P L A C E

Statement

PLACE is a group of artists / initiators with a particular concern for landscape quality.

Many infrastructures have been built with a minimum regard for their impact on the environment - they could be much less intrusive.

Less intrusive solutions to many environmental problems already exist. Why have high impact infrastructures been built without using these better solutions?

Often companies allege technical, financial and legal difficulties stop them using these solutions. With will and innovation such problems can be solved.

Part of PLACE’s work is to research and document less intrusive environmental practice that could be used more widely. Publicity is needed to alert people to these less intrusive systems. Examples can be used as leverage on government and industry.

Most people are familiar with the idea of endangered species. There are also endangered experiences. An empty sky, for instance, or the dark of the night sky unaffected by manufactured light, both of which would have been common experiences in the relatively recent past, have all but disappeared from the British Isles. Spatial freedom in landscapes clear of human structures is ever more rare. Absolute aloneness is difficult to find.

A sense of the frailty and inconsequence of human life, when immersed in the vastness of the elements, gives a much needed and powerful change of perspective. We believe that humanity is diminished by the ongoing loss of such experiences. Many of these losses are unnecessary.