Genius Loci refers to the “spirit of place,” a Roman concept revived in architectural theory by Christian Norberg-Schulz. It posits that every site possesses a distinct character that design should reveal or reinforce. While influential, the concept risks essentializing place as stable and singular, obscuring contested histories and ongoing transformations. In contemporary discourse, Genius Loci is both a poetic call for attentiveness and a problematic fixation on identity. To invoke it today is to negotiate between fidelity to atmosphere and critique of place as constructed myth.
The essay argues that climate collapse pushes ownership into public responsibility and aesthetics into a medium of obligation. Landscape architecture can cultivate perceptual resilience, an ethics of design attuned to disorder, shared accountability, and the mutable nature of life.
Exploring the interplay between low-res design and the transience of landscapes, this essay foregrounds the notion of resolution, enquiring about a dynamic interaction with landscapes in flux.
We continue with French philosopher Michel Foucault. In his 1967 speech to an architecture audience, he introduced the concept of “heterotopia”. It was published in 1984 as an essay, Des Espaces Autres (Of Other Spaces), and it deals with the nature of space and its relation to society. Heterotopias are unique spatial entities that challenge conventional notions of space and compel reflection on the social, cultural, and ideological matters of our world.
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