"Genius loci" - and man's hegemonic ambitions

Abstract

Although we live in space, most of us experience only those fragments which relate immediately to our professional life or daily occupations. Genius loci is a way of putting our experience of space together by focusing on its true meaning for our existence. Looking at a landscape we realize that the radical distinction between “man‑made” and “natural” has undergone a considerable change. As Mircea Eliade put it, landscape demonstrates that man has taken possession of time. Today, after centuries of man’s interference in the natural order, the landscape has become increasingly a set of man‑made artefacts imposed upon the natural scene, and the secret of the world’s future seems to consist in his ability to come to terms with a situation in which man’s power seems to be hegemonic.