Genius loci is a concept that goes back to the ancient classical Rome, and it can be translated has the “spirit of the place”; originally, the term was used to refer to the protective spirit of a place, an entity that is present in every place human beings are. The religious notion has suffered changes and alterations along the years, an later the concept genius loci was adopted by architecture to define the creation of an environment that is characteristic of a certain place, due to the interaction between the human construction and the place itself.
Jurate Markeviciene defines genius loci as “an intangible quality of a material site, perceived both physically and spiritually”[1]; it is the possible to understand this concept as a specific phenomenon attributed to a given place that, by human intervention, acquires specific features, which are both inimitable and immovable. To Markeviciene, as well as to other authors, genius loci is something that is always created by chance, it arises spontaneously, and it can never be recreated after its disappearance.
The genius loci, or “aura” of a site, is present and is perceived through the elements of the cultural structure of a place. The human interaction with the places creates, even inadvertently, very specific environments, or ambiences, that can be felt and seen, but that are mostly undefinable.
References:
[1] MARKEVICIENE, Jurate, Genius Loci and Homo Faber: A Heritage Making Dilemma, in 16th ICOMOS General Assembly and International Symposium: ‘Finding the spirit of place – between the tangible and the intangible’, 29 sept – 4 oct 2008, Quebec, Canada. [Conference or Workshop Item]
