Architectures of Becoming:
Spatial Legacies and the Shape of Place
Urban planning is a central conceptual framework in my work, shaping how I examine the relationships between architecture, social behavior, and collective memory. Cities are not neutral environments; they are constructed systems that influence perception, movement, and identity. As urban theorist Kevin Lynch argues, the “imageability” of a city—its capacity to produce strong, legible mental images—emerges from the interaction of function, history, social meaning, and spatial organization (Lynch 9, 46). My work investigates how these structural conditions shape lived experience, asking how planning decisions energize communities or, conversely, produce fragmentation, psychological strain, and spatial inequity.
Traveling through cities such as Philadelphia, New York, Coney Island, New Orleans Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Toledo, Granada, Mexico City. I observe how urban planning generates distinct civic personalities. Modernized metropolitan grids coexist with historically preserved districts, revealing the ongoing negotiation between development and conservation. Former Barcelona mayor Pasqual Maragall observed that cities cannot survive through preservation alone; they must continually integrate new construction with inherited symbols to remain vital. These tensions between renewal and preservation form a recurring visual and conceptual motif in my work, where layered imagery, architectural fragmentation, and shifting spatial perspectives reflect the evolving life cycles of cities.
Architectural environments shape human behavior as much as humans shape their environments. Winston Churchill’s well-known observation that “we shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us” underscores the reciprocal relationship between spatial design and social structure. Similarly, modernist architect Le Corbusier emphasized the formative power of architecture, describing it as “the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light” (Le Corbusier 1923). His assertion that architectural order organizes human life continues to inform my investigation into how planning systems regulate movement, access, visibility, and belonging within urban environments.
The work also engages broader spatial theory concerning the dynamic relationship between space and place. Yi-Fu Tuan describes place as space endowed with meaning through experience and attachment, while space represents openness, abstraction, and possibility (Tuan 3, 6). My photographic and print-based projects frequently document transitional or abandoned structures where place gradually dissolves back into undifferentiated space through decay and neglect. These environments reveal how planning, maintenance, and policy decisions determine whether locations remain socially meaningful or become invisible remnants within the urban landscape.
Through layered printmaking, photographic documentation, and mixed-media, I construct visual records of cities as living systems shaped by infrastructure, governance, and collective memory. By foregrounding how planning decisions structure everyday life—affecting mobility, socialization, economic opportunity, and psychological experience—the work proposes that urban design is not merely technical but deeply cultural and political. Ultimately, these projects position the city as both artifact and process: a continually evolving environment where spatial organization, historical memory, and human aspiration intersect.
Works Cited
Le Corbusier. Toward an Architecture. 1923.
Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. MIT Press, 1960.
Tuan, Yi-Fu. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. University of Minnesota Press, 1977.
Traveling through cities such as Philadelphia, New York, Coney Island, New Orleans Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Toledo, Granada, Mexico City. I observe how urban planning generates distinct civic personalities. Modernized metropolitan grids coexist with historically preserved districts, revealing the ongoing negotiation between development and conservation. Former Barcelona mayor Pasqual Maragall observed that cities cannot survive through preservation alone; they must continually integrate new construction with inherited symbols to remain vital. These tensions between renewal and preservation form a recurring visual and conceptual motif in my work, where layered imagery, architectural fragmentation, and shifting spatial perspectives reflect the evolving life cycles of cities.
Architectural environments shape human behavior as much as humans shape their environments. Winston Churchill’s well-known observation that “we shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us” underscores the reciprocal relationship between spatial design and social structure. Similarly, modernist architect Le Corbusier emphasized the formative power of architecture, describing it as “the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light” (Le Corbusier 1923). His assertion that architectural order organizes human life continues to inform my investigation into how planning systems regulate movement, access, visibility, and belonging within urban environments.
The work also engages broader spatial theory concerning the dynamic relationship between space and place. Yi-Fu Tuan describes place as space endowed with meaning through experience and attachment, while space represents openness, abstraction, and possibility (Tuan 3, 6). My