Arch 750-I/803-A

Dr. David Seamon

Theories of
Place
Kansas State University
Department of Architecture
Ref. Nos. 17448 (Arch 750-I) & 13689 (Arch 803-A)
Fall 2018, Mondays, 7 pm
Dr. David Seamon
532-1121; 785-317-2124 (cell)
triad@ksu.edu
https://ksu.academia.edu/DavidSeamon

Overview
This course introduces students to qualitative, descriptive approaches to research in environmental
behavior. The first part of the course explores methods for studying the built environment intuitively,
particularly the approach of phenomenology. Next, the course examines such themes as
space-as-experienced, sense of place, environmental encounter, built form as experiential symbol, and
architecture and landscape architecture as community making. A major focus is architecture and
environmental design as place making.

Seminar objectives
▪ To consider the experience of place and to recognize its multi-dimensional nature that includes
experiential, social, cultural, aesthetic, and political dimensions.
▪ To introduce students to various conceptual approaches to place, including analytic, ethnographic, and
phenomenological perspectives.
▪ To review various theoretical and practical approaches to place making, including space syntax,
pattern language, responsive environments, and design for social and cultural diversity.
▪ To demonstrate the value of understanding human behavior and experience in relation to
environmental and architectural concerns.
▪ To recognize the architect’s responsibility to work in the public interest and to improve the quality of
life.
▪ To strengthen students’ abilities to read, interpret, and write effectively.
▪ To illustrate the value of applied research for architecture and environmental design.
Applicable student performance criteria
In relation to national architectural accreditation (NCARB) standards, the seminar involves the following
objectives and performance criteria:
A.1. Professional communication skills (“Ability to write and speak effectively and use appropriate
representational media both with peers and with the general public”).
A.2. Design thinking skills (“Ability to raise clear and precise questions, use abstract ideas to interpret
information, consider diverse points of view, reach well-reasoned conclusions, and test alternative
outcomes against relevant criteria and standards”).
A.7. History and global culture (“Understanding of the parallel and divergent histories of architecture and
the cultural norms of a variety of indigenous, vernacular, local, and regional settings in terms of
their political, economic, social, ecological, and technological factors”).
A.8. Cultural diversity and social equity (“Understanding of the diverse needs, values, behavioral norms,
physical abilities, and social and spatial patterns that characterize different cultures and individuals
and the responsibility of the architect to ensure equity of access to sites, buildings, and structures”).
C.1. Research (“Understanding of the theoretical and applied research methodologies and practices used
during the design process”).
Class Format and Readings
The class is run as a seminar and the main focus is readings. Weekly two-page essays will be requested to
help students keep abreast. Also required is a research or library project relating to class themes. Readings
for the class include:
▪ Christopher Alexander. Production of Houses (NY: Oxford University Press, 1985).
▪ Howard Davis. Living over the Store (NY: Routledge, 2012).
▪ Charles Montgomery. Happy City: Transforming our Lives through Urban Design (NY:
Doubleday, 2013).
▪ Edward Relph. Place and Placelessness (London: Pion, l976/2008).
▪ Additional readings available as PDFs at K-State On-Line (KSOL Canvas).
Optional texts we’ll be reading chapters from and students might like to purchase:
▪ David Seamon, editor. Dwelling, Seeing, and Designing: Toward a Phenomenological Ecology
(Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993).
▪ Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (NY: Vintage, 1961/1993).
▪ Eric Klinenberg. Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2002).
Grading
Grades will be based on the following criteria:
1. Attendance (twenty per cent of grade). I expect students to attend all classes, since we meet only
once a week. One absence is acceptable, but any beyond that will affect your grade. Please let me
know beforehand if you will not be attending class.
2. Reading reports. I require a weekly 1-2 pp. report on readings. This essay should express your
reactions to the readings—e.g., what you liked, disliked, found useful, found questionable,
etc. (thirty percent).
3. Class project (see below) (thirty percent).
4. A Take-home problem at the end of the semester. This exercise will work as a final exam. I will
prepare several essay questions, and you will answer two. These essays will be broad in focus and
will be due the week of exams (twenty percent).
Class Project
Since this class is an upper-level course, I feel that students should have the freedom to pursue a research
or field project in which they have a personal interest. Please keep your thoughts open to a possible topic
in the first few weeks of class; I will ask for a specific focus about the fifth week.
What I do ask is that your topic arise in some way from the readings that we do in class. Let’s say, for
example, that you find a particular essay interesting. You might want to take the argument of that essay
and apply it to a particular building or place. Or you find the work of one particular author interesting, and
decide that you would like to look at his or her work in greater detail. Or you might want to select a
particular architect or designer and use some of the themes we discuss to explore that person’s work.
In short, I am leaving the focus of your class project open. I will expect you to speak to me sometime
fairly early in the semester about what particular topics you are considering.

