Routine activities seem elevated when tiplying the types and intensities of path and church steps with young singles enjoy- enacted in important environments. environments in a given street. This tem- ing a wine and a good conversation. Piazza Our actions, our very selves and lives poral morphing keeps path experience energy tapers off to a few grandparents borrow gravitas from the heavy his- new, fresh, engaging, and rich with atten- gossiping on benches as small children tory and significance of the place. tion-renewing variety and surprise. These squeal and giggle while kicking a soccer ▪ When there is reverence and respect shifts can be subtle or bold and apply to all ball. for a place, the inherent negatives of

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ISSN: 1083-9194 15 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. street life are more readily forgiven longing, a feeling of kinship, commu- experiential quality, and expansion of lived and considered less troublesome. nity, citizenship, identification, and possibilities. Whether this manner of urban ▪ Self-activation, empowerment, and identity. To conduct life in the streets environment can today be somehow ex- life are nurtured when we take respon- of Florence is to feel Florentine. At plicitly planned, designed, and made to sibility for learning the city, visualiz- some level, Florence is ours, and we happen effectively is one of the most im- ing routes to destinations, navigating share responsibility for valuing and portant 21st-century questions for archi- journeys, and managing walking ex- caring for the city. tects, planners, and policy makers. periences. ▪ Life is lived at a higher level when the ▪ Varied, eventful paths require exercise quality of the journey experience is as Related readings and application of our full human fac- elevated as the quality of the destina- Adkins, A., Dill, J. Luhr, G., and Ned, M., 2012. “Un- ulties. Our whole self is called upon, tion experience. Getting there is as im- packing Walkability: Testing the Influence of Urban Design Features on Perceptions of Walking Envi- activated, and put in play. We feel in portant as being there. ronment Attractiveness.” Journal of Urban Design, full form with all our capacities work- ▪ Our need for beauty and appreciation 17. ing. of the well-made are met and satisfied Bentley, Ian et al., 1985. Responsive Environments. ▪ The expenditure of self in the exertion where care and craft are fiercely val- London: Routledge. Chiang, Y.-C., Sullivan, W., and Larson, L., 2017. of walking is a satisfying ued traditions. “Measuring Neighborhood Walkable Environ- when the path environment is reward- ▪ When streets present themselves dif- ments: A Comparison of Three Approaches.” Inter- ing and life-affirming. ferently each day, there is less drift national Journal of Environmental Research and ▪ City life on foot is self-expansive and into numbing habit and tired repeti- Public Health, June. Cullen, G., 1961. Concise Townscape. London: self-refining. Our perception, atten- tion. We look forward to encountering Routledge. tion, discernment, and decision-mak- the day’s surprises. Entrikin, N., 1991. The Betweenness of Place. Balti- ing are tuned and enlarged. We expe- ▪ Environmental attributes that are more: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press. rience a more intimate fit between dense, frequent, varied, and intense Ewing, R. and Hardy, S., 2009. “Measuring the Un- measurable: Urban Design Qualities Related to senses and cognition and between sustain attention, interest, and our Walkability.” Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 14, reading and responding to environ- presence to place. Fully engaged is 2009. ments. fully mindful, fully alive. Hardy, L., 2017. The Embrace of Buildings. Grand ▪ Streets teach life. We see and learn ▪ Walking means exercise, and exercise Rapids: Calvin College Press. Jacobs, J., 1961. Life and Death of Great American more ways that people can be and means fitness, health, and vitality. Ex- Cities. NY: Random House. ways life can be lived. We realize the panded capacities broaden life hori- Lo, R. H., 2009. “Walkability: What is It?” Journal of wide ways of relating and doing. We zons. Disposition toward our days Urbanism, 2. live in a larger world. moves from to affirmation. Southworth, M., 2005. “Designing the Walkable City.” Journal of Urban Planning and Development, ▪ A challenging street life invites self- December. reflection and personal assessment. Character-shaping places Lynch, K., 1961. Image of the City. Cambridge: MIT We confront our personal values, pref- These observations point to an overarching Press. erences, attitudes, dispositions, fears, relationship between walking environ- McCarthy, M, 1963. The Stones of Florence. NY: Harcourt Brace. and beliefs. We read the city and the ments and pedestrian attitudes and behav- McGarry, L., 2008. The Piazzas of Florence. London: city reads us. iors. The accent in Florence’s walkability Murdoch Books. ▪ Habitual encounter with strangers in is not on the conventional pragmatic con- Ponsi, A., 2010. Florence: A Map of Perceptions. the streets and with the inevitable frus- cerns for measurable path criteria such as Charlottesville: Univ. of Virginia Press. Relph, E., 1976/2008. Place and Placelessness. Lon- trations of crowded paths engenders safety, health, comfort, utility, proximity, don: Pion. tolerance for the “other” and patience convenience, and efficiency. What makes Seamon, D., 1979/2015. A Geography of the Life with challenging environments. Florence walkable are the messy, unmeas- World. London: Routledge. ▪ shrinks and humility grows urable, difficult-to-explain street qualities Speck, J., 2012. Walkable City. NY: North Point Press. with our necessary adaptation and re- and human responses that often ignore, vi- Speck, J., 2018. Walkable City Rules. Washington, lentless accommodation to uncompro- olate, oppose, and even contradict many of DC: Island Press. mising path environments and street our current professional design standards. Tuan, Y.-F., 1974. Topophilia. NY: Columbia Univ. life that is indifferent to personal in- Those qualities that make Florence walka- Press. White, E. T., 2007. Path-Portal-Place. Tallahassee: tentions and pursuits. ble might be difficult to defend in a budget Architectural Media. ▪ Regular invasion of personal space in hearing or a meeting to determine planning White, E. T, 2006. Piazzas of Florence. Tallahassee: crowded streets reshapes our territori- priorities. Architectural Media. ality and privacy standards toward The streetscapes of Florence are about Whyte, W., 1980. The Social Life of Small Public Spaces. NY: Project for Public Spaces. more modest dimensions. the qualitative, soft-edged, ephemeral, Wingo, L., 1963. Cities and Space. Baltimore: Johns ▪ Daily participation on foot in city life character-shaping, world-enriching cele- Hopkins Univ. Press. promotes a sense of joining and be- bration of our humanity and the enlarge- ment of human faculties, enhancement of

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DOI: 16 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. The Future of Place Edward Relph

