Place is on the one hand a commonsense everyday word with diversely connotative meanings, and on the other a contested concept with different interpretations across a broad range of academic disciplines and discourses. This thesis researches theories of place and their implications for the theory and design practice of landscape architecture. Responding to problems of insufficient theoretical grounding and inconsistent use of the concept of place within the discipline presently, it argues the need for a theory of place better articulated in relation to landscape architecture. It seeks to contribute to such theory formation by drawing on ideas from related disciplines ? tracing diverse understandings of place beyond the commonsense meanings of the word and into the deeper reaches of place theory as tools to explain physical, social and spiritual aspects of the environment, and human relationships with it.

The term socken ? comparable to the English term parish ? refers to a historical geographical entity found in rural areas of Scandinavia. This entity presents a multi-layered understanding of the local rural area and is in this essay conceptualized as a place. The concept of place is central to geographic work but it is also a contested term ? discourses within the field of geography present different perspectives on place as a geographical concept and our understanding of it.The history of parishes goes centuries back.

This thesis takes its starting point in the humanistic cultural-geographical concept of place, with the aim of achieving a greater understanding of what constitutes the place Mon today. Mon is located in the northwestern part of Dalsland. Until 1879, the area was described as outlying land, but with the extension of the railway between V?nern and the Norwegian border, Mon's station community emerged. In the mid-20th century, all activities in Mon were phased out, and since then, the place has been inhabited by only about 10 year-round residents.

Place as a concept, and memory as a phenomenon is researched through literature studies. The essay investigates how we think about place and how we experience and relate to it. Memory is discussed both as personal memory and collective memory. Place is a strong source of memory. When we return to a place, we recognize not only the place itself, but also the things we did there, the people we met and the thoughts passing through our mind when we last were there. Pieces of ourselves are stored in the memories awaken when we revisit a place.

Abstract The aim of this paper is to investigate whether Vara municipality has a continuous picture of their identity, profile and image. Globalization has contributed to the increasingly growing of place marketing. Therefore, the study goes on to using the concepts of identity, profile and image to find out if Vara Municipality communicates similar throughout the whole organization and find out their all through core values. Globalisation will be an interpretive framework for the work that describes why the place marketing is becoming more pressing. The sense of place will be a central part of this study as it is the feelings and images of different places that will be described by the municipality together with the identity, profile and image.

The physical environment is constructed of materials. The materiality of different places contributes to how places can be distinguished and the material can contribute to the construction of place identity. For architects with different orientations the material is one of the principal means by which they can express their idea. The material remains when the design process is finished and instead the material becomes a precondition for how people will perceive and deal with the place. The literature study of the essay examines how the concept of place and materiality is dealt with in different disciplines and how these descriptions are linked to the concept of place identity.

This thesis examines how techniques from place marketing, developed to market places, can be used in the process of designing a visual identity for an institution. The thesis is a case study of the development of a new visual identity for the public art institution Malmö konsthall. The essay presents Malmö Konsthall, defines the term visual identity and describes the main principles in place branding. I then define target audiences and key values, discuss the application of place marketing principle and go through the design process of the new visual identity. The process showed that theories about flagship buildings, signature design and signature districts have the biggest influence on the design.

Rural development in Southeast Sweden- three different views and their consequences for the agrarian landscapeThis paper deals with the future for the rural areas of the southeast province of Östergötland, Sweden. The aim is to unveil, analyse and compare different views on rural development and their consequences for the agrarian landscape. Three views are considered, namely that of the different levels of Governments and their departments, that of the farmers and landowners and, finaly, that of the inhabitants of the rural areas.Differences in the views upon rural development is reflected in differences in the ways of thinking of landscapes. Is the open, and actively cultivated, landscape the ideal for all? Who is to decide what needs or ought to be done to achieve certain desired values and/or goals ? and who pays for it? The one thing that is, and should be, clear from the beginning is that all development, whether positive or negative in an area, bears consequences for the landscape.

