Placelessness

Looking at the development of place attachments and 'home' within a temporary housing context, this paper examines two specific Asylum Seeker housing schemes in Zürich, Switzerland, namely the TWS Aargauerstrasse and the TWS Leutschenbachstrasse. These case studies are viewed through two lenses, firstly, the modification of the temporary space itself, and secondly, the use of furniture and objects within the space. These lenses will allow one to determine the case studies value based on the success in creating new place attachments and feelings of satisfaction.

book reviews:
* Philip Graus (2017) Place and Placelessness Revisited, Urban Policy and Research, 35:3, 369-371, DOI: 10.1080/08111146.2017.1329802
* Yiwei Huang (2020) Place and placelessness revisited, Journal of Cultural Geography, 37:2, 254-255, DOI: 10.1080/08873631.2020.1761581

Within Canada and the United States there is a trend toward placelessness; people do not form senses of place but rather remain transient within spaces. The effects of placelessness impact not only individuals, but also communities, and ultimately the natural landscape as well. The thesis discusses placelessness by deriving themes from those established within the larger field of place studies. Both place and placelessness are then examined in a historical and current context. Though there exists no universal language of place, foundations can be traced to both psychology and philosophy and are influenced by literature and other disciplines. The thesis suggests that relationships to place vary greatly and are dependent, in part, upon populations, economics, technology, and geography. Should the sense of place be absent, then stewardship is impossible for
stewardship can only be achieved through the commitment of placed people. Placelessness is finally conceptualized and defined through the discussion of place, and further applications of the thesis’ findings are suggested.

In this paper I provide a critical examination of Marc Augé’s spatial imagination, from his anthropological studies of African village life in the 1970s to his more recent studies of everyday spatial practices in the contemporary West. Augé’s spatial imagination is apparent throughout his ethnographic writings, but I suggest that his most widely acclaimed book, Non-Lieux/Non-Places, is all-too-frequently read as a theoretical articulation of the changing nature of space in the contemporary West, rather than as a semi-fictional, semi-autobiographical ethnology resulting from one man’s encounters and wanderings in the spaces of contemporary France. I trace parallels between Augé’s writings on non-places and those of a number of other Anglophone and Francophone scholars since the early 1960s, before focusing attention on writings on theories of space and place, and the geographies and histories of globalisation, consumption and mobility, which have led commentators to draw very different conclusions about the sociality and spatiality of late twentieth and early twenty-first century life.

This essay is a response to Shaun Moores’ commentary on the author’s A GEOGRAPHY OF THE LIFEWORLD, a book that  examines the significance of the everyday spaces, places, and environment in peoples’ daily lives (Seamon 1979). The author discusses a number of Moores’ concerns, including the role of media in supporting or undermining physical places; the value of phenomenological method for media and communication studies; and the charge that phenomenology is hindered by an essentialist approach that presupposes the presence and significance of invariant existential structures.

Keywords: architecture; digital media; everyday life; experience; media use; phenomenology; physical environment; place; space; placelessness; Merleau-Ponty

Theorists such as Edward Relph and Melvin Webber have argued that an industrial emphasis on accessibility and efficiency has eroded our sense of place. Online communication is frequently ‘placeless’ in this respect, but also provides ways of thinking about identities as detached from places, nations and nationalities. This chapter will explore these themes by examining an online comic, ‘At work inside our detention centres: A guard’s story’, which focuses on the existential placelessness faced by asylum seekers in Australia’s detention centres. To depict the dilemma of detention, this comic mimics some of the design elements of online communication that facilitate placelessness. At the same time, the drawings in this comic by Sam Wallman depart from the standardised and industrialised norms of online communication. Centred on the place where pen meets paper, comics can act as a powerful tool for both picturing and resisting the placelessness of industrialised online communication.

Four Insights about Landscapes I have for about fifteen years looked at, photographed, read about and otherwise examined landscapes over much of the western world, so I suppose that by now I should be some sort of authority. By landscapes I mean pretty well everything seen or otherwise sensed outdoors-rural, urban, industrial, or natural-and I am deeply curious about why they look as they do. Had I devoted my energies to biology, economics or psychology I could well be an expert on some specialized field within my discipline, receiving large grants to support fundamental research and regularly consulted by politicians and the talk-show hosts of local radio shows for my opinions. But the study of landscape is not like biology or economics. In those disciplines it is legitimate to plunge deeply into matters, to analyze a detail through the tunnel vision of microscope or economic theory. For landscape this is palpably impossible: the best one can do is to range over the surface of things, keeping one's eyes open, attending to interconnections, and trying not to deny wholeness. The philosopher Martin Heidegger argued that, while rigor in the physical sciences demands an attention to exactness, in the human or social sciences being rigorous requires that the inexactness of the subject should be respected (Heidegger, 1977, 119-120). So too with landscape-a rigorous understanding has to avoid any tendency to define, constrain, analyze and specialize in details, for these destroy the very thing one seeks to comprehend by breaking it into bits. With landscape there can be no experts and no authorities, only more careful observations and more thoughtful interpretations.