Relph is Emeritus Professor at the University of Toronto and one of the key founders of research that has come to be identified as “phenomenologies of place.” His books include Place and Placelessness (1976; reprinted 2008); Rational Landscapes and Human- istic Geography (1981; reprinted 2016); and Toronto: Transformations in a City and its Region (2013). This essay is based on ear- lier entries on his website placeness.com. [email protected]. Text and photographs © 2021 Edward Relph. Photograph cap- tions are on p. 25.

or some time, I The record of landscapes, have wondered townscapes, and archaeolog- about the future ical sites reveals that, from of places and time to time, these broad Fhow they might change processes have undergone or stay the same over the transformations in the ways rest of the 21st century. that places were made and The Covid-19 pandemic, experienced. These transfor- which has had a demon- mations often endured for strable impact on place several centuries (during experiences, has brought which there were, of course, this to the foreground of more modest shifts in fash- my thinking [1]. ions and practices around a By places, I mean prevailing character). those aspects of the Most transformations world, especially built seem to have been associ- environments, where everyday life hap- what places will be like later in this cen- ated with a combination of technological pens. They have their own names and iden- tury. or ideological innovations. For instance, tities. They include homes, neighborhoods, Somewhat more speculatively and posi- places were transformed when cities were cities and regions, both those where we tively, I reflect on indications of long-term invented about 3500 BCE; in Classical live and those we experience when we shifts in that suggest a possible Greece, aesthetic and spiritual sensibilities travel. They are the material, landscape ex- change in placemaking practices as a re- were manifest; in Medieval Europe, towns pressions of sense of place, and the ways sponse to these factors. I focus mostly on and villages were organically structured place is experienced. more developed regions (as they are de- around religion but, in the Age of Reason, There have been numerous imaginative fined by the United Nations—Europe, landscapes, town plans, and colonial settle- speculations about places in future utopian North America, Japan, Australia, and New ments were given a geometric order. or dystopian societies. My aim in this essay Zealand) because those are the ones with A new type of place identity came with is far more prosaic. I consider how the which I am most familiar. the mines, factories, railroads, and grim identities of places might alter over the cities of the industrial age. Most recently, next 75 years given the legacy the present Historical changes in places the suite of innovations associated with the will leave to the future, and projections of What we usually regard as special about present age—urban planning, motor vehi- trends in population, urbanization, and cli- places is their distinctiveness, whatever cles, modernism, globalization, and urban mate warming that have clear implications makes them different from everywhere growth—have variously remade, pre- for places. else. For all their idiosyncrasies and appar- served, and enormously expanded all pre- These four factors have a high degree of ent uniqueness, however, the identities of vious places in ways that have no prece- certainty because they have well-estab- particular places are both locally deter- dent. lished momentum that will only be slowed mined and the product of broader pro- Because built environments involve or deflected through major shifts in politi- cesses that sweep around the world like ep- enormous investments of time, effort, and cal attitudes and social practices. They also idemics affecting almost everywhere in money, they are kept for as long as they have clear implications for anticipating similar ways. continue to have value. Consequently, each historical period inherited a legacy of

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ISSN: 1083-9194 17 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. places from its predeces- and will fall to 0.1% toward the sors and left its own legacy end of the century. The conse- to the future. quence, according to a carefully Some of this legacy, argued recent projection in The such as place names, street Lancet, will be that the world’s patterns, and great institu- population will peak at about tional buildings, has en- 9.7 billion in the 2060s and will dured for centuries or even then begin to decline (this re- millennia through many fines a 2018 projection by the shifts in placemaking UN that suggests a peak in 2100 practices. The result is that at about 10.9 billion) [3]. the identities of towns and After thousands of years of cities, especially older growth, populations and places ones, usually have a mix- are about to begin shrinking. ture of juxtaposed ele- Before that happens, popula- ments that display both tions will age and places will continuity with and differ- gradually change, becoming ence from previous eras. This will be the generations thousands of heritage sites and slower and quieter, with fewer children, case in the future. environmental areas deliberately protected schools, and child-care centers; more re- from change for the foreseeable future. tirement communities; and more long-term Present-day places and the future Because the place legacy of the present care facilities as the proportion of the el- The present’s place legacy to the future is is so new, extensive, and protected, most derly increases. the largest there has ever been and the larg- places are likely to stay much the same as That’s the broad picture. In fact, global est there ever will be. This is not an arro- they are now, at least for the next 30 years, population projections mask considerable gant claim about the accomplishments of which is well within the lifetime of most variations in time and space. Most future modernity. The fact is that the world’s pop- buildings. In the longer run, perhaps after growth will happen in Asia and Africa, and ulation has grown by 5.25 billion in the last about 2050, the place legacy of the present after 2050 will be concentrated in sub-Sa- 70 years, which is twice all growth before will begin to age, and incremental changes haran Africa (the difference between the 1950. But over the next 70 years it is pro- will be made in response to fashions, tech- UN and The Lancet population projections jected to grow by no more than three bil- nological innovations, aging populations, is largely the result of different assump- lion (or according to the most recent pro- and climate change. But the steadily in- tions about the impacts of contraception jections by no more than two billion) be- creasing maintenance burden for aging in- and education in Africa). For those re- cause the rate of population growth is now frastructure combined with slowing gions, the challenge will continue to be one in steep decline with no likelihood of re- growth will discourage rapid or substantial of making new places and expanding exist- versal [2]. redevelopment. ing ones until growth peaks at the end of The recent surge of population growth In short, much of what we see and expe- the century. has required more places than ever before rience in places now is likely to be around In most more developed countries, how- to be made to accommodate more people. for a long time. ever, population growth through natural in- The evidence is obvious in new towns and crease (i.e. internal growth as the number cities, vast suburbs, downtown skylines Peak population and implications of births exceeds deaths) peaked several transformed by skyscrapers, social housing The twenty-first century is demograph- decades ago. In some of those (e.g., Brit- projects, shopping malls, apartment tow- ically exceptional. Underlying the whole ain, France, Canada, and Australia) the re- ers, commercial strips, industrial parks, re- history of places and placemaking has been sulting decline in population has been off- sort developments along coasts and in the growth of the world’s population, very set by immigration. Where this has not mountains, plus all the related infrastruc- slowly over the millennia before about been the case, national populations are al- tures of expressway networks, airports, 1750 and then accelerating exponentially ready beginning to decline, and this rate communication towers, container ports, to the current total of 7.8 billion. There will accelerate over the rest of the century. high-speed railways, sewage treatment have been occasions and local cases when The Lancet projects that by 2100, popula- plants, and all the other paraphernalia of populations dropped because of wars, tions of Japan, China, Spain, Italy, Thai- modern urban growth. plagues, or disasters, but the clear long- land, Poland, Hungary, and about twenty Never again will there be a place legacy term trend has been one of more people other countries, could drop by half. of this magnitude. Furthermore, because dispersing into more and larger places. These shifts, however, don’t quite con- heritage preservation as it is now under- This pattern is about to end. The annual vey their scale and implications. There stood only dates from the early 1970s, the rate of world population growth peaked at could be 700 million fewer people in modern age is the first to bequeath to future 2.1% in 1968, has dropped to about 1.0%

