Managing The Sense of a Region

This essay, then, refers to what one can see, how it feels underfoot, the smell of the air, the sounds of bells and motorcycles, how patterns of these sensations make up the quality of places, and how that quality affects our immediate well-being, our actions, our feelings, and our understandings. The subject is broad. It ranges from the refreshment of shade on a hot day to the symbolic meaning of a sacred precinct.rnrnBut it is far from all-inclusive, since it refers only to the direct effects of sensation, and primarily to the immediate ones. It does not embrace air pollution that isrnnot apparent to an observer, however injurious it is to his health. Smog is a sensory phenomenon; carbon monoxide is not. The concept excludes many of the economic aspects of an environment, such as the relation of place to productivity or to cost, except as working conditions are directly affected by the sensory input. Itrnexcludes many of the long-range social or psychological impacts: the effects of the spatial separation of kin, for example, or of the nature of ownership.