Contacting Instructor
My office is Seaton, Rm. 2008, and the phone there is 532-1121. My office hours are 11 am—noon,
M-W-F, though I am in the office most weekday afternoons. Please stop by if you have any questions or
problems. Email: triad@ksu.edu.
Please note that any student with a disability who needs an accommodation or other assistance in this
course should contact the instructor in the first two weeks of the course.

Academic Conduct
As students know, the academic honor code is an integral part of the Kansas State University grading
system. All students in this seminar agree to the KSU honor code, which states that: “On my honor, as a
student, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on the academic work I have done for this
seminar.”
In addition, students are reminded that all student activities in the University, including this seminar, are
governed by the Student Judicial Conduct Code as outlined in the “Student Governing Association By
Laws, Article VI, Section 3, number 2”: “Students who engage in behavior that disrupts the learning
environment may be asked to leave the class.”

Tentative Outline (readings listed are to be read for that evening’s class; all seminar readings are
available as PDFs at KSOL; see numbers at end of each reading)

Aug 20: Ways of Seeing and Understanding: Phenomenology and the Nature of Place
Readings to be discussed: class syllabus
American independent filmmaker John Sayles” Sunshine State (2002)
Aug 27: World Views and Environment
Readings to be discussed:
1. E. Relph, Place and Placelessness, chap. 1 (PDF; book on reserve in Weigel) (1-1).
2. E. A. Gutkind, “Our View from the Air: Conflict and Adaptation,” in Man’s Role in Changing
the Face of the Earth, 1956, pp. l-27 (PDF; book on reserve) (1-2).
3. E. Voght & J. Roberts, “A Study of Values,” Scientific American, 1956 (PDF) (1-3).
4. J. Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, chap. 2, “The Uses of Sidewalks:
Safety” (PDF; book on reserve) (1-4).
Class exercise: Role-playing Navaho, Zuni, Mexican-Americans, Mormons, and “Texans.”