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DOI: 18 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. China, 60 million fewer in A major aim usually seems to be Japan, 40 million fewer in to attract foreign investment rather Russia, and 25 to 30 mil- than accommodate population lion fewer in Spain and It- growth. Indeed, according to one aly. The unavoidable con- observer, these new cities do not sequence is that huge pay much attention to the socio- swathes of places will be economic realities of local people thinned out or abandoned. and appear to be “planned without Smaller and increasingly inhabitants in mind.” Jane Lu- elderly populations will mumba, a planner based in Nai- struggle to maintain the robi, writes that: “what is worrying extensive place legacies is that there is little recognition of of the early twenty-first place, economy, context and even century and the heritage poverty in these cities” [6]. of previous centuries. Furthermore, it is likely that The alternative to decline is immigration larger cities is expected to continue for these new cities will meet only a fraction to maintain populations or achieve slow most of the century. Many will expand to of projected population growth in less de- rates of growth. Current indications are join with other towns and cities into huge veloped countries, most of which will that this pattern will continue in Britain, urban megalopolises with built-up areas probably be accommodated in slums the United States, Canada, and Australia, stretching hundreds of kilometers. (places defined by the UN as lacking some In those instances, the built environments Large cities can support a range of em- combination of running water, sanitation, of many places will acquire increasingly ployment opportunities and cultural, med- infrastructure, and sufficient dwelling hybrid identities as the legacy of current ical, and sports facilities that smaller cities space). In Nigeria, 42 million people live buildings is reworked to reflect the racial cannot. But it is unclear whether the over- in slums, in India about 100 million, in the and cultural diversity of immigrants. all size of an urban agglomeration makes Congo 22 million, in Kenya 6 million. much difference to the experience of There have been remarkable achieve- Urban places and the future places at the scale of neighborhoods, where ments in reducing poverty in many less de- Recent trends indicate that future places people know their neighbors, buy grocer- veloped countries, but the scale of slums will be overwhelmingly urban because ur- ies, and children go to school. What is clear and informal settlements has nevertheless ban areas are expanding faster than popu- is that the character of future large urban increased because achievements have been lations, a trend that has been underway for places will vary enormously depending on outpaced by population growth. Globally, centuries and has accelerated in the last 70 context and location. about 900 million people currently live in years. This will happen even where overall slums, an increase from about 700 million population declines. There are four aspects 2. New cities in less developed regions in 1990. Given this trend, the scale of of this future urbanization [4]. About 95 percent of future urban growth slums can be expected to increase substan- will be in less developed regions, mostly tially over the course of the century as pop- 1. More people in more urban places Africa and Asia, where about 2.1 billion ulations grow. At the global scale, the UN projects that the additional people will probably be added to In short, for all the new planned cities in proportion of people living in “urban ag- urban areas by 2050. This is equivalent to Asia and Africa, most new future places glomerations” (which it has measured building ten megacities the size of London will be in slums and informal settlements. since 1950 when it was about 30 percent) or Jakarta every year for the next 30 years. It is especially unfortunate that many of will increase from 55 percent in 2020 to al- In fact, several hundred more modestly these disadvantaged places with vulnerable most 70 percent in 2050. Urban agglomer- sized cities are already under construction populations will be in regions of the world ations include everything in some way ur- or planned (about 100 in India alone) [5]. where the consequences of climate change ban—towns, cities, slums and shanties, Most are satellites of existing urban areas, are expected to be especially harsh because suburbs, exurbs, and satellite cities. and they give a sense of what future places of rising temperatures and more intense The number of urban places with over in new cities will be like. The preferred rainfalls [7]. one million people is projected to increase model seems to be new cities in China— from 579 with 24 percent of the world’s skyscraper offices and apartment towers, 3. Urban change in more developed regions population in 2020, to 760 with 30 percent wide boulevards with ample space for ve- In the 1960s, about 110 million people of the world’s population in 2035 (the lat- hicles, an emphasis on hi-tech industries, a were added to cities and towns in Europe est year for which projections are currently mixture of moderately dense residential ar- and North America; the annual growth rate made). The number of megacities with eas, both high-rise and low-rise, with some of urban populations was about two per- over 10 million people is expected to grow attention to sustainability and low-carbon cent. The growth rate is now one-half per- from 34 now to 48 in 2035. The trend to emissions. cent and is expected to drop to one-third percent a year by 2035. By mid-century,

