IDENTITY OF LOCATION

Introduction: Location and Design

The elements influencing the design differ too greatly and each project has its own specific
framework. When trying to identify the fundamental elements that in our view determine
architecture, three main factors become apparent: the programme, the location, and the
architect.
The programme reflects the needs of the client and the client himself. It determines the
substance of the building. The location influences architecture in a special way. Only through
the location a project becomes architecture. Each buildable ground is defined by its position
and its integration into its environment. These parameters define its character and possible
uses. The architects task is to perceive the locations distinctiveness that differentiates it from
others. By interpretation of the programme and the location, the architect creates a building
from knowledge, memory, and perception.

Henri Labrouste, Bibliothque Sainte-Genevive in Paris, 1843-1850

LOCATION
PHENOMENOLOGY
STRUCTURE
GENIUS LOCI

Christian Norberg-Schulz defines the phenomenon of the location in his book Genius Loci:
Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture in the following way: A place is more than an
abstract localisation. It is an entity made of definite things with material matter, form, surface
and colour.
Places can be constituted from their centre and define direction and rhythm by the use of
topographical and architectural elements. If the structure of a place exists, we as architects can
refer to it, highlight and visualise it. Yet if we try to perceive the structure of a place, or to
process or transform it, we are necessarily working on its identity the Genius Loci. Today the
term depicts the spiritual identity of a place and therefore qualitative components such as
character and atmosphere.

Robert Smithson_broken circle and spiral hill_emmen_NL

Andrew Goldswurthy _ leafs

Andrew Goldswurthy _ flower

Joseph Nicphore Nipce

TYPOLOGY OF PLACES

A. NATURAL PLACE - LANDSCAPE

A. Natural Place - Landscape

Rocks, vegetation and waterlines (coastline, river bank) as primary natural features bring sense
to a place. Depending on the surface relief the horizon, a river or a mountain are landmarks.
The character of the landscape forms a silhouette against the sky. The structure of a natural
place can be shaped either by elements that centre the space such as hills, mountains or rocks,
or by directional elements such as valleys, rivers and slopes.
The interaction of surface, relief, vegetation, and water creates characteristic places (anything
from centred to directional), which in turn are basic elements of landscapes. Our languages
offer their own names for them: plain, valley, basin, canyon, plateau, hill, or mountain.

Hans Christian Schink - Arktis

Hans Christian Schink _ Tassili

Hans Christian Schink _ Pisac

B. ARTIFICIAL PLACE

B. Artificial Place
The artificial place is a man-made structure representing a meaning. The understanding man has about his environment is
thereby made visible. Man needs a spatial boundary and therefore settled where nature offers protected space. Considering
character, a natural place would be inviting if it offered things such as rocks, trees, and water. Some kind of enclosure is the
substantial feature of any created place. We differentiate three perspectives for the artificial space:

ELEMENTARY ARCHITECTURE

- Earthy and local significance of the material

- Simple and easy-to-make construction
- Social and cultural functionality

Plan of housing development in the Open Air Museum in Gordes

ESTABLISHED ARCHITECTURE

- Specific characteristics of the landscape and its historic evolution

- Traditional construction types as constructive way
to meet basic demands
- Adaptability and utilisation neutrality inside and outside

Mountain hut/ maiensss behind the monte rosa

EXPRESSIVE ARCHITECTURE

Chiesa di San Luigi Gonzaga del Corteranzo Monferrato, 1738

Erich Mendelsohn, Einstein Tower in Potsdam, 1921

- Intuitive use of material and construction

- The symbolic character in proportion as well was scale
- Connection of structural and spatial shape

PLACE TODAY

Due to urbanisation cities today expand as never before. Nearly all space is taken up. Today, a
landmark is not the horizon, a hillside, a vast field, or a river. It is rather a street or the
neighbouring building. More rarely differ places in their structural form. Most places we find
today are complex and ambiguous. This is because of an overlapping of different forms of
expressions of society and of different utility buildings. The original spirit of the place was often
changed and superseded. Architecture is no longer, as described above, determined by the
interpretation of the place and the programme. Only the programme determines architecture.
Programmes by itself are, as we know, not bound to a place and can be copied many times.

1845

19me sicle

2012

Banlieue nord de Marseille

Non-Place

Understanding and Transforming Places

The examination of a place can be regarded as acquisition of the place. It is done by

recognition of scale and rhythm, materiality, and the atmosphere of the things found. The initial
situation for designing is always neutral whatever the number and quality of the buildings on
site. We spend most of the designing process reading and interpreting former and current
structures. The main purpose of architecture is to turn a site into a place. That means to unveil
the potential significance in the given environment, to continue forming the Genius Loci or to
find a new one.
By doing this the architect can react in different ways to the given place.

The architect as
independent creator of new worlds.

This type has always been linked with immense destruction or radical changes in society. The
large interest in creating spectacular individual buildings can be witnessed since the origins of
Modernism. The call for a Tabula Rasa as a basis for the new and for the programmatic
contrast between old and new arose at the beginning of the 20th century. Architects like Le
Corbusier reinvented the world, shook off traditions, and followed only their own rules. The
concept of the autonomous creating architect being an idol still works to this day. Creating
something independent that refers only to itself standing out from the rest is still dominated by a
spectacular language of form. We have seen this distinction before in expressive architecture.

Plan of Cit Radieuse in Marseille by Le Corbusier

Berlin, Alexanderplatz, 1969

Frank O. Gehry, Vitra Design Museum, Weil/ Rhein, Germany

Herzog & de Meuron, VitraHaus, Weil/ Rhein, Germany

The architect as pragmatic

developer and interpreter of the existing

The urban stock understandably limits the autonomy of the independent creator of new
buildings. Most of the time, the architect must understand the thoughts of his predecessors.
When designing within the given context, the architect must be an interpreter and developer
rather than a creator. He adapts the new to its surroundings and treats the existing with respect.
The basic conceptual principle is that of an architecture that creates localities that is intended to
consolidate, identify or supplement the existing sedimentary layers of a place according to a
plan. Its language of forms aims to summon up more with less, it simplifies and consequently
generally appears reserved and taciturn. This approach, however, makes it possible to provide
a comprehensible representation of the place and the reality of the specific solution of the
problem. This type is in turn an extended kind of the previously illustrated established
architecture.
Our interest in the place has to do with our curiosity about the living present and everyday
occurrence. Every place is very specific and still they all show signs of being part of a larger
cultural context. Each existing situation has a special quality that is worth discovering

Diener & Diener, Extension of the Swiss Embassy building in Berlin, Germany

Amateur Architecture Studio, Ningbo History Museum Ningbo / China, 2008

AFF, Mountain hut, Tellerhuser, Germany

Amunt, Addition to an existing house in Aachen, Germany, 2011