Sept 3: NO CLASS—LABOR DAY HOLIDAY

Sept 10: World Views and Environment (cont.)
Readings to be discussed:
1. E. Relph, Place and Placelessness, chap. 2 (PDF) (2-1).
2. finish Gutkind, “Our View from the Air,” pp. 27-44 (PDF) (2-2).
3. D. Seamon, Place, Placelessness, Insideness, and Outsideness in John Sayles’ Sunshine State.
Aether: Journal of Media Geography, 3 (June 2008), pp. 1-19 (PDF; available on line at:
http://geogdata.csun.edu/~aether/pdf/volume_03/seamon.pdf) (2-3).
4. J. Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, chap. 2, “The Uses of Sidewalks:
Contact” (PDF; book on reserve) (2-4).
5. H. Davis, Living over the Store, Preface & Introduction (pp. vi-10); & chap. 5, “Living &
Working in the City,” pp. 86-97 (text on sale; PDF; book on reserve in Weigel) (2-5) & (2-6).
Class exercise: Consider Gutkind’s four stages and Relph’s levels of space in relation to the five
groups of the Four Corners (Voght and Roberts’ article of week 1).
Sept 17: Space, Place, and Environmental Authenticity
Readings to be discussed:
1. E. Relph, Place and Placelessness, chap. 3 (PDF) (3-1).
2. K. Dovey, “The Quest for Authenticity and the Replication of Environmental Meaning,” in
Seamon & Mugerauer, Dwelling, Place and Environment, 1985, chap. 2 (PDF; book on reserve
in Weigel) (3-2).
3. C. Montgomery. Happy City: Transforming our Lives through Urban Design (NY: Doubleday,
2013), chap. 1, “The Mayor of Happy” (PDF (3-3).
4. F. Violich, “Urban Reading and the Design of Small Urban Places: The Village of Sutivan,”
Town Planning Review, l983 (PDF) (3-4).
5. J. Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, chaps. 7 & 8 (“The Generators of
Diversity”; “The Need for Mixed Primary Uses”) (3-5 & 3-6).
Sept 24: Approaches to Place
Readings to be discussed:
1. E. Relph, Place and Placelessness, chap. 4 (PDF) (4-1).
2. D. Seamon and C. Nordin, “Marketplace as Place Ballet: A Swedish Example,” Landscape,
1980 (PDF) (4-2).
3. C. Montgomery. Happy City: Transforming our Lives through Urban Design (NY: Doubleday,
2013), chap. 2, “The City Has Always Been a Happiness Project” (PDF) (4-3).
4. J. Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, chap. 9, “The Need for Small Blocks”
(PDF) (4-4).
5. H. Davis, Living over the Store, chap 6, “The Geography of Mixed Uses” (PDF) (4-5).
Oct 1: Approaches to Place (cont.)
Readings to be discussed:
1. E. Relph, Place and Placelessness, chap. 5 (PDF) (5-1).
2. V. F. Chaffin, “Dwelling and Rhythm: The Isle Brevelle as a Landscape of Home,” Landscape
Journal, 1988 (PDF) (5-2).
3. Simms, E.-M., “Children’s Lived Spaces in the Inner City,” Humanistic Psychologist, 36, pp.
72–89, 2008 (PDF) (5-3).
4. Charles Montgomery. Happy City: Transforming our Lives through Urban Design (NY:
Doubleday, 2013), chap. 3, “The (Broken) Social Scene” (PDF) (5-4).
5. H. Davis, Living over the Store, chap. 8 & introduction to Part III, “The Architecture of Hybrid
Types”; “The Death and Life of the Modest Shop/House” (intro—pp. 172-73) (PDF) (5-5).
Oct 8: Approaches to Place (cont.)
Readings to be discussed:
1. V. Mehta, “The Street as Ecology,” in S. Zavestoski and J. Agyeman (eds.), Incomplete Streets:
Processes, Practices, and Possibilities (NY: Routledge/Earthscan, 2015), pp. 94-115 (book on
reserve in Weigel; PDF) (6-1).
2. D. van Eck and R. Pijpers, “Encounters in Place Ballet: A Phenomenological Perspective on
Older People’s Walking Routines in an Urban Park,” Area, vol. 40, no. 2 (2016), pp. 167-73
(PDF) (6-2).
3. D. Seamon, “A Phenomenological and Hermeneutic Reading of Rem Koolhaas’s Seattle
Central Library,” in R. Conway Dalton and C. Hölscher (eds.), Take One Building:
Interdisciplinary Research Perspectives on the Seattle Central Library (London: Routledge),
pp. 67-94 (book on reserve in Weigel; PDF) (6-3).
4. C. Montgomery. Happy City: Transforming our Lives through Urban Design (NY: Doubleday,
2013), chap. 4, “How We Got Here” (PDF) (6-4).
5. C. Alexander, The Production of Houses, Introduction and Part I, “The System of Production,”
pp. 1-50 (text on sale; on reserve in Weigel; PDF) (6-5).
Oct 15: Approaches to the Environment as Experienced
Readings to be discussed:
1. S. K. Toombs, “Reflections on Bodily Change: The Lived Experience of Disability,” The
Handbook of Phenomenology and Medicine, S. Kay Toombs, ed. (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2001,
pp. 247-61 (PDF) (7-1).
2. M. H. Hill, “Bound to the Environment: Towards a Phenomenology of Sightlessness,” in D.
Seamon & R. Mugerauer (eds.), Dwelling, Place and Environment, 1985, chap. 7 (book on
reserve in Weigel; PDF) (7-2).
3. C. Alexander, The Production of Houses, Part II, chap. 1, “The Architect as Builder,”
pp. 51-88, 1985 (text; PDF) (7-4).
4. E. Klinenberg, “Prologue: The Urban Inferno” (pp. 1-13); and chap. 2, “Race, Place, and
Vulnerability: Urban Neighborhoods and the Ecology of Support,” pp. 79-101, Heat Wave: A
Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, 2002 (book on reserve in Weigel; PDF) (7-5 & 7-6).
5. 5. If you are not familiar with Christopher Alexander’s Pattern Language (New York: Oxford,
l977), please spend some time browsing through it. Copies are on reserve in Weigel. Pay
particular attention to pp. ix-xxxiv and select two patterns that strike you as strong and two
that strike you as weak.
Oct 22: Architecture as Place Making
Readings to be discussed:
1. C. Alexander, The Production of Houses, Part II, chaps. 2 & 3, “The Builder’s Yard” & “The
Collective Design of Common Land,” pp. 89-156 (text; PDF) (8-1).
2. G. Coates & D. Seamon, “Promoting a Foundational Ecology Practically Through Christopher
Alexander’s Pattern Language: The Example of Meadowcreek,” in D. Seamon, ed., Dwelling,
Seeing and Designing (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1993, pp. 331-354) (book on reserve in
Weigel; PDF) (8-2).
3. S. Ingham, “Some Patterns of Living in the Pacific Northwest,” in K. Pontikis & .Y. Rofѐ (eds.),
In Pursuit of a Living Architecture: Continuing Christopher Alexander’s Quest for a Humane
and Sustainable Building Culture (Champaign, IL: Common Ground, 2016), pp. 386-409.(PDF)
(8-3).
4. R. Walkey, “A Lesson in Continuity: The Legacy of the Builders’ Guild in Northern Greece,”
chap. 7 in D. Seamon, Dwelling, Seeing and Designing, 1993 (8-4).
5. E. Klinenberg, finish chap. 2, “Race, Place, and Vulnerability: Urban Neighborhoods and the
 Ecology of Support,” pp. 102-128, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago (book
on reserve in Weigel; PDF) (8-5).
Oct 29: No class—Prof. Seamon’s attending “Pattern Language” conference in Portland
Nov 5: Place Making and Pattern Language
Readings to be discussed:
l. C. Alexander, The Production of Houses, Part II, chaps. 4 and 5, “The Layout of Individual
