If you ever watch "This Old House" there could be a drinking game with how often they use the word "space" while discussing a remodel. Phrases like: "Tell me about your plans for this space", or "This is a really great space." For some reason, perhaps a desire to be pretentious, they cannot bring themselves to say the name of the room. We are not talking outer space we are talking rooms in a building, or outdoor spaces here on earth. Landscape architects like creating outdoor spaces. These spaces have been around a great deal of time. From the Agora of ancient Greece, to the Forum (both a building and the area surrounding), St Peter's square, to the Wisconsin Capitol grounds. However, what makes spaces important is much more than the area. Let me explore space to place.
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| Sturgeon Bay, WI, historic downtown |
"This Old House" shows us that space is physical manifestation, and represents an area, most often with defined boundaries. On the other hand, place is an area that embodies values, emotions and feelings, which are unique to each person. Place becomes part of us, formed by our experiences and conceptions. Let me use a few examples. We all have our place at the dinner table. In church, for example, we tend to go to our same place at the table. It could be that we are creatures of habit, but it could also be that we find comfort in familiarity and routine, part of what we may value, if not consciously, then subconsciously. I could argue that the habit is part of our emotions and desires, and that helps create space to be a place. We also tend to have locations outside the home that form place. The Wisconsin Capitol building and its square is a majestic place due to it grandeur, the importance it plays in civic life, but more importantly it is a symbol of Wisconsin, the place I have lived my whole life. With the state capitol, varied elements are at work to create a place. I don't feel the same way about the Michigan State Capitol as I do about the Wisconsin Capitol.
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| Anywhere USA |
As a young boy, I spent countless hours playing in the sandbox, such that when I became a city planner, my dad said Fitchburg was my sandbox. In the sandbox, I built my towns, I was creating spaces, but in the imagination they were representative of my values, I created places I imagined. As a planner, you work to create not just space, but look to have an area that can become place. Place, is however, difficult to create, because place is not defined by me, but by those who view and use a space, as it becomes endowed with value. That is our sense of place. Each of us posses different values, but out of that we have all created some type of shared place, a spot where some of our values intersect, like a Venn diagram.
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| Whimsical bench in Sturgeon Bay |
The way we view space is set early in our life, by our experiences, and how we see things. It is often pointed out that as adults are views of space and place are judged in large part on views we formed as a child. In a sense, my sandbox construction perhaps formed me more than I thought. As a planner I realized this and one of my few favorite phrases was that people gravitate to that with which they are most familiar. This is because of how their ideas and experiences have formed them, and so it is with how they view the built environment.
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| Morgan Falls |
But, as society and development patterns have changed so to does our formation of space. Geographer Yi Fu Tuan once said, "Undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to know it better and endow it with value" How we view and experience a space is what makes it a place. The closer we hold a place to our heart and soul, the more meaning it has, the more we value in that place. Humans wish to be rooted to space, and as social beings, squares and forums are important as are some institutional buildings.
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| View from St Peter's Dome |
Today, the public square is being replaced by social media, a different form of space (I guess a virtual space), but one that can be more toxic due in large part to anonymity. When one does not have to face a person or talk to another with different views, indifference is more common, and dislike is more likely. Pope Francis, in his encyclical Fratelli tutti, gets to this point when he says: "Working to overcome our divisions without losing our identity as individuals presumes that a basic sense of belonging is present in everyone." Indeed, “society benefits when each person and social group feels truly at home." He then discusses how a family unit contributes and supports each other, and while there will be quarrels, they get resolved, as the unchanging aspect is the family bond. Francis then takes this family bond and applies it to the public square: "If only we could view our political opponents or neighbours in the same way that we view our children or our spouse, mother or father! How good would this be! Do we love our society or is it still something remote, something anonymous that does not involve us, something to which we are not committed?" Francis refers to a path of renewed encounter. Places help form a love for out local society. Our minds are connected to a geography as it provides us with a sense of being, a sense of comfort.
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| A lot of space for a non-descript place |
We lack civil discourse in large part because we lack connection, or encounters with others of different views. Many persons are no longer willing to have a conversation with someone with different views, beliefs and values. The bubble created is self-reinforced, and thus more difficult to break. You fail to understand or appreciate a person with a different viewpoint than your own. Much discourse now is on social media. Now, the snowflakes in the world want a "safe" space, which in reality is a space that shuts them off from different opinions. The built world, I believe, is also changing our perception and our value to space.