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ISSN: 1083-9194 19 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. overall urban growth in 4. Shrinking cities developed countries will In countries where immigra- slow to a crawl. tion is not encouraged, such This slowdown might as Japan, Hungary, and Spain, seem to be belied by real- or in regions that are bypassed ity if you live in a city in by growth, most urban places Europe, Australia, or (except perhaps for one or North America with a two prime cities) will shrink. skyline crowded with Without radical changes in cranes, and suburbs that immigration policies and atti- always seem to push out- tudes regarding racial differ- ward. A reason for this ences, this shrinkage will ac- apparent disparity is that celerate toward the end of many larger cities and a century as populations de- few smaller ones seem to cline. attract most of the limited There really is no precedent growth, perhaps because of the quality of are easily accessible by walking and cy- for understanding the consequences of their environments or because of their role cling and designed as neighborhood cen- place shrinkage on this scale, and no firm in the network of world cities. ters. way to grasp its political and economic This selective urban growth is expected There are, however, few indications to consequences. Should remaining inhabit- to continue and will happen even in coun- suggest that cars and automobile-oriented ants be clustered into compact settlements? tries where there will be population de- suburbs are declining in popularity. Apart How can that be accomplished? Should cline. Madrid and Tokyo, for example, are from anything else, automobile manufac- some form of low-density, dispersed pat- expected to maintain their population size, turers are unlikely to abandon their pri- terns of settlement be permitted? But in even though national populations could mary market in the foreseeable future. that case, how can the infrastructure of fall by 50 percent or more. Global growth in the number of automo- sewage, water supply, and transit be main- Where growth does occur, it seems un- biles since 1990 has been 62 percent com- tained? What will happen to networks of likely that the character of urban places pared with a growth rate in population of expressways with half the number of vehi- will alter quickly or significantly. This in- 45 percent. The number of motor vehicles cles, and to hundred-story skyscrapers no ertia is because of the enduring place leg- per capita has increased in all parts of the longer needed? What are reasonable ways acy of the present, partly because growth world, including European countries [8]. to live in the ruins of urban places? will be quite slow, and partly because cur- The greatest changes will be social and Some hints about the details of what rent plans and policies will guide develop- demographic. Populations will age, with might happen are given by recent instances ment along well-established lines for the fewer workers supporting more retirees, of shrinking cities in the rustbelts of Amer- next two or three decades (many official fewer child-care centers, more long-term- ica and Germany—boarded-up buildings, plans are for 25 or 30 years). The cumula- care facilities, especially for dementia pa- abandoned neighborhoods, and failing in- tive effects of incremental developments tients, and more retirement homes. In addi- frastructure. Detroit has policies for the on places may in due course be considera- tion, places will become more racially di- demolition of abandoned houses and apart- ble but, currently, there is little to suggest verse as previously dominant cultural ment towers to protect the well-being of re- that they will hold any great surprises in groups will be challenged by new immi- maining residents. Youngstown, Ohio, has the near future. grants from less developed parts of the accepted that its future will be smaller than In city centers, there will probably be world who will make up for shortfalls in its past and has converted abandoned lots more densification through taller build- natural population increases. into green spaces. ings, various forms of infill, redevelop- In the United States, the Census Bureau These initiatives suggest that future ment of former industrial sites, and more projects that with current immigration pol- shrunken places could possibly be refash- bike lanes because these all contribute to icies by 2060, the “non-Hispanic white ioned into demographically stable and en- reductions of greenhouse-gas emission. population” will have shrunk by 19 million vironmentally sustainable communities. At urban fringes, there will be more people, while every other racial group will But it is equally possible to imagine that place-branded, master-planned suburban have increased in size. This shift will have some will simply be abandoned to the developments, especially around satellite social and political consequences and will forces of nature as aging populations lose cities. What ought to happen is that new lead to changes in the landscapes and place the will and financial resources to do any- fringe developments should be planned identities of neighborhoods in ways that thing else [10]. around retail and employment centers that will reinforce the hybrid character of urban places that has already developed in many large cities [9].

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DOI: 20 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. Places & climate change 2000–2009 levels and, in Climate change permeates the northern cities such as future of places everywhere New York and Washing- and is a slow-moving version ton DC, the increase could of the Covid-19 pandemic. be 30 times. Both are global in range, ig- In effect, the conse- nore national boundaries, put quences for places of tem- the poor and vulnerable at perature increases will be greater risk than wealthy compounded by continu- elites, and involve exponen- ing urban expansion and tially increasing conse- population growth [14]. quences that are easily dis- 2. Effects of mitigation missed before they become measures obvious by which time it is The main purpose of the IPCC 2018 Spe- too late to do much to mitigate them effec- subsequent research has shown that the cial Report is to argue that “far reaching” tively. build up of greenhouse gases over the last mitigation measures to reduce carbon They also both have intense but erratic two centuries will almost certainly lead to emissions need to be taken before 2030 to local effects and demand forceful actions an increase of 2.6C, regardless of any mit- limit future temperature increases. It is by governments. The main difference is igation measures [12]. clear from what has been done thus far that that, if concerted actions to mitigate cli- There are indications that intolerable some mitigation measures, for example, mate warming are not taken very soon, combinations of heat and humidity could retrofitting buildings to be more energy ef- consequences will be much more severe make large areas of Africa and South Asia, ficient, are largely invisible, but others, and longer lasting than Covid-19. parts of the Middle East, and even parts of such as fields of solar panels and wind Climate warming has three types of con- the southwestern United States uninhabita- farms and urban densification to reduce sequences for places: Changes in weather; ble. In addition, rising sea levels, associ- commuting and therefore use of fossil effects of mitigation measures; and im- ated storm surges, and salt-water incur- fuels, have a clear impact on the built envi- pacts of adaptations [11]. sions could impact 300 million people by 2050, not only in China, Indonesia, the ronments of places. 1. More extreme weather Nile and Mekong deltas, but also cities that Substantial gaps remain between what Climate change will affect regional and lo- include Miami, New York, and San Fran- has been done, what governments have cal weather patterns by making them more cisco. These regional effects will almost promised to do, and what is probably nec- severe and erratic. These shifts might take certainly lead to substantial population dis- essary to prevent potentially severe and ir- decades to reveal themselves, though some placements [13]. reversible consequences of climate warm- have already become clear as record tem- In the absence of stringent measures to ing. This complex situation is why the peratures, flood levels, and records for reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it is 2018 Report calls for “far reaching” number of wildfires and droughts are re- probable that by the end of the century measures that, to be effective, will require peatedly broken. some places, especially in the tropics, will radical changes to the character of urban The 2018 Special Report of the Intergov- have to be abandoned because the weather places, including much greater densifica- ernmental Panel on Climate Change con- is intolerable. Even where changes in tion, limited use of personal vehicles, dou- siders what needs to be done to keep the weather are more moderate, the character bling urban forests, and somehow redis- increase in global mean temperature of everyday life is likely to become very tributing employment and commercial ac- (which so far is about 1.1C above pre-in- different. tivity into local centers to reduce commut- dustrial levels) to no more than 1.5C, an For instance, in Toronto, the number of ing. aim consistent with the Paris Climate Ac- days when the temperature stays above The scale and rigidity of places legacies cord on 2016 signed by almost 200 coun- 30C is projected to increase from about 12 will more than likely make widespread tries. in the 1980s, to 40 in 2050 to 55 in 2100. mitigation measures both difficult and ex- The report offers a bleak prognosis if no Models for the United States that consider pensive. Place-based adaptations will be actions are taken and business continues as the combined consequences of climate needed to deal with severe and erratic usual. By 2100 the global mean tempera- warming, urban population growth, and weather events resulting from climate ture will increase by about 3.0C. There will the heat-island effect of larger cities, indi- warming [15]. be decreased life expectancies, huge reduc- cate that, by the end of the century, overall 3. Impacts of adaptations tions in outdoor labor productivity (be- heat exposure ( associated with health The IPCC Special Report’s recommenda- cause it will be too hot to work), and a risks, including mortality) in sunbelt cities tion makes this need for place-based adap- lower quality of life almost everywhere. such as Austin, Phoenix, and Miami could tions very clear: “Pursuing place-specific And as if this picture is not bleak enough, increase by more than 100 times over adaptation pathways towards a 1.5C