Houses” & “Step-by-Step Construction,” pp. l57-262, 1985 (text; PDF) (9-1).
2. C. Alexander, D. Fromm, P. Bosselman, “Mexacali Revisited: Seven Years Later,” Places,
pp. 76-91, l983-84 (PDF) (9-2).
3. H. Davis, Living over the Store, chap. 9, “The Gradual Separation of Family and Business” (9-3).
Nov 12: Bill Hillier and Space Syntax
Readings to be discussed:
1. I. Bentley, A. Babcock, P. Murrain, S. McGlynn, & G. Smith, Responsive Environments
(London, Architectural Press, 1985), Introduction, pp. 9-15 (text on reserve in Weigel; PDF)
(10-1).
2. Bill Hillier, “Space Syntax: A Different Urban Perspective,” Architects’ Journal, vol. 178, no.
48 (Nov. 30, 1983), pp. 47-63 (PDF) (10-2).
3. D. Seamon, “The Life of the Place: A Phenomenological Commentary on Bill Hillier’s Theory
of Space Syntax,” in Nordic Journal of Architectural Research, vol. 7, no. 1 (1993), pp. 35-48
(PDF) (10-3).
4. H. Davis, Living over the Store, chap. 11, “Toward a Resilient Urbanism”; and conclusion,
“Hybrid Urban Practice” (text; PDF) (11-3).
5. Relph, Place and Placelessness, chap. 6 (text; PDF) (11-2).
Nov 19: NO CLASS—THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY WEEK
Nov 26: Class presentations
Dec 3: Class presentations—cont.
Fri., Dec. 14, 5pm: Take-home examination due (bring to my office; if I’m not there, slip under door).
Work to Learn How to Learn to Work to Learn1
By Dr. Ken Pledge, Professor of Physics
They never tell you at school or college how to work. As a result, you waste a lot of time doing unnecessary things. And you
miss opportunities because of it. Here are some suggestions that can help you if you want to learn how to learn to work. A
major defect of the examination system shows up when perfectly competent students get so wrought up in the examination-
room that they can hardly think properly. It affects different people to different degrees. If it affects you, then try these
suggestions.
1. Set yourself to organize your time.
Do this by setting yourself targets–initially well within your scope–tasks to complete whatever happens! Decide beforehand
when you will do this task and how long you will take doing it. If you find you can’t do it in the time allotted, choose
something next time that you can complete. For example:
a. Read through a chapter in some textbook from beginning to end;
b. Write out the complete solution to an easy problem in a definite time;
c. Compile rapidly abbreviated notes on some topic in the syllabus;
d. Do anything you can do well, as well as you can, in a given time;
e. Go out for a drink or a film or whatever. Then sit down to some work (but don’t work for more than two hours without a
break for relaxation).
2. Organize your environment.
Whatever your conditions of work (home, apartment, library, etc.) make sure you have the books, paper, pens, table, chair, and
devices you need. Then withdraw yourself from anything that distracts you (radio, ipods,ipads, chatty people…). Find out what
you have to learn. Keep an eye open to see how you evade opportunities to do it. Verify that, if you have to do some work,
there inevitably arises a tug-of-war between it and other things you could do without effort instead. As Humpty-Dumpty
remarked to Alice, “The question is, which is to be master—that’s all.” Once started, interest will carry through the work.
3. Become a pest.
If you can’t understand something thoroughly (or even if you can) cultivate the habit of pestering anybody and everybody who
can explain it to you. Almost anybody enjoys explaining something they know to somebody else. Ask a local man to direct you
to the nearest tube-station, and see. Any lecturer worth his or her salt welcomes being pestered, and will take extra trouble to
clarify any part of his or her own subject— that’s what he or she is paid for anyway. Or ask another member of your own class
whom you know has got the hang of the thing in question.
Don’t get in the habit of living in a vacuum, too timid to ask for help.
4. Never be satisfied with anything you do.
Always be looking for ways to improve what you do. Be satisfied with nothing less than perfection and take perfection as
something you can’t see how to improve further. For example: never leave a solved problem, however simple, without reading
through your solution to correct the grammar, improve the punctuation and layout, check calculations and spelling. Make this a
habit you do automatically and quickly. It will sharpen up your mind—your power to grasp problems quickly—as well as your
ability to answer questions efficiently.
5. Only what you can’t forget is any use to you in the long run.
Don’t leave any topic you study without reflecting on it to see how you might go deeper into it if you wished, beyond it if you
could. Apply the international SQ3R system of study.2 Don’t try deliberately to remember anything more than the essential
minimum. Try simply to understand how something is done—then you will remember it anyway. A good technique is to reflect
on your solution to some problem until you can see how the method or situation can be generalized.
Work your way from particular methods to the awareness of general principles. There are really only a few principles and,
if you can grasp them, you can invent methods of applying them for yourself. Here is a simple exercise: Choose some general
principles and look around you in the bus, or the train, or in the street, until you have identified six applied examples of that
principle. Then recapitulate them all in your mind and forget about it. Do this three or four times daily.
6. Open up your mind for seeing new things for yourself.
This is how: Work away until you find some problem you ought to be able to solve but cannot. Don’t ask anyone how to do
this but keep it at the back of your mind. Whenever it occurs to you, think about it. The solution will, if you really want to see
+it, eventually just “come” to you as a new way of looking at the problem. It may take days, weeks, even years, but it will
come!
7. Don’t waste your time…
8. Do not stuff this handout away in some drawer.
Keep it in a place where you can see it and read it at least twice every week. Don’t just “think” about these suggestions but set
yourself to put them into practice.
___________________________________________________
1. © K.W. F. Pledge 2013 and used with permission.
2. The SQ3R system for intensive reading is described on the next page.
Intensive Reading (SQ3R)
Mastery of a written text almost always requires close reading. Literary theorist Peter Barry describes a
well-established study technique called “intensive reading,” or “SQ3R.”1 This approach breaks down
reading an article, chapter, or book into five stages, as designated by the letters “SQRRR,” or “SQ3R.”
The five stages are:

