Sense of Place Against Placelessness

This feeling of ‘sense of place’ has been used by designers to measure the distinctiveness place. This distinctiveness encapsulates abundant information about a place: how it functions, how it is perceived by people, how to move around, a narrative of its history, its people, its ecosystems... The information contained through place could be significant, and depending on the quality of that particular place, the information could be more or less legible.

But the physical environment has to be accompanied with life, activity, in order to give a function to place and become part of the people’s lives. Meaning is also important, as places contribute to the feeling, importance and overall personalisation that we make of place.

Sense of place is what I task myself to use to counteract the ‘anywhere place’ or placelessness, which result from the standardisation of the design process and focus on productivity. Another result of the neoliberal city production and governance embedded in our planning system.

Takeaway

I find that in order to adopt a ‘sense of place’ approach to the Lewes Station Car Park site, I should focus on the physical environment (built and natural), but also give spaces a function that are meaningful to the town and its people so they can fill these places with meaning.