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ISSN: 1083-9194 21 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. warmer world has the potential for signifi- If, however, the arguments in the IPCC In addition, various social movements of cant positive outcomes for well-being in Special Report are correct and if the digital the late 20th century exposed long-held ra- countries at all levels of development.” modelling that shows the minimum global tionalistic certainties about colonialism, The report refers to these shifts as “trans- average temperature increase will be at gender, and race as biased attitudes of formational adaptations” that acknowledge least 2.6C is accurate, these measures will mostly white, male, European and North the various scales of places, the different be insufficient to keep global warming un- American elites. More recently and much groups and uneven power structures in der 3C by 2100. Well before then, climate- more problematically, reason has been them, as well as historical legacies and the change projections consistently indicate pushed aside by authoritarian leaders and local priorities and trade-offs that shape the that extreme and unpredictable weather social-media groups who promote alterna- sustainability of everyday life [see Chapter caused by climate warming will make eve- tive realities based on ideologies and feel- 5, Executive Summary 5.3.3]. ryday life increasingly stressful in places ings rather than evidence. Some adaptations will be obvious in almost everywhere. The overall consequence is that a built environments, such as walls to com- based in rationality and evi- bat rising sea levels in coastal cities and in- A changing worldview dence-based objectivity is no longer un- novative building technologies to deal with Major changes in the ways that places have questioningly accepted. The implications melting permafrost in the Arctic. Other ad- been made, thought about, and experi- are expressed eloquently by Chinese artist aptations, such as larger stormwater drains enced have usually been related to histori- and activist Ai Weiwei: “Abandonment of to deal with intense rainfall events or the cal periods that demonstrate consistency in rational thinking leads to a collapse in warning systems and evacuation plans for how the world is viewed. For example, in which fear and joy, ignorance and wisdom, floods and storm surges caused by ty- Medieval Europe, a distinctive approach to all blow in the wind” [17]. phoons in Bangladesh, will have few obvi- placemaking developed with the diffusion But even as the erosion of rationalism ous impacts on the physical characteristics of Christianity; industrial-era cities and creates , it also provides an op- of places. factories were an expression of utilitarian, portunity for the emergence of a different The most significant adaptations will in- laissez-faire capitalism. worldview. At this stage, it is impossible to volve the relocation of places from areas There are, I think, indications that an- do more than speculate about the overall rendered uninhabitable because of extreme other shift in worldview could be under- character of this shift in mindset. Neverthe- temperatures or flooding or rising sea lev- way that has implications for the future of less, I think it is possible to identify three els. As many as 13 million people in Amer- places. Unlike population decline, urbani- aspects of changing place experiences that ica might have to move elsewhere as Bos- zation, and climate change (which can be might be a significant part of any new, ton, New York, New Orleans, Miami, San projected using recent demographic and emerging worldview. Francisco, and many other communities environmental trends), these indications will all be affected in some measure. are based on qualitative interpretations and 1. Environmental Responsibility In Africa and in India, particularly the are necessarily tentative. First, one can highlight the growing re- deltas of the Indus and Ganges, more than Perhaps the most compelling of these in- sponsiveness to and responsibility for nat- 100 million people may have to move. dications is the decline of rationalism, ural environments. The details of this shift Where they might go is not clear, though it which has held sway for several centuries can be debated, but my impression is that seems likely that regions where popula- and informed everything from Newtonian over the last two centuries, there has been tions are shrinking and climate warming is science to the layout of colonial settle- a steady trend away from a widespread relatively mild will become extremely at- ments, the American constitution, capital- conviction that nature must be controlled tractive destinations [16]. ist economics, and modernist architecture and dominated regardless of conse- At least for the moment, the Covid-19 and town planning. quences, to ways that respond to work with pandemic has shifted attention away from In 2001, philosopher of science Stephen natural processes. climate change. Though several countries Toulmin wrote of “the sudden loss of con- In various forms, this environmental ap- have indicated that climate change remains fidence in our traditional ideas about ra- proach has developed since the Romantic a priority, the likelihood is that it has be- tionality in the last twenty to thirty years.” movements in art and poetry in the early th come less significant in some political He may have had in mind the arguments of 19 century; it was given a scientific boost agendas at the very time that mitigation other philosophers such as Thomas Kuhn, with the coining of the idea of “ecology” in measures are urgently required. A probable Richard Rorty, and Michel Foucault, who the 1870s, and a practical boost at the same outcome is that strategies already being in different ways had raised about time with the creation of the first national implemented will continue to be pur- hitherto taken-for-granted assumptions parks and the conservation movement. sued—for instance, shifting to renewable concerning objectivity and reality, sug- Since about 1970, this perspective has be- sources of energy, increasing densities, gesting that these are, in effect, matters of come increasingly integrated in planning, adding bike lanes, retrofitting old build- social consensus. ings, and building sea walls.

