Teaching with the Place and Body

Abstract

The concept of place is crucial in landscape architecture. It is more than just the space where design and planning occur. Understanding the physicality that encompasses the dynamics of transformation, as well as the eternity and spirituality of spaces and the embodied experience of those who inhabit them, is essential to creating landscape planning and design that are integrative, functional, and meaningful. Understanding spatial, temporal, and dynamic dimensions requires a device - our body. The methodological practice of experiencing the place is essential. Teaching landscape architecture involves working at the locus and with the locus. This paper explores the idea that the connection between place and body is a fundamental tool in teaching landscape architecture, vital for reading, conceptualizing, and managing landscapes. Activities such as living, looking, moving, drawing, annotating, mapping, diagramming, discussing, reflecting on what we feel, and engaging with communities and stakeholders must be activated. It investigates the fundamentals of working with and at the locus and how these concepts can be integrated into teaching methodologies. The paper explores practices carried out at the University of Évora since 1980, mainly study trips, fieldwork, and addressing community issues. Based on our experience, working at and with the locus must be seen as an ethical responsibility in teaching landscape architecture.