Amongst the range of forces that determine the built environment, the formalized process of urban design makes a small contribution. Within that process, the urban designer is required to respond to various and sometimes conflicting interests in the generation of plans and proposals – a negotiation that has been described as the symbolic attempt to express urban meaning in urban form. This chapter will propose that urban design theory captures urban meaning which is then reflected in the physical form of built environments. It will explore how spaces frequently deemed to be 'placeless' may in fact be a reflection of changes in urban meaning and suggest that qualities of placelessness can be linked to a particular theoretical perspective.

After the beginning of the modern period, understanding of place and context in architecture have undergone a radical change with the direct effects of mass media technology, advanced transportation networks and capitalist system. Since the architecture has begun to be designed as an object of consumption and fiction, buildings all over the world have started to be built without any strong concept of context and place.

The French philosopher Jean Baudrillard who examined this radical change, considered some modern architectural examples as simulated buildings detached from their architectural context and place. In this sense, Baudrillard stated that because of the strong impacts of simulation world on the discipline of architecture, buildings have been started to shaped by characteristics of the simulation world: illusion, consumption, capitalism and uniformity. Since these characteristic features of the simulation world are directly related to the concepts of ''place'' and ''context'' in architecture, it is thought that the discussions of 'placelessness' and 'acontextual' concept in architecture should be also read through the effect of characteristics of the simulation world.

In the scope of the study, basic principles of Baudrillard's simulation theory examined and the 'placelessness' and 'acontextual' concept in architectural design discussed in the light of Baudrillard’s simulation theory. The evaluations in the study carried out through Beaubourg (Pompidou Center), Disneyland, World Trade Center and hypermarkets.

The aim of the study is reading the 'placelessness' and 'acontextual' concept in architecture with the help of basic principles of Baudrillard's simulation theory. In conclusion, the paper revealed the effects of Baudrillard’s simulation theory on the architecture and contributed to the current discussions of ‘placelessness’ and ‘acontextual’ concept in architecture.

Sevim Burak'ın 1965 yılında yayımlanan Yanık Saraylar adlı kitabının içindeki dördüncü öykü olan "Büyük Kuş" , en genel anlamıyla erkek egemen düzende "öteki oluş" un, "kadın oluş" un öyküsüdür. Öyküde, eril-kentin sokaklarında dolaşan kadının kendine ait olmayan dışsal alandaki mücadelesi, yersiz-yurtsuzluğu ve hayatta kalma çabası amorf bir dil aracılığıyla aktarılmıştır. Dil bilgisi kurallarının, noktalama işaretlerinin alt üst edildiği metinde, cümlelerin çizgisel sürekliliği anlayışına da darbe vurularak parçalı bir anlatım tekniği tercih edilmiştir. Bu bağlamda "Büyük Kuş" öyküsü, eril iktidarın söylemini ve onun kurallarını kullanmayı reddeden, bu iktidar tarafından sindirilmiş, yok sayılmış kadınların sesini hâkim dilde çeşitli oyuklar açarak duyurmaya çalışan bir eser olup, bu özellikleriyle de minör edebiyatla paslaşan bir yapıdadır. Eserdeki içerik ve biçim müzakeresi ise feminist eleştirinin ana düşünsel pratikleri ile minör yazının biçimsel özelliklerini bir araya getiren bir köprünün kurulmasını sağlayan ana etkenlerdendir.

This chapter in Place and Placelessness Revisited (edited by Rob Freestone and Edgar Liu, Taylor and Francis, 2016) discusses how relationships between place and placessness have shifted in the last fifty years, from the high age of placelessness, through the reassertion of distinctiveness, to the multi-centered hybridity associated with globalization.

This is the Preface I wrote for the 2008 reprinting of Place and Placelessness, (Pion, London).  It offers an account of how I came to write the book, and discusses some changes that had occurred both to places and to interpretations of place in the thirty years since the original version was published.

How should we live in the world such that we have culturally enriching and worthwhile lives when the material and social fabric of our situation does nothing to nurture or sustain the kinds of relationships with each other and with nature that would seem to be a prerequisite for a healthy life?  This chapter examines the claim that there are compensatory benefits - such as cosmopolitanism and increasing self reflection - that mitigate the psychological and social problems of living un-embedded lives in placeless environments.  It then proposes the solution that simply by making things, actively engaging in things and, particularly, by mending things, we can rediscover the necessary environmental virtues to reintegrate ourselves into the material fabric of the world.  Why this should work has to do with the transformatory power of active, purposive engagement with the material realm.  Moreover, we can do this even in the midst of contemporary 'thinned out' spaces to make them into enriching places.

