The document explores the differentiation between space and place in architecture, emphasizing that a space becomes a place when it embodies human meanings and cultural contexts. It discusses several architectural projects, including the open-air library and the High Line park, showcasing community participation and the importance of design in creating functional places. Additionally, it outlines figure-ground theory and the implications of modern architecture on urban spaces, highlighting the need for a balance between built structures and open areas to foster meaningful interactions.

1. SPACE AND PLACE
TOFFIK ABDELA
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2. WHEN DOES A MERE
SPACE BECOMES A PLACE?
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3. SPACE? // PLACE?
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4. SPACE? // PLACE?
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5. space become place when attached to human meanings, and this
subsumes social, personal, and cultural values.
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6. If in abstract, space is a bounded or purposeful void with the
potential of physically linking things, it only becomes place when it is
given a contextual meaning derived from cultural or regional
content.
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7. People and their myriad interactions, according to Relph (1976) and
Trancik (1986), are the sources of identity for a place.
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8. Whyte (1988) adds that places are where people want to be, and
Harrison (1996) reminds designers to not overly focus on the physical
environment while neglecting the daily activities that occur there.
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9. OPEN-AIR LIBRARY
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By KARO architects
Built in salbke in germeny 2009.
A small piece with an open
social nature was built in the
difficult district of Magdeburg-
Salbke, a typically derelict and
shrinking city in former socialist
Eastern Germany, marked by a
vacancy ratio near 80% and a
high unemployment rate of
around 20%. This project was
planned with
the participation and even
enthusiastic support of the local
community, including some
youth groups.

10. THE HIGH LINE
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by - Diller Scofidio + Renfro
The High Line is a linear public
park built on elevated freight rail
on Manhattan’s West Side.
Stretching a mile and a half
[2.4km] , the park opened to the
public in three parts between 2009
and 2014;
it now hosts over 450 programs
and activities and welcomes nearly
8 million visitors each year.

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The High Line originated in 1934 as a spur of industrial-freight rail,
elevating train traffic off the streets of Manhattan’s largest industrial
district as part of a massive infrastructure project called the West Side
Improvement Project.
With the rise of interstate industrial trucking, the High Line fell out of use
over the course of the mid-20th century, and ran its last train in 1980.

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13. Place is a space which has a distinct character. Since ancient times the
genius loci, or the spirit of place ,
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15. The role of a designer is not merely to manipulate form and make
space but to create place through a synthesis of the components of the
total environment , including the social.
The goal should be to discover the best fit between the physical and
cultural context and the needs and aspirations of contemporary users.
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16. FIGURE GROUND THEORY
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The nolli map reveals the city as a clearly defined
system of solids and voids.

17. The figure ground theory is
founded on the study of the
relative land coverage of
buildings as a solid mass
[figure] to open voids [the
ground] .
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18. The building coverage is denser than the exterior space, thereby
giving shape to the public openings –in other words , creating
positive voids or space as an object.
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19. The open space in ROME is curved out of the building mass as a
continuous flow linking interior and exterior spaces and activities.
Without this critical land coverage, the spatial continuity would be
impossible.
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21. In nollis map the outdoor civic space is a positive void and is more
figural than the solids that define it.
Space is conceived as a positive entity in an integrated relationship
with the surrounding solids.
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32. MODERNISM
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33. MODERN MOVEMENT IN DESIGN
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35. This is the opposite of the traditional concept of space, where the
buildings are figural, freestanding objects, and space is uncontained
void.
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39. The figure ground theory further points out that when the urban form
is predominantly vertical instead of horizontal , point block towers,
slabs or skyscrapers common to the modern landscape , shaping a
coherent urban space is next to impossible.
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40. Most attempts to place vertical elements over a large ground plane
result in vast open spaces seldom used or enjoyed.
Vertical buildings strewn as objects on the landscape cannot give
spatial structure to the environment because of inadequate ground
coverage.
When this occurs ,the dominant reading , in contrast to the nolli map ,
is of the single building, and the connective block pattern is missing.
In order to achieve form on the exterior , the perimeter of spaces and
blocks must be well articulated to establish outdoor rooms containing
corners, niches, pockets and corridors.
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41. The easiest way to achieve positive void is to work with a horizontal
building mass where the structures have more coverage than the
surrounding field and where conceptually, the space is curved out of
the mass.
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42. SPACE TO PLACE
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44. Questions?
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