S—That is, Survey the whole chapter or article fairly rapidly, skimming through to get a rough sense of
the scope and nature of the argument. Remember that information is not evenly spread throughout the text
but tends to be concentrated in the opening and closing paragraphs (where you often get useful summaries
of the whole). The “hinge points” of the article are often indicated in the opening and closing sentences of
the paragraphs.

Q—Having skimmed the whole, set yourself some Questions to which you hope to find answers in the
reading. This effort makes you an “active” rather than a passive reader, and gives purpose to your reading.

R1—Now, Read the whole piece. Use a pencil if the copy is your own to underline key points, query
difficulties, circle phrases worth remembering, and so forth. Don’t just sit in front of the pages. If the
book is not your own, jot down something on paper as your read, however minimal.

R2—Now, close the book and Recall what you have read. Jot down some summary points. Ask
whether your starting questions have been answered, or at least clarified. Spell out some of the difficulties
that remain. In this way, you record some concrete outcomes to your reading, so that your time doesn’t
simply evaporate uselessly once the book is closed.

R3—This final stage is the Review. It happens after an interval has elapsed after the reading. You can
experiment, but initially try doing it the following day. Without opening the book again, or referring back
to your notes, review what you have gained from the reading; remind yourself of the questions you set
yourself, the points you jotted down at the Recall stage, and any important phrases from the essay. If this
effort produces very little, then refer back to your notes. If they makes little sense, then repeat the Survey
stage and do an accelerated Read, by reading the first and last paragraphs of the essay, and skim-reading
the main body assisted by your penciled markings.

You may have evolved a study technique something like this already. It is really just common sense. But
it will help to ensure that you gain something from a text, no matter how initially forbidding it might be.
_________________________
1. Peter Barry, Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory (New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2009). Barry’s discussion of intensive reading appears on pp. 4-5.