ABSTRACT
The traces of modernistic planning, which peaked in the 1960s, have left a landscape where people’s lives are separated into spaces for working, dwelling, travelling, and dying. In between these areas – especially along large roads – there are gaps, or spaces that we cannot define, often called ‘a no man’s land’ or ‘nonplaces’. Opened up to more dirt, refuse or even vandalism, these untidy areas create anxiety about urban decline and decreasing real estate prices. These areas are often regarded as places of loss, or space lost by planners as well as by citizens. There are many public calls for a better, a more useful and especially a more beautiful landscape in these non-places. But is beauty always the right answer to this quest? In my practical work as a landscape architect I have often found that it is not the ugliness of spaces that is in most cases the problem. Instead, it is their meaninglessness.
