Exploring Tangible and Intangible Landscapes of Evocative Places

Abstract

This paper explores tangible and intangible characteristics of places. It concentrates on gathering characteristics, emotions, memories and stories related to self-selected evocative places in a city. Evocative places are defined as places that evoke images, memories or emotions. There are two goals identified for this article. The first goal is to study which words citizens use to describe the main characteristics of their self-selected evocative places. The second goal is to map emotions associated with the self-selected evocative places. The case study selected in this research is the city of Vitória in Brazil. We collected 192 evocative places and their characteristics with the help of an online mapping platform that links an online questionnaire with an interactive map. This paper summarizes the main results gathered empirically about evocative places in Vitória, their characteristics and the emotions felt at these places. These places are then mapped in a geographic information system (GIS) in order to understand their locations and concentrations. On the basis of this empirical work in Vitória , and the work accomplished in the cities of Hamburg (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Ames and Grinnell (both Iowa, USA), we also designed and expanded the conceptual model of evocative places presented in this paper for the first time. The conceptual model includes four main categories with which an evocative place can be described including its physical characteristics, experiences, senses and values. We conclude the article with a discussion and further research directions.