Architecture and Place

 

    Contextually based architecture creates a sense of place based on an area’s culture and notable characteristics. How do we keep this feeling of place and memory that people find appealing while designing in a modern society? We can’t have just one or the other. We have to marry the positives of modernism without abandoning the cultural details of a location. We as a people enjoy the amenities of modern buildings, but the issue is that we can’t relate to them on a humanistic scale. They are too sleek, too perfect, too generic. They create no personal value or add to the cultural fabric that creates a sense of place in an area. We don’t realize how much a connection to a place and its culture generates our own identities. If we start stripping away the identity of a city, we will in turn also lose our own sense of self. We characterize ourselves and others based on where we’re from. In essence, we’re a product of our environment as should good architecture be derived from the landscape in which it sits.