A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Sense of place in spatial planning: applying instrumental and deliberative approaches at the River Lahn
“[…] Why do I write all of it? To show you how a young person was attached to his Heimat = Giessen – Lahn! From Africa and Indochina [now mainland southeast Asia] this one – and many more – drawings arrived… Homesickness… […]” (M.F. 2017). This quote from one of the citizens of the Lahn region is from a letter that arrived at my office, in response to our survey invitation on mapping meaningful places in the Lahn river landscape, the empirical research project of this dissertation, in a local the newspaper in summer 2017. She sent a letter with these lines and a copy of her brother’s drawings (see title page). The quote epitomizes how deeply we humans are connected to the places we live in and even to the places that we used to live in, like in the case of her deceased brother. What he drew in his letters to her sister reflects his memory, his Heimat, his roots, while being at a place that is far away and most likely differs considerably in terms of topography, flora, fauna, climate, and sensory experiences, such as smell. His drawing represents his sense of place, his emotional attachment to the place he grew up, as she points out in the letter. His attachment is expressed and translated in this picture of the river Lahn, a bridge, a house, trees, and even a little peninsula with a bench on it. Maybe. Without asking the person directly, we can only speculate whether he used to sit there contemplating the scenery or being with friends and family, but are still able to draw conclusions on the specific place meanings through theories and empirical research. In particular, the theory of sense of place helps us to assess and better understand place meanings and emotional connections between people and place. Visibly depicted in the brother’s drawing and letter, a person’s sense of place encompasses the emotional dimension of place attachment and the cognitive dimension of place meanings. Place attachments represent the intensity of the emotional connections to a place, and place meanings describe in more detail the ...
Sense of place in spatial planning: applying instrumental and deliberative approaches at the River Lahn
“[…] Why do I write all of it? To show you how a young person was attached to his Heimat = Giessen – Lahn! From Africa and Indochina [now mainland southeast Asia] this one – and many more – drawings arrived… Homesickness… […]” (M.F. 2017). This quote from one of the citizens of the Lahn region is from a letter that arrived at my office, in response to our survey invitation on mapping meaningful places in the Lahn river landscape, the empirical research project of this dissertation, in a local the newspaper in summer 2017. She sent a letter with these lines and a copy of her brother’s drawings (see title page). The quote epitomizes how deeply we humans are connected to the places we live in and even to the places that we used to live in, like in the case of her deceased brother. What he drew in his letters to her sister reflects his memory, his Heimat, his roots, while being at a place that is far away and most likely differs considerably in terms of topography, flora, fauna, climate, and sensory experiences, such as smell. His drawing represents his sense of place, his emotional attachment to the place he grew up, as she points out in the letter. His attachment is expressed and translated in this picture of the river Lahn, a bridge, a house, trees, and even a little peninsula with a bench on it. Maybe. Without asking the person directly, we can only speculate whether he used to sit there contemplating the scenery or being with friends and family, but are still able to draw conclusions on the specific place meanings through theories and empirical research. In particular, the theory of sense of place helps us to assess and better understand place meanings and emotional connections between people and place. Visibly depicted in the brother’s drawing and letter, a person’s sense of place encompasses the emotional dimension of place attachment and the cognitive dimension of place meanings. Place attachments represent the intensity of the emotional connections to a place, and place meanings describe in more detail the ...
Sense of place in spatial planning: applying instrumental and deliberative approaches at the River Lahn
Gottwald, Sarah (author)
2021-01-01
Theses
Electronic Resource
English
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