When I was growing up, downtown Sun Prairie was still the main central business area. The mass movement to malls (East Towne), and later big boxes had yet to fully be manifested. It was the old style downtown that so many like to view, but will not shop. The downtown made an impression on me, as did the rural sprawled developments, and led to my career choice. Old downtowns had formed many of my generation and before, it held some value to us. Later generations, growing up with big boxes, will never appreciate downtowns of smaller communities in quite the same way, because their formation was by malls and big boxes, those non-descript everywhere America areas. If they do appreciate the old downtowns it will be as antithesis to the impersonal malls and big boxes. The New Urbanist movement is trying to alter that, but it is not quite the same. As much as they try in some places it seems more contrived.
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| New Urbanist Development in Fitchburg, WI |
Building architecture is often an expression of what one values. People like to use the word "iconic" to describe what they believe should be a signature building. There exists a strong relationship to architecture and art to a space becoming a place. It occurs in large projects and smaller projects. Big Bear Hideaway in Boulder Junction, in its use of stone, and logs, was an expression not only of its location in the Wisconsin Northwoods, but an expression of the values of its builder, who valued local timber and stone over distant materials. A gathering space at the Gazebo and firepit draw persons from different units together. You get someone like my youngest sister with persons from different units at the fire pit, and you never know where the conversation will lead. It functions as a miniature from of the public square. It is a space that is meant to become a place to people who visit. The hand construction and detailing, further engage some of the senses, which assists in the movement to a place.
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| Wood Sculpture at Big Bear hideaway under outdoor pavilion |
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| Big Bear Hideaway wood sculpture |
Lambeau Field is an iconic venue in football, because of the memories people hold from the great plays from the teams that played on its field. As Marquette beat Xavier to win the Big East Tournament, Coach Shaka Smart talked about how winning at such a place made the win even more special. That is what place does.
Like old downtowns, more and more persons are growing up without a connection to a faith tradition and the building that was used for that purpose. Some religious structures even invoke a sense of place to those not a member of the religious tradition. When Notre Dame Cathedral in Parish burned in 2019, many Parisians, and people of no faith and different faiths were sad at the horrible event. It was a place, a symbol for the French, as the Wisconsin Capitol is a symbol for Wisconsin. Notre Dame, which was almost left to rot after the Reign of Terror, was revitalized when Napoleon saw it as a symbol, and expression of France. Cathedrals played an important role in people's lives. Notre Dame, appropriately, was a place where peasant and royal could both go with distinction of rank or wealth. Today, as it is being rebuilt and expected to open in Dec 2024, but its value to secular France is different than when it was originally built. Yet, it will always be a Church, with its architecture and art could transcend you into another world. It did what it was meant to do, and that was why it became important.
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| St Peter's Square, Vatican City One of the world's great public spaces |
A structure does not have to be grand or great to be of importance. There are small chapels spread out throughout Wisconsin, built by a person of faith to recognize and give thanks. These small chapels are a very present expression of the values that person held. They are not Notre Dame, but to family who is tied to it provides a great deal of meaning. One such chapel exists in what is Lake Farm County Park, in Dane County, WI, built in 1857, by John Endres when his family survived the diphtheria epidemic. Hand built with stones he and his son hauled to the high point on the hill, it is simple, but in its simplicity it sung to his soul, and for some it sings to theirs as well.
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| Historic Downtown, Redwing, MN |
When it comes to having to close churches in the Madison Diocese in a couple years, it will be heart wrenching for some. There are many who have strong connections with their church building, it brings memories, it was a place that brought comfort in time of sorrow. Place is important to our minds and our souls as it provides us a connection. The place is a manifestation, and tangible part of connection. People need to have that experience. Those baptisms, weddings, funerals, first communions, and confirmations presented events of importance. It is not just a church, it is a place that its parishioners endowed with value, perhaps as much as value was endowed in them. It was a place for the soul to transcend the tasks and complications of everyday life. That is why places are important. Those local churches may hold more meaning to a person than a grand cathedral they once visited, because that local church holds more meaning to the person. The Endres family built chapel overlooking Indian Lake expressed the values of that family.
A place can be quickly drained of meaning by a negative experience. St Augustine's home town became haunting and a site of misery to him after the death of a good friend. We see this with places that have experienced mass casualty events. A place once of beauty and positive to a person or group now becomes profane. Yet, people are resilient, and attempt to bring meaning to their sorrow. Roadside memorials are common where flowers are left of the spot where a loved one had a devastating car crash. That small gesture is meant to give a sense of place to a location of grief.
Place is a space that has been formed by our values. Many spaces have the same or similar meaning to many in the community. I think of the Wisconsin Capitol, or Notre Dame Cathedral. But, place does not have to be of grand architecture, the chapel at Indian Lake Co Park being one example. The grandness may be in the architecture and setting, but what really makes a place grand is how and what each person conveys to a space, and the feelings and emotions expressed to make it a place. Space is one of the building blocks of place, but the most important is how people of varied backgrounds can create a sense of place through shared values.
Photos by author
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