Places That Are Truly Alive (1)
Which urban places would you consider to be truly alive?
By The Empty Square
Photo: Mike Lacey/Unsplash
Which urban places would you consider to be truly alive?
Where do you feel welcome and at ease? Inspired and energized? Where do you know everything and still feel excited about what you will find today?
Where do you look forward to the smells from bakeries and open kitchens, the sunlight at the square’s corner at a particular hour, the abundance of produce and people at the market? Where do you feel excited about today’s menus, about who you will meet and greet, whether that perfect sitting spot will be vacant or not?
Photo: Nisarg Chaudhari/Unsplash
Places that are alive aren’t made up of a few separate, attractive elements. On the contrary, they are defined by a positive wholeness. They have integrity. They function as “containers of experiences” with many layers of meanings and stories. Though nothing really changes, not two days are alike. The variations are endless, every day is unique, and it reminds us, consciously or not, of the preciousness of every moment.
Living cities and towns make us feel alive. All actions strengthening this feeling should be encouraged.
Which developer – which mayor – will be the first to make a call for existential meaningfulness?
*The notion of “containers of experience” is taken from E. V. Walter: Placeways. A Theory of the Human Environment (University of North Carolina Press, 1988), p. 72