Despite the expansion of place-based approaches in architecture and urban planning, there is still no coherent explanation of how the transition from objective space to lived space occurs. Using the method of conceptual-philosophical analysis and documentary study, this article, with a critical and philosophical approach, examines and criticizes the evolution of the concept of objectivity from a physical and quantitative perception to intersubjective, social, and embodied formulations. The argument of the article shows that objectivity, in its broadest form, is a necessary condition for the knowledge of space, but it is not a sufficient condition for the realization of place; because it still remains in the logic of distanced knowledge. In contrast, relying on the concept of "encounter", the transition from space to place is explained as a categorical break in the type of human relationship with the environment; a break in which the human is transformed from the position of an external observer to a participant present in the environment. Accordingly, the “Location-space-place” pyramid is reinterpreted as an analytical framework that considers “location” as a remnant of classical objectivity, “space” as an expanded objectivity, and “place” as the point of encounter. This framework is examined against competing approaches and in two practical examples of the spatial-centric error in planning and the historicist error in restoration. The main finding of the article is that the transition from space to place is possible not through the accumulation of objective data, but through a change in the type of human-environment relationship, the perception of space, and the recognition of the relationships that shape it.

Keywords: Objectivity, Place, Space, Encounter, Location-Space-Place

     

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