ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the theoretical unsatisfactoriness of both scientific and popular discourses on the genius loci, given their metaphorical vagueness. The argument adopted in favour of place-identity is usually the cliche that the genius loci is the quid that transforms an anonymous space into an intensely expressive lived place. The literature on the genius loci indulges in metaphorical and rhetorical expedients, relying on the self-evidence of terms such as character, quality, livability, taste, feeling, environment, essence, resonance, presence, aura, harmony, grace, charm, and decorum. The theoretical dissatisfaction that one experiences while reading Norberg-Schulz’s observations becomes practical if one tries to understand how to implement a genius loci or even design it from scratch. The “et cetera” that inevitably ends the undoubtedly evocative qualitative lists made by Klages and every other romantic apologist of the genius loci is a suggestive but theoretically useless poetic leitmotiv.