Using public toilets and latrinalia (graffiti found inside public toilets) as demonstrations, this paper questions the rigid perception of place identities and how this rigidity may ultimately contribute to the persistence of placelessness. It draws specifically on Relph’s 1976 discussions on the three elements that constitute placelessness – (in)authenticity, (lack of) distinctiveness and (dis)connection – and examines these in view of Butler’s theorisation of human identities.

Now a chapter in 'Place and Placelessness Revisited' (Freestone & Liu (eds), Routledge 2016) - https://www.routledge.com/Place-and-Placelessness-Revisited/Freestone-Liu/p/book/9781138937116

Using public toilets and latrinalia (graffiti found inside public toilets) as demonstrations, this paper questions the rigid perception of place identities and how this rigidity may ultimately contribute to the persistence of placelessness. It draws specifically on Relph’s 1976 discussions on the three elements that constitute placelessness – (in)authenticity, (lack of) distinctiveness and (dis)connection – and examines these in view of Butler’s theorisation of human identities.

book reviews:
* Philip Graus (2017) Place and Placelessness Revisited, Urban Policy and Research, 35:3, 369-371, DOI: 10.1080/08111146.2017.1329802
* Yiwei Huang (2020) Place and placelessness revisited, Journal of Cultural Geography, 37:2, 254-255, DOI: 10.1080/08873631.2020.1761581

This is the concluding chapter in Place and Placelessness Revisited, (edited by Rob Freestone and Edgar Liu,  Taylor and Francis, 2016, pages 269-217.)  This book is a collection of research essays examining current and diverse aspects of the relationships between place and placelessness. See also my main contribution to the book - "The Paradox of Place and the Evolution of Placelessness".

Esta comunicación presenta las reflexiones teóricas acerca de la sostenibilidad psicosocial de las ciudades. Se analizan los factores que hacen psicosocialmente insostenibles las ciudades y aquellos que, por el contrario, promueven la habitabilidad de las mismas: en particular, ...

Mimarlıkta yersizleşme, mimari ürününün, herhangi bir coğrafi bölgeye, kültürel yapıya, düşünsel dizgeye ya da zamana ait olamaması; burada ya da orada, bu zamanda ya da o zamanda üretiminin fark etmemesi; kendine bir yer-yurt edinememesi ve tekil bir öğe olmanın ötesine geçemeyişi olgusudur. Başka bir deyişle mimari tasarımı yönlendiren veriler bütünü olarak yerleri yer yapan niteliklerin giderek ortadan kalkması, çevrenin iletişimsel gücünün azalması, mimarlık kuramında ise söylemlerin anlatımsal bütünlüğünün kalmayışı, kavramların ait olduğu düşünce yurtluklarından kopması sürecidir. Özetle yersizleşme, fiziksel çevreden kültürel değerler bütünlüğüne, tarihsel dönemsellikten kuramsal dizgeye çeşitli boyutlarda ya da kavrayışlar altında görülen bir bağlamsızlaşma sorunudur.

Bu çalışmada öncelikle böyle bir olgunun varlığı, mimarlık disiplini açısından bir sorun olarak görülüp görülemeyeceği sorgulanmış, sorunun kaynakları, sınırları ve etkileri araştırılmıştır. Elde edilen veriler doğrultusunda mimarlık disiplini açısından “yersizleşme” için yeni bir kavramsallaştırma hedeflenmiştir. Bu çerçeve içerisinde konu “Yer”, “Yersizleşme” ve “Yerin –Yeniden- Üretimi” olmak üzere üç ana bölüm halinde ele alınmıştır.


In architecture, “deterritorialization” refers to the notion that an architectural product does not belong to any geographical region, cultural structure, or intellectual system, nor to any moment in time; it makes no difference whether it is constructed here or there, at this time or at that time. It concerns not finding itself a place/territory and not becoming something more than a singular element. In other words, it is the disappearance of the qualifications of the data which direct an architectural work and which make the place itself, a decrease in the communicational power of the environment and, in architectural theory, it is the disappearance of the integrity of the separation of concept and the thought. In brief, deterritorialization is a matter of breaking away from the observable context, away from the physical environment and cultural values, away from historical periodicity and a theoretical system.

This paper starts by examining the existence of this concept (placelessness /deterritorialization), and whether it might be an architectural problem or not, by researching the origins, the boundaries and the effects of the concept with the aim of re-conceptualizing the term “deterritorialization” in respect of the architectural discipline. Within this framework, the subject is examined in three principal chapters: “Place/Territory”, “Placelessness, Deterritorialization”, and “Reproduction of Place/ Re-territorialization”.