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DOI: 22 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. development, and popular media have enormously facilitated ways awareness through environmen- of connecting with people and places tal assessment, ecological man- elsewhere. agement, and sustainability. From a slightly different perspective, While it is far from being a truth these media have brought the relation- universally acknowledged that ships of daily social life into correspond- natural processes should be ence with a key insight of ecology—lo- worked with rather than against, cal distinctiveness is necessarily part of the historical evidence of a trend regional and even global connectivity toward increased environmental [19]. responsibility is clear. This shift may be regarded as 3. Localism and the openness of place too slow by those with an envi- The third aspect of recent thinking about ronmental conscience and as too places is the growing awareness of the fast by those with vested inter- political, social, and environmental im- ests in environmental exploita- portance of localism. This can be found tion. Nevertheless, it seems in many different contexts. Stephen likely that this trend will acceler- Toulmin, for example, argues that it is ate because of the necessities of important to maintain reasonableness as coping with the combined conse- rationalism declines, and that to do this quences of climate warming, de- we have to return to “the world of where clining populations, and expand- and when, and get back in touch with the ing cities. experience of everyday life”—in effect, to attend to places. 2. Electronic Connectivity television, radio, and film, all directed to In a parallel way, the IPCC Special Re- A second, very different aspect of changes mostly passive audiences. Personal com- port 1.5C on climate warming refers fre- to place experience is associated with elec- puters and mobile phones now make it pos- quently to local and indigenous knowledge tronic media. Previous shifts in places and sible for any user to be a producer of infor- and defines “local knowledge” as “the un- placemaking have often been related to in- mation (or disinformation) rather than just derstanding and skills developed by indi- novations in communications technolo- part of an audience; these devices have viduals and communities specific to the gies. For instance, the invention of cities made the use of electronic communication places where they live.” This report claims was contemporary with the invention of an essential part of everyday life almost that local awareness and knowledge is nec- writing. And, as media scholar Marshall everywhere. essary to inform decisions about adapta- McLuhan argued, rationalism and its many Since the invention of the World Wide tions to climate warming. social consequences, including the spatial Web in 1989, the number of regular inter- Similarly, the Royal Society for the En- expansion of empires with their well-or- net users has grown from a handful to al- couragement of the Arts, Manufacture and dered places, were associated with the in- most five billion. No other innovation in Commerce suggests that “the place-based vention of printing because printing facili- the history of communications (or perhaps dimensions of inclusive growth” is gather- tated a detached linearity of thought, pop- of any technology) has been adopted so ing pace in Britain. In North America, the ular literacy, and standardized practices rapidly and so widely. The long-term ef- Business Alliance for Living Local Envi- that could be conveyed across empires. fects of electronic media are impossible to ronments aims to influence public policy in From the perspective of the future of know, but it is abundantly clear that instant support of a place-based new economy. places, McLuhan’s most relevant argu- global connectivity has already become a This group stresses that localist awareness ment is that electronic media would have widespread fact of daily life. is a crucial part of a global vision: “Each of social impacts no less profound and far- The indications are that McLuhan’s in- us is crafting a piece of a larger mosaic—a reaching as printing. But these impacts will sights were accurate—that have global network of cooperatively inter- be entirely different because electronic begun to displace reason. It seems as linked local economies.” messages circle the world instantaneously though electronic media have begun to More broadly, the merits of enhancing and shrink the world into a global village have fundamental impacts on the ways in- whatever is local have been advanced in where, as in all villages, oral communica- dividuals relate to places, simultaneously heritage protection, the revival of farmers’ tions and personal engagement prevail and detaching us in some respects from our im- markets selling local produce, the preser- feelings are more important than detached mediate surroundings, yet enriching our vation of local ecosystems, and sustainable reflection [18]. knowledge of them and intensifying con- design that uses locally sourced material McLuhan was writing in the 1960s, nections with other people with whom we [20]. when electronic media mostly referred to share those places. Furthermore, electronic

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ISSN: 1083-9194 23 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. Although localism does carry Until the end of the 21st century, cir- with it the negative possibilities of cumstances seem likely to impel un- parochialism and exclusion precedented difficulties for which (which can readily poison sense of past placemaking practices offer few place), it generally indicates atti- solutions. Besides the challenges tudes and practices that champion posed by peak population and climate localities or places and an associ- change, there are current indications ated philosophy of a high degree of the decline of democracy, geopolit- of local control. In this positive ical realignments, faltering globaliza- connotation, localism has roots in tion, disruptive effects of social media the idea of subsidiarity with its and electronic communication, grow- emphasis on social and political ing inequality and concentration of issues being dealt with at the most wealth, and undesirable consequences immediate or local level consistent of genetic engineering and artificial with their resolution. This idea intelligence. was originally promulgated in the Any one of these developments could 1890s by the Catholic Church, and have profound affects on everyday has since echoed through the life in particular places. Together, thought of those with reservations their impacts will be compounded be- about central government, includ- cause now the world is so intercon- ing urbanist Jane Jacobs, who nected that these impacts will echo wrote in her last book, Dark Age around the planet. Ahead, that “Subsidiarity is the My is that some combination principle that government works of environmental responsibility, the best, most responsibly and respon- benefits of electronic connectivity, sively when it is closest to the peo- and globally-informed localism will ple it serves and the needs it ad- motivate a new worldview that arises dresses.” to address these difficult challenges in In other words, most effective ways that will respect the importance policies and plans work best at the of places. small scale of local places. Jacobs Movement in this direction will not was clear that this localist empha- come easily. Corporations will con- sis should not happen in tinue to pursue placeless-vested self- from higher levels of government interests; illusions of perpetual eco- or business. Localism as a positive nomic growth, regardless of the con- politics of place must acknowledge that re- sequences for peoples and places, will not gional and global processes affect all Place—a vital aspect of human life be soon abandoned; electronically con- places and can neither be wished away nor There is considerable evidence that place is nected non-place communities will pro- shut out by walls and fences. Localism not some sort of incidental amenity but a mote discrimination and exclusion; deep means being aware of what makes some- vital aspect of how people everywhere re- inequalities will persist between places where distinctive, while simultaneously late to the world. While its expression in that flourish and those that stagnate or understanding its relationships to other the character of built environments has un- shrink. places. dergone substantial temporal changes, it is At some point, however—perhaps in the All places are necessarily openings to nevertheless clear that in some form the second half of this century—the combined the world and open to the world. Electronic value of place spans generations and cul- consequences of climate change, aging media and the growing acknowledgement tures. This value is manifest in belonging populations, shrinking communities, slow- of environmental consequences are inten- and dwelling somewhere, in putting down ing growth, and endless cities, will surely sifying this openness and its associated in- roots, in being part of community that make it necessary to find innovative ways terconnections. For the foreseeable future, shares responsibilities, in a commitment to to meet the unprecedented challenges for places everywhere will, in countless differ- home and efforts to rebuild after disasters. life in everyday places. ent ways that reinforce their distinctive- The conclusion I take from the importance ness and share their responsibilities, both of place is that people always find ways to Notes contribute to and receive from places else- make places that are distinctive and mean- 1. This essay is a revised version of several recent ingful, no matter how promising, difficult, posts about the history and future of places on my where [21]. website at placeness.com. or bleak circumstances may be.

