From Use to Place

Place is a part of natural or built space having a well defined conceptual or physical boundary. Location is defined by its significance, or by the activities performed therein. The architectural space is the physical embodiment of location. It is the outcome of intersections and interrelationships among three factors: "human behavior", "concepts", and "physical characteristics". Places are centres where meaningful events of living take place. At the same time, those centres function as references helping man to define his identity in the environment and to bring about changes there in. Place is natural consequence of man\''s bringing about changes in space.

As already mentioned, man\''s bringing about changes in space, his conception of a well defined boundary, and his giving the boundary a meaning and a function are the most elementary and fundamental ways of creating a place. There is no need, on the part of the place, to be occupied by a construction or identified by a special object. Nevertheless, physical factors play an important role in making a place outstanding. A space enjoying outstanding physical characteristics is more susceptible to be converted to a place. A valley, the foot of a mountain, the bank of a river, and a lake, have the potentiality to be converted to a place.

In connection with "genius Loci" (The spirit of place), Schultz says that architecture is intrinsically capable of converting a place to a place. That is to say, it actualizes the environment\''s potentiality. The compidoglio Square in Rome, one of Michel-angelo\''s works, can be considered as the actualization of the spirit and of the value preexisting on that historical hill. The function of architecture is to complement the nature and to intensify the environmental value.

Possession of the space is brought in two different ways: static and dynamic. The youth talking to one another on a street corner convert it, statically, to a place. Mountainclimbing is an example of dynamic possession of the mountain converting it to a place. The determining factor in creating a place is bringing changes in the space which, in turn, is influenced by two significant factors; namely spatial potentialities and man\''s motivations.

Architecture is the art of organizing space, and space cannot be organized, unless we organize ourselves first imposing some sort of structure on our lives. Any how, an over-structured and over-occupied location is a weak one. The more flexible the space, the higher is the likelihood of creating rich place. In the past, Iranian paid little attention to furnitures, and rooms had not been functionally divided. For the very reason, houses were rich place.

Place had functional, physical and conceptual characteristics. Significant architectural developments were, in most cases, concomitant with changes in the concept of place and with a revision of its characteristics. As an example, consider Larkin Administrative Building. Here, for the first time, the "administrative place" underwent a fundamental change. Another example would be the Guggenheim Museum (1943-59) by which was considered a place development in the place concept.

To put the whole discussion in a nutshell, one would say that in architectural design dealing with space and its complicated types are very attractive, but place cannot be ignored. A part of contemporary photogenic architecture are examples of carelessness in connection with the boundaries of place and with sheer concentration on spatial features.