Genius Loci
Part One: The Divide
Most in the design community reside in either of two distinct camps. Many, especially those trained as architects, consider themselves modernist or contemporary designers. Others, those with an entertainment background are of particular interest here, relate more closely to the associative, or traditional and romantic, genres. Depending on one’s point of view, the debate might be framed as rational vs. romantic, design vs. kitsch, or arrogance vs. populist.
However framed, the issue continues to generate ceaseless and heated debate. The public, however, seems to see no conflict between the two and appears perfectly comfortable mixing objects and spaces resultant of each of these concept design paradigm throughout their daily lives. Typical living rooms surround clean, crisp entertainment systems with traditional furnishings, while tract homes, increasingly historically associative from the curbside, are filled with gorgeous, minimalist tech products by Apple and others. In kitchens, stainless steel appliances live beside aged and distressed “old world” cabinetry, seemingly oblivious to the discord.
Historically themed apartment building in Rancho Cucamonga, California
Frank Gehry’s Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles
A few in the auto industry have grasped and successfully exploited this trend. Both the VW Bug and the Mini manage to combine the appeal of nostalgia and desire for refinement and technology, unifying these contrasting concepts to create decidedly modern automobiles that celebrate the past while looking to the future. The VW New Beetle
The New Mini
The architecture and entertainment design communities, on the other hand, remain bifurcated in two distinct camps. The architectural community is famously idealistic, and designs for the world as they believe it should be, assuming a level of sophistication that the general public typically does not care to embrace. Entertainment designers, and most developers, on the other hand, are cynical to their core, and design to the lowest common denominator, without desire to increase the public’s appreciation for the built environment. Just as movie producers have, with few exceptions, reduced film to formula, assuming the public desires little more than sex, violence and crass language, designers of all things built to entertain also frequently find success in assuming a simple and unsophisticated public.
genius loci |ˈjēnēəs ˈlōsī; -kī|
noun [in sing.] the prevailing character or atmosphere of a place.
the presiding god or spirit of a place.
ORIGIN early 17th cent.: Latin, literally ‘spirit of the place.’
Genius loci. The ‘spirit of a place,’ the prevailing character or atmosphere of a place, of a destination. In more common parlance, ‘Sense of Place.’ A modified version of a definition from Answers.com:
Either the intrinsic character of a place, or the meaning people give to it, but, more often, a mixture of both. Some places are distinctive through their physical appearance, like the Grand Canyon; others are distinctive, but have value attached to them, like the Piazza San Marcos in Venice.
Less striking places have meaning and value attached to them because they are ‘home,’ and it is argued that attachment to a place increases with the distinctiveness of that place. Planners use this argument by consciously creating or preserving memorable and singular architecture to make a space distinctively different. Jørn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House, Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, and, in an entirely different manner, Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens are all examples of distinctively different places, destinations designed from the start to create genius loci. All this is done to encourage in people an attachment to that place.
A final element is our own experience of that place; if you had been extremely happy in central London, the sight of Trafalgar Square would reawaken a sense of pleasure in you. (http://www.answers.com/topic/sense-of-place)
GDW created this blog as an ideas forum dedicated to the design theory behind the creation of great destinations, places and architecture, the human psychology behind peoples’ responses to places and architecture, and the methodology necessary to create design excellence, to craft genius loci.
This forum is a depository of ideas, a research resource, and ultimately a tool to create new ideas. We will discuss the elements common to great places, study the distinctiveness created by inventive architecture, and exam fractal design theory.