A Sense of Place
30th June-1st July 2004

A two day experience brought people together from all over the UK, the US, Japan and Africa to explore the elements that create places that people love, that inspire, heal and delight. Designing and managing public open space is as much about passion and emotion as it is about mowing schedules and path gradients. Lars Stenberg from Sensory Trust who organised the event remarked, “If we ignore or marginalise the sensuous and emotive in our parks and public spaces then we quickly end up with spaces that are unloved and irrelevant”.

The ambitious venues from a dome, to a cavern, to one of the UK’s biggest outdoor visitor attractions, to a theatre, on a ferry in the rain, to end in a spectacular park and garden, embodied the theme of the event.

At the first venue, Carnglaze Caverns, Peter Thoday gave a brief but incisive keynote for the two days. He asked ‘how do we create sense of place? How much of a sense of place is intellectual, and how much emotional?’

Next up was David Kamp from Dirtworks PC in New York City. David’s talk was inspirational as he described his work with accessible public gardens and memorial landscapes, creating a sense of welcome, comfort and safety.

Sue Hill, artistic director at the Eden Project talked about place-specific theatre. Sense of place is as much about people and activities as landscape. When she asked everyone to talk of a special place, the cavern erupted with the sounds of memories relived.

Rona Weekes from Quest International focused on a single sense: smell. How smell works, and why it has such strong associations with memory and emotions. She brought scents with her, which were used throughout the talk to evoke memory and explain sensory value in landscape.

At the Eden Project Tim Smit gave a powerful account, tempered with his usual down-to-earth approach, of the development of The Lost Gardens of Heligan and Eden Project. He highlighted a theme that ran through so many of the talks – it’s not the money, it’s the passion and will to succeed that determines success.

On day two at the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth, Hazel Stuteley OBE gave an emotional presentation covering the regeneration of the Beacon Estate in Falmouth. The power that regaining a sense of place, or community, can have for an area fragmented by crime, unemployment and social problems was evident in Hazel’s presentation. She called the people in that community ‘Trojan mice’, as it took just a few of them to turn the whole place around.

Hazel was followed by Julia Cassim, Research Director of the Helen Hamlyn Institute, RCA. Julia gave a salutary talk on engaging with disabled people as design partners, rather than simply as users or testers, in the development of products and environments. Julia illustrated the dangers of designing spaces by dogmatically following guidelines and pleaded for an approach that interpreted guidelines appropriate to place.

Richard Scott from Landlife took us through the history of the pioneering Liverpool organisation dedicated to the development of community through low cost wildflower planting. Sowing wildflower meadows on brownfield sites has helped many communities in the Liverpool area improve their health and quality of life.

The emotional rollercoaster ride of the day’s speakers was continued by Donald Boddy. Donald took us through the philosophy behind the design of the award-winning West Pennine Remembrance Park and of his work in Zambia. Cemeteries should be designed to allow activities such as celebration and contemplation and to aid the processes of grieving and remembrance.

The regenerative plans for Plymouth itself were highlighted by Peter Ford and Su Thompson from Plymouth City Council. Su talked about the improvements in play provision and Peter quickly outlined the Mackay vision for the centre of the city. The event ended at Mount Edgcumbe Park, a Grade I listed landscape.

A full report on the two days' proceedings will be available shortly from this web site. If you are on our mailing list, we'll let you know when it's available.