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DOI: 24 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. 2. The sources for these population numbers and al- the International Journal of Environment and Public Society for the Encouragement of Arts; Business Al- ternative projections are given in note 3. Health. liance for Living Local Environments; see also my 3. The primary source I have used for population data 11. Much of my discussion on climate change is in- post on my Placeness website about place and local- is United Nations World Population Prospects 2019. formed by the 2018 IPCC Special Report Global ism, which cites these and other sources. I have supplemented these figures with Our World in Warming of 1.5C, which is the most up-to-date and 21. Jane Jacobs, Dark Age Ahead, NY: Random Data information on population, especially for the comprehensive report about weather consequences, House, 2003, p. 103. Wittgenstein Center projections; and with a recent pa- mitigation, and adaptation. per in The Lancet, which offers a rigorous reassess- 12. S. Sherwood et al., “An assessment of Earth’s cli- Photograph captions (All photographs by the ment of the assumptions in both the UN and the Witt- mate Sensitivity using multiple lines of evidence,” author and used with permission) genstein Center projections. The full reference for the Reviews of Geophysics July 2020. latter is S.E. Vollset et al., “Fertility, mortality, migra- 13. The research on intolerable temperatures is pro- p. 17. A 2018 mural by Waldimir Manzhos in Victo- tion and population scenarios for 195 countries and vided by C. Raymond, T. Matthews and R.M. Horton, ria, British Columbia, that captures some of the com- territories from 2017 to 2100: A forecasting analysis “The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for plexity of the future of the Earth and its places—inti- for the Global Burden of Disease Study,” The Lancet, human tolerance,” Science Advances Vol 6, No 19, mations of pollution, surveillance, falling population, July 14, 2020. May 2020. and the smoking Rubik's cube puzzle of it all. 4. My sources for projections of urbanization are Our 14.Temperature increases in Canadian cities are p. 18. A sign in Markham, a suburban municipality of World in Data Urbanization; the UN Habitat Data shown in Government of Canada 2011, “Communi- Greater Toronto, in 2012, that suggested how future Booklet, which discusses the fact that urban land ex- cating the Health Risks of Extreme Events,” Figure 1, development might happen along a rapid transit line pansion rates have been increasing faster than popu- available here. The models of heat exposure in US cit- (Viva). This sign also conveyed the legacy of the pre- lation; and the animations at The Atlas of Urban Ex- ies are in A. Broadbent E. Krayenhoff, and M. sent to the future—more apartment towers, an arterial pansion. Georgescu, “The motley drivers of heat and cold ex- road, and, by implication, the plans behind it all. 5. For new cities in India, see Far and Wide, and A posure in twenty-first-century US cities,” Proceeding p. 19. ¡Ya Basta! [“Enough Already”], Chiapas, Mex- Walk Through India. of the National Academy of Sciences, September 1, ico, 1999. A straightforward message that can apply 6. For new cities in Africa, see “Where Newest Cities 2020, 117 (35): 21108–21117. equally to social inequality, carbon emissions, and Look the Same,” “Africa’s New Billion Dollar Cit- 15. The substantial gaps between targets for limiting life in impoverished places where most remaining ies”; and Jane Lumumba, “Why Africa Should be temperature increases and what has been achieved population growth will probably be accommodated. Wary of its Newest Cities”. thus far are detailed at The Climate Action Tracker. p. 20. An abandoned apartment building in Valencia, 7. On Slums see UN Habitat Slum Almanac 2016: 16. On adaptations to climate change, see The Global Spain, in 2018 offers an intimation of the early con- “Tracking Improvement in the Lives of Slum Dwell- Commission on Adaptations; on migrations caused by sequences of population decline and shrinking places. ers.” climate change, see here. p. 21: Signs at a Friday Climate Action Strike, 2019. 8. International Organization of Automobile Manu- 17. Stephen Toulmin, Return to Reason, Cambridge: Recent indications and climate modelling both sug- facturers—see “vehicles in use.” Cambridge Univ. Press, 2001, p. 3; Thomas Kuhn, gest that more extreme events with make future http://www.oica.net/production-statistics/. On cars The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago: weather conditions increasingly stressful regardless per capita in Europe 2000–2017, see Odyssee-Mure. Univ. of Chicago Press, 1962; Michel Foucault, 1970 of the location of the places where these students may 9. US Bureau of Census, 2020, A Changing Nation: The Order of Things, London: Tavistock Press, 1970; live. Population Projections under Alternative Immigra- Richard Rorty, Philosophy and Social Hope, Lon- p. 23: This sign at The Locavore Store in Waimea, tion Scenarios. don: Penguin, 1999; Ai Weiwei, “Time has lost all Hawaii, 2019, explains the expanding international 10. There are several discussions of shrinking cities at meaning” The Atlantic July/August 2020. movement towards localism. the Shrinking Cities International Research Network. 18. Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, To- p. 24: The fact that place is not an incidental amenity On Youngstown, see “The city that tried to stop grow- ronto: Signet Press, 1964. and that relationships with place are as important as ing” The Atlantic, 2016. Information on demolition 19. Data on the number of users of the Internet are relationships with people is captured in this sign at the policies in Detroit is available here. A more academic available at Internet World Stats. George Jay School is in Victoria, British Columbia, discussion is Francisco Sergio Campos-Sanchez et 20. Stephen Toulmin, Return to Reason, p. 213 (see at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. al., 2019, "Sustainable Environmental Strategies for note 17); IPCC Special Report 1.5C, glossary; Royal Shrinking Cities based on successful case studies" in

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ISSN: 1083-9194 25 Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 32 [2021], No. Picturing Kevin Lynch’s “Image of the City” graphically Levent Şentürk

Şentürk is a Professor of Architecture at Eskişehir Osmangazi University in Eskişehir, Turkey. For a seminar in architectural theory, he produced this series of drawings—what he calls an “explicator”—to summarize urban designer Kevin Lynch’s key argument. He also produced explicators for other key figures studied in the seminar, including Theodor Adorno, Le Corbusier, Henri Lefebvre, Lewis Mumford, and Georg Simmel. [email protected]. To see these explicators, go to: https.//orgu.academia.edu/LevantŞentürk. Drawings and text © 2021 Levent Şentürk.

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Questions relating to environmental and architectural phenomenology (from EAP, 2014 [vol. 25, no. 3, p. 4])

