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I was at the student's project site today and wondered: Do we build communities around the place or build the place around communities? Is 'space' a too generic a word, and 'place' the better word, providing more context specificity? What is the fundamental characteristics of a place? I would argue for 'nature' and it's essential presence, that provides a sense of place and make possible the communing of a place to occur rather than creating a 'place' for a group of people just to 'hang-out'. How do we create places that provide that sense of communing when we cannot even appreciate nature? In the light of the pandemic and climate change, our awareness of the sense of place, holed up where we are in our houses, and that sense of wanting to go to faraway places, is palpable. But if the place is near, with a lot of destruction to old trees, we are losing that sense of place. (Reading from the Introduction chapter of Alastair Bonnett's 'Off the Map' and pps.org). 

© 2021 Talk Architecture, Author: Naziaty Mohd Yaacob
Photo (art work) by Naziaty Mohd Yaacob of a raintree at Jalan Kampung Attap, Kuala Lumpur

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