Place Parts, Episode 16: Place Exists, Just Listen

Chuck Wolfe
2 min readMar 17, 2021

Who says that place is all about engineered or built environments? It isn’t, a point I emphasize many times in Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character. If you need more convincing, listen to Trish Hansen in the video below. I spoke to her on March 15, as she embarked upon a 15-month consultation in South Australia.

Trish is the Founding Principal of Urban Mind Studio in Adelaide, where she works to enrich the creative and cultural life of places, neighborhoods, and cities. She is increasingly influenced by the immersive, experiential, and relationship-based approaches of First Nations around the world.

First, in the video, we discuss her belief in careful listening, first-hand relationships with places, and knowledge passed between generations. Then, we discuss a cultural compass tool she developed to help decision-makers to consider the cultural impacts of their actions.

This video adds nuance to my previous Place Parts chats with Sherry Dobbin, Tia Kansara, and Katherine Loflin. Trish also contributes to perspectives on the importance of immersive, critical thinking about changing environments. She also adds emphasis to a critical stage that I have called “ place-receiving “ versus ever-popular “placemaking” tools.

Review the special “landing page” for Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character here.

Originally published at https://sustainingplace.com on March 17, 2021.

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Chuck Wolfe

Charles R. Wolfe founded the Seeing Better Cities Group in Seattle and London to improve the conversation around how cities grow and evolve across the world.