Human Identity and the Particularity of Place

Abstract

Recent preoccupation with the Millennium has once again focused attention on the categories of human experience that have the greatest impact on the way we see the world. "Time" is obviously one such category. However, the angry controversy over the London Dome, the only national building in Britain constructed to mark the Millennium, also highlights the strength of our feelings about "place." The Dome, located east of the commercial area of London in the rejuvenated dock lands, is a vast construction not unlike a circus tent, capable of holding thousands of people in its central arena. Conceived by politicians and other public figures as a major Millennium tourist attraction to rival Disneyland Paris, it has completed this phase of existence and is due to be converted to an indoor business park.