Space and place are terms so familiar that they appear to need no introduction. Every day, we move through and occupy spaces and places, often without thinking about what makes them what they are or indeed how. Yet, it is our very presence, and that of others (human and non-human), that is fundamental to how places and spaces emerge and evolve. Our relationships with place and space impact our lives and those of other species and contribute to wider changes to the planet.
The members of the Space and Place special interest group have a broad range of interests relating to place and space and a strong interest in interdisciplinarity, creative practices and creative methods. Our research bridges the digital and physical and the human and non-human to promote inclusion, equality and sustainability. Our areas of interest include urban environments and ecologies, landscape, the night, light pollution, climate emergency, atmospheres, abandoned spaces, future cities, digital twins, learning environments, re-enchanting places, wild places and spaces of resistance.
As designers and design researchers, we often collaborate with people to understand and improve spaces and places. Our approaches include novel methodologies, working across theory and practice and developing speculative modes of inquiry. This enables us to explore the implications of interventions through a variety of critical lenses to identify key principles and practices for wider adoption and transferability as appropriate. Equally, the imperative of design and design research to affect positive real-world change means we have much to contribute to interdisciplinary research.
Our approach to space and place complements those taken by architecture, geography and the geohumanities, bringing a range of unique perspectives from creative methods to policy. It acknowledges the increasing importance of developing more-than-human over human-centered approaches to the design of spaces and places that address the local and planetary challenges of the coming decades and centuries.