Book review : Planning and place in the city – mapping place identity, by Marichela Sepe

Abstract

Place-making’, ‘place identity’ and ‘sense of place’ have been widely used by cities in their urban design visions and strategies. Often, however, these notions have been reduced to mere buzzwords that remain undefined and somewhat abstract. Other dimensions of urban design have progressively overtaken ‘placemaking’ as a design objective, while contemporary societies have become increasingly engaged in delivering functional and environmental targets. The reduced sensitivity to, or awareness of, ‘place identity’ has manifested itself in the built environment, with the tendency of some design professionals to design independently of context, reducing architecture to symbolic motifs rather than place-specific responses. These phenomena are particularly relevant in the face of our technological age and wider global forces that have broken down boundaries and often created homogenized urban environments at the expense of local distinctiveness. The virtual infrastructure that dominates the contemporary city provides a significant challenge to the physical concept of place by virtue of its nature, due to which, concepts of distance and time cease to retain the significance they once had. [Excerpt]