Rural development in Southeast Sweden- three different views and their consequences for the agrarian landscapeThis paper deals with the future for the rural areas of the southeast province of Östergötland, Sweden. The aim is to unveil, analyse and compare different views on rural development and their consequences for the agrarian landscape. Three views are considered, namely that of the different levels of Governments and their departments, that of the farmers and landowners and, finaly, that of the inhabitants of the rural areas.Differences in the views upon rural development is reflected in differences in the ways of thinking of landscapes. Is the open, and actively cultivated, landscape the ideal for all? Who is to decide what needs or ought to be done to achieve certain desired values and/or goals ? and who pays for it? The one thing that is, and should be, clear from the beginning is that all development, whether positive or negative in an area, bears consequences for the landscape.

The last years trends of increasing globalisation and the decreasing importance of the nationstate has led to rising flows of travellers and information throughout the globe. This has affected the competition between destinations; they are now competing in a global market. The importance of placemarketing and representing a place identity, is today essential to attract customers from around the world. The purpose of this essay was to examine how Iceland as a place is represented through the photographs in horse tourism. The research questions asked were: How is the Icelandic landscape represented in photographs? How is people and horses represented in the landscape? And how can the horse be analysed as a part of the Icelandic landscape? The method used for research was image-analysis, a qualitative approach where horse tourism-websites and photographs on these websites were strategically selected.

Stage Design is design for action and contains décor, side-scenes and properties, as well as costume and grease-paint. The one responsible for this is the Stage Designer, who together with the Director, creates the best conditions for the actors to perform in. The stage, where the play takes place, could be either in a theater, an auditorium, or in another sort of room, at another place, inside or outside, and where the place itself inspires to theatrical performance and expressions. This type of theater is called Site-specific theatre. Two examples of this is the workshop ?Skogen sjunger? (eng.

I have investigated the interaction between man and environment, between my inner reality and a physical place, using a camera as my primary tool. What conceptions do I have and how do they affect how I relate to the outer world? I am not a passive receiver of the surrounding world. Instead I actively (but usually unconsciously) choose what to take in and how I experience it. If we as landscape architects do not reflect upon our conceptions, they will unconsciously affect our decisions. Only when we accept our experiences as subjective, can honest communication take place. By means of literature studies I have connected my own conceptions with different definitions of place: place as enclosure (location, space), place as inner meaning (genius loci) and place as action (the place-creating process).

As the contemporary discourse surrounding urbanism is almost exclusively focusing on aspects of density and traditional urban qualities, it entrenches notions of what constitutes a proper city and countryside. But beyond this urban-rural dichotomy is another highly contemporary landscape. A territory usually mentioned as sprawl, peri-urban, wasteland, edge city, etc. Although its existence is due to mobilization, telecommunications, globalization and other phenomena of modern life, it is a landscape without an own name or place in public awareness.This thesis provides a case study of how to map and intervene in such a landscape, specifically along the border between Malmö and Burlöv municipalities in southern Sweden. Its structure is composed of a sequence of three parts:1 Spatial Conditions:Divided up in the sections Network, Fringe and Void.

The landscape can be something that you rest your eyes on, something that goes quickly past outside the windscreen or the place for the daily work. To me, landscape is everything around us ? the city, the field and the forest. But what is landscape for you? What does the idea of the landscape stand for? How does our view of the landscape become influenced of the place where we grow up? And the differences between peoples different views of the landscape ? what does they depend on? My point of the view for this paper is that the landscape ideals mostly depend on the landscape where you grow up and that it depends less on the differences between the individuals. As a landscape architect the idea of the landscape is the essential. The more we learn, the more we realize how complex it is, but deep down we always have our own experiences and memories and that shapes our personalities.

In the era of urbanization and globalization, many small, rural and post-industrialcities struggle for growth. The competition for citizens and visitors is intense, andone commonly used strategy is to promote the city to a target audience. Placemarketing, however, is homogenized to a great extent. Marketing thus seems likea useless approach, yet almost every city does it.By using discourse analysis and institutional theory, this essay aims to explainwhy the city of Kramfors markets itself. There are several problems arising due tothe marketing of places, especially concerning the discrepancy between the city?simage and identity.