ABSTRACT
Reflecting upon the nature of architecture, few aspects supplant its capacity for making places as an effective means to discern its essence. Consequently, placemaking provokes many questions of substance and structure, a primary example being the relation between a built work and its locale. Every building resides upon a site positioned in a particular spot on the earth. Regardless of what may be erected – structure, shelter, land form or garden, it possesses a unique geographic location and an adjacent setting distinctive unto itself. The site, in turn, is as much a part of the ensemble as are the components of the object situated there. Every piece of architecture possesses the common denominator that ties the building to a specific situation – a set of circumstances in time and place that comprise its milieu. Obviously, every construction has a precise terrain upon which it is located, surroundings that constitute its physical environs and a context consisting of both material and immaterial features. These present a multitude of opportunities as each aspect is capable of shaping and shading a variety of experiences. So inevitably, this concern focuses upon the particular qualities of a place as it interacts with the things planned to occupy it.
