Aesthetics, Authenticity & City Place-Making

Cities’ constructed environments position urban areas at the center of importance. The concept of “urban place” has mainly evolved into a marketable and branded good as a result of the advent of numerous design-led place-making policies and practices. In this effort of place-making, aesthetics play a significant role. Despite apparent conceptual ambiguities and conflicts, the interpretation of “commodified aesthetics of place” stresses specific phenomenological and qualitative place-attributes, such as authenticity. To provide clarity on this complex issue, a reexamination of core place-concepts is necessary. This article offers an understanding of urban settings and the accompanying aesthetic elements from another perspective. Such a strategy highlights the clear distinction between an object-based and a contextual interpretation of place, as well as offering a framework for reexamining the aesthetics of place and its vital role in forming the lived world. Moreover, I correlate the relation between individuals’ existential phenomena in relation to the city’s place-making theory.