Questions relating to phenomenology Do the “sacred” and the “holy” have a role in Questions relating to architecture and and related interpretive approaches caring for the natural world? For places? For environmental design and policy: and methods: lifeworlds broadly? Can there be a phenomenology of architec- What is phenomenology and what does it of- Can phenomenology contribute to environ- ture and architectural experience and mean- fer to whom? mental education? If so, in what ways? ing? What is the state of phenomenological re- Can there be a phenomenology of the two Can phenomenology contribute to better ar- search today? What are your hopes and con- laws of thermodynamics, especially the sec- chitectural design? cerns regarding phenomenology? ond law claiming that all activities, left to How do qualities of the designable world— Does phenomenology continue to have rele- their own devices, tend toward greater disor- spatiality, materiality, lived aesthetics, envi- vance in examining human experience in re- der and fewer possibilities? Are there ways ronmental embodiment etc.—contribute to lation to world? whereby phenomenological understanding of lifeworlds? Are there various conceptual and methodo- lifeworld might help to reduce the accelerat- What are the most pertinent environmental logical modes of phenomenology and, if so, ing disordering of natural and human and architectural features contributing to a how can they be categorized and described? worlds? lifeworld’s being one way rather than an- Has phenomenological research been super- other? seded by other conceptual approaches—e.g., Questions relating to place, place ex- What role will cyberspace and digital tech- post-structuralism, social-constructionism, perience, and place meaning: nologies have in 21st-century lifeworlds? critical theory, relationalist and non-repre- Why has the theme of place become an im- How will they play a role in shaping de- sentational perspectives, the various concep- portant phenomenological topic? signed environments, particularly architec- tual “turns,” and so forth? Can a phenomenological understanding of ture? Can phenomenology contribute to making a place contribute to better place making? What impact will digital advances and vir- better world? If so, what are the most crucial Can phenomenology contribute to a genera- tual realities have on physical embodiment, phenomena and topics to be explored phe- tive understanding of place and place mak- architectural design, and real-world places? nomenologically? ing? Will virtual reality eventually be able to sim- Can phenomenological research offer practi- What roles do bodily regularity and habitual ulate “real reality” entirely? If so, how does cal results in terms of design, planning, pol- inertia play in the constitution of place and such a development transform the nature of icy, and advocacy? place experience? lifeworld, natural attitude, place, and archi- How might phenomenological insights be What are the lived relationships between tecture? broadcast in non-typical academic ways— place, sustainability, and a responsive envi- Can virtual worlds become so “real” that e.g., through artistic expression, theatrical ronmental ethic? they are lived as “real” worlds? presentation, digital evocation, virtual reali- How are phenomenological accounts to re- ties, and so forth? spond to post-structural interpretations of Other potential questions: What are the most important aims for future space and place as rhizomic and a “mesh- What is the lived relationship between peo- phenomenological research? work of paths” (Ingold)? ple and the worlds in which they find them- Do the various post-structural and social- Can phenomenological accounts incorporate selves? constructionist criticisms of phenomenol- a “progressive sense of place” argued for by Can lifeworlds be made to happen self-con- ogy—that it is essentialist, masculinist, au- critical theorists like Doreen Massey? sciously? If so, how? Through what individ- thoritative, voluntarist, ignorant of power Can phenomenological explications of space ual efforts? Through what group efforts? structures, and so forth—point toward its de- and place account for human differences— Can a phenomenological education in life- mise? gender, sexuality, less-abledness, social world, place, and environmental embodi- class, cultural background, and so forth? ment assist citizens and professionals in bet- Questions relating to the natural Can phenomenology contribute to the poli- ter understanding the workings and needs of world and environmental and ecologi- tics and ideology of place? real-world places and thereby contribute to cal concerns: Can a phenomenological understanding of their envisioning and making? Can there be a phenomenology of nature and lived embodiment and habitual inertia be Is it possible to speak of human-rights-in- the natural world? drawn upon to facilitate robust places and to place or place justice? If so, would such a What can phenomenology offer the intensi- generate mutual support and awareness possibility move attention and supportive ef- fying environmental and ecological crises we among places, especially places that are con- forts toward improving the places in which face today? siderably different (e.g., different ethnic people and other living beings find them- Can phenomenology contribute to more sus- neighborhoods or regions)? selves, rather than focusing only on the tainable actions and worlds? Can phenomenology contribute to mobility, rights and needs of individuals and groups Can one speak of a sustainable lifeworld? the nature of “flows,” rhizomic spaces, the without consideration of their place context? What is a phenomenology of a lived environ- places of mobility, non-spaces and their rela- mental ethic and who are the key contribu- tionship to mobility and movement? tors?

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Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology

Published digitally twice a year, EAP is a forum and clearing house for research and design that incorporate a qualitative ap- Beginning in 2016, EAP is digitally open-source only. Current proach to environmental and architectural experience, actions, and back digital issues of EAP are available at the following dig- and meanings. ital addresses:

One key concern of EAP is design, education, policy, and advo- https://ksu.academia.edu/DavidSeamon cacy supporting and strengthening natural and built places that http://newprairiepress.org/eap/ sustain human and environmental wellbeing. Realizing that a http://krex.k-state.edu/dspace/handle/2097/1522 (archive copies) clear conceptual stance is integral to informed research and de- sign, the editor emphasizes phenomenological approaches but Readers who wish to receive an email notice when a new issue is also gives attention to related styles of qualitative research. EAP electronically available, should send an email to the editor with welcomes essays, letters, reviews, conference information, and that request. Though EAP is now digital, we still have production so forth. Forward submissions to the editor. costs and welcome reader donations.

Editor Because EAP is now only digital, we have discontinued all library Dr. David Seamon, subscriptions. Libraries that wish to remain subscribed should link Architecture Department their digital catalogue to the archival digital address provided 1088 Seaton Hall, 920 17th Street above. A limited number of back issues of EAP, in hard copy, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506-2901 USA 1990–2015, are available for $10/volume (3 issues/volume). Con- tel: 785-532-5953; [email protected] tact the editor for details.

Exemplary Themes Copyright Notice ▪ The nature of environmental and architectural experience; All contents of EAP, including essays by contributors, are pro- ▪ Sense of place, including place identity and place attach- tected by copyright and/or related rights. Individual contributors ment; retain copyright to their essays and accompanying materials. In- ▪ Architectural and landscape meaning; terested parties should contact contributors for permission to re- ▪ The environmental, architectural, spatial, and material di- produce or draw from their work. mensions of lifeworlds; ▪ Changing conceptions of space, place, and nature; Open Access Policy ▪ Home, dwelling, journey, and mobility; EAP provides immediate access to its content on the principle ▪ Environmental encounter and its relation to environmental that making research freely available to the public supports a responsibility and action; greater global exchange of knowledge. ▪ Environmental and architectural atmospheres and ambi- ences; Archival Policy ▪ Environmental design as place making; EAP is archived for perpetual access through the participation ▪ Sacred space, landscape, and architecture; of Kansas State University’s New Prairie Press in CLOCKSS ▪ The role of everyday things—furnishings, tools, clothing, (“Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe”) and Portico, man- interior design, landscape features, and so forth—in sup- aged through the Digital Commons Publishing platform. New porting people’s sense of environmental wellbeing; Prairie Press also participates in LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep ▪ The progressive impact of virtual reality on human life and Stuff Safe). Once published, an issue’s contents are never how it might transform the lived nature of “real” places, changed. Archival copies of EAP are also available at Kansas buildings, and lifeworlds; State University’s digital archive, K-Rex (see links above). ▪ The practice of a lived environmental ethic. Note: All entries for which no author is given are by the EAP For additional themes and topics, see the preceding page, which Editor. outlines a series of relevant questions originally published in the 25th-anniversary issue of EAP in 2014 (vol. 25, no. 3, p. 4).

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