Connecting People, Place and Design (Book)

Connecting People, Place and Design examines the human relationship with place, how its significance has evolved over time and how contemporary systems for participation shape the places around us. This volume examines people, place and design across architecture, design, cultural studies, sociology, political science and philosophy.

Edition

Connecting People, Place and Design examines the human relationship with place, how its significance has evolved over time and how contemporary systems for participation shape the places around us in our daily lives. Divided into three parts – place, people and participation – this interdisciplinary volume examines people, place and design across the fields of architecture, design, cultural studies, sociology, political science and philosophy.

Part I, on place, considers the cultural, political and philosophical shifts in our historical relationship to place. Part II, on people, considers movement and migration and how it affects place relations. Part III, on participation, examines forms of public engagement and cultural systems for collaborative contribution to the design and creation of place. Improving people’s relationships with place requires connection, and in Connecting People, Place and Design, Edmonds demonstrates the importance of connection, underscoring that working together to nurture and sustain places that celebrate the diversity of our human species is one of the most critical issues of our time.

Angelique Edmonds is a senior lecturer in architecture at the University of South Australia and founder and creative director of the School for Creating Change.

Introduction 

PART I: PLACE
Chapter One: Significance of Place 
Chapter Two: Modern Shift of Perception 
Chapter Three: Contemporary Debates, Including the Importance of Place to Wellbeing and Sustainment 

PART II: PEOPLE
Chapter Four: Order Imposed 
Chapter Five: Migration and Transition 
Chapter Six: The Importance of Our Spatial Encounter with Difference 

PART III: PARTICIPATION
Chapter Seven: Participation, Context and Design 
Chapter Eight: Design Collaboration and the Built Environment 
Chapter Nine: Participation, Incorporation and Approaching Difference 

Conclusion 

Index

'Connecting People, Place and Design is a wide-ranging essay on urban design, mostly in Australia, which examines human relationships with place. It is philosophically grounded in the Western tradition, from Heidegger through to Edward Casey, but then explores how that conceptual architecture has changed and evolved in its significance over time. [...] Asking different humans (and even non-humans, who are not just externalities) to find ways of living together, to describe their concerns and what matters to them, is part of the ongoing process of designing a future together. In her book, Edmonds has set out a very useful way to do this, and it even concludes with a series of principles, making it an excellent urban planner’s guidebook to participatory community-based work.'

Stephen Muecke, Human Geography

‘The author has done a very meaningful and insightful job addressing “place,” which is always difficult to portray and unpack because of its ineffable dimensions, ethos and character.’

Douglas Kelbaugh, FAIA FCNU 2016 Topaz Laureate
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