ABSTRACT
Place attachment theory explains why people develop emotional bonds with specific places, often a treasured landscape from their childhood or other significant place-based life experience. Understanding why and how people have developed attachments to places, including both everyday places and those used for rituals or special experiences, and using that knowledge during the design process, can aid in the creation of better places that people will use and enjoy, take ownership of, and thrive in. This chapter highlights the importance of understanding cultural and indigenous perspectives (and voices) on place attachment, and the importance of understanding, respecting and integrating a community’s attachment to place into the design process. In particular, creating places which foster social connections between people, can help deepen feelings of attachment and often lead to motivations and actions to take care of specific environments.