Place-based education is common in elementary school geography curriculums where children are taught about their surroundings. Emphasizing hands-on, real-world learning experiences, this approach creates heightened commitment to serving as active, contributing citizens. By post-secondary school, geography students collectively pursue knowledge within a classroom, learning about the importance of becoming global citizens. In the process, the benefits of place-based education are overlooked in favor of global aspirations. This paper considers the importance of place in student well-being, and the role of educator in place-based education, while reflecting on the role that local experiential education can play in increasingly global-oriented education.

In the current epoch of development when there is a constant triumph of homogenization and standardization in every aspect of our life. Urban landscapes are one of the prime targets to produce a ‘placeless’ geography around us. From this vantage point I examined the concept of ‘flatscapes’ through a case study of Delhi University Hostel Complex. With the help of this case study I questioned the notion of dehumanized landscapes and attempted to document everyday experiences to show how they reconstruct and reinvent a given landscape with the inclusion of its human element.

Salama, A. M. (2013). Urban Diversity Under the Microscope: A Brief Examination of Public Open Spaces in the City of Doha. B’Here Annual Review-Qatar 2013, Arab Communication Consult, Beirut, Lebanon, PP.126-129.


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With their socio-physical, socio-economic, socio-cultural, and socio-political presence, cities have always been highly differentiated spaces expressive of heterogeneity, diversity of activities, entertainment, excitement and pleasure. They have been - and still are - melting pots for the formulation of and experimentation with new philosophies and religious and social practices. They produce, reproduce, represent, and convey much of what counts today as culture, knowledge, and politics. This article presents a brief examination of public open spaces, Doha, Qatar.

The digital evolution and the use of new technologies are increasingly dematerializing and radically changing the rules that control the social and cultural systems.In a context where relationships quickly break up and regroup, where places are totally independent from local traditions and cultural backgrounds, technology is seen as a prosthesis that connects the human being to artificial worlds in a temporary and ambiguous way.
According to a dystopian point of view, the digital innovations are changing the way we live, transforming materials, shapes and relations in placeless
landscapes: they are becoming “atopical”.
Atopy (from Greek  τοΠία - placelessness, out of place) is the unique characteristic of these elements to have no connections, in their own design or in their transformation processes, to any social, cultural or local context. They can be generated without spatial constraints or geographical references.
The following essay offers a close examination on the real impact of new technologies on topics concerning materials, shapes and relations related to the design culture, taking as a starting point the ‘80s, when the debate about the digitization impact fired up.
Now it is possible to reconsider the promises of the "myth of technology". Few years ago these promises let us prefigure the increase of speeds, the reduction of the distances, the lightening of the materials, the respect of earth resources, the expansion of the personal time, the simplification of the life experiences and wide diffusion of the knowledge. The essay points the attention on the controversial results arising from the digital technologies which are producing a growing trend of disaffection to the
concept of place. Citing Marc Augè, it is also important to observe that: “A dire la verità, è il contesto a essere cambiato, è il contesto a essere globale” (Augè, 2009).

This article investigates how Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's film The Cabin in the Woods presents cultural fears associated with globalization--specifically that America no longer has a unique or easily identifiable "place" locally or globally--through the discourse of placelessness.  Ultimately I argue that The Cabin in the Woods affirms that the end result of such placelessness will be the total destruction of cultural and individual identities.  At the same time, the article proposes that this film's manipulation of the genre's "Terrible Place" implies that there is a need for more scholarship on American horror and place.  This article was published in the peer-reviewed journal Slayage (10.2/11.1) [36-37], Fall 2013/Winter 2014 Special Double Issue, "We Are Not Who We Are": Critical Reflections on The Cabin in the Woods (2012).

After the spark of the Libyan revolution in February 2011, a set of existential questions emerged in the Libyan cultural and political scene. It was an inquiry about "Libyanness" and how Libyans should represent their being in a new manner. However, there has been no coherent answer since then and, under the constant instabilities and civil conflicts that followed, it became relatively contradictory to form a collective unifying identity amidst the social and political chaos at play. This also manifested in the cultural realm and in the built environment. The very traditional concept of place ceased to be valid in the face of the contemporary challenges and disruptions that Libya has been going through. And akin to history teaching us that cities develop their own survival mechanisms as a reaction to the crises, the Libyan cities have also been generating their own in a series of critical situations. A state of being called placelessness. This article is an attempt to conceptualize and question the phenomenon of placelessness in the Libyan city of Benghazi, and investigate it beyond its supposed flat formal appearance to an urban socioideological level.

Whenever we hear the word 'place', we immediately recognize an inconspicuous 'image', that isn't just visual imagery, but a memory that is embodied within ourselves. It is this memory that roots all us people to the world and gives an existential meaning to the 'survival'.