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Culture and identity

One of our deepest needs is for a sense of identity and belonging and a common denominator in this is human attachment to landscape and how we find identity in landscape and place. The identity ofour cultural landscapes shows a high variety of typical forms, structures and patterns influenced by theclimate, the topography, the altitude of the land and its peoples living there.

The identity of cities in central Europe in the past are deeply connected with its landscape. In the 20th century, architecture and our cultural landscape evolved in a functionalistic pattern in many parts of the world, which was transforming the identity of regions with Euro Western rationalisms. With globalisation of business and transport relation-ship, and the associated preference for road transport, our technical landscape shows a drastic increase of sealed land with an overflowing urban sprawl. ´Fossil´ architecture in the 20th century with square and high rising boxes and in-transparent glass facades has changed to a large extent the identity of the landscape and the built up areas.

Landscape therefore is not simply what we see, but a way of seeing: we see it with our eye but interpret it with our mind and ascribe values to landscape for intangible – spiritual – reasons. Landscape can therefore be seen as a cultural construct in which our sense of place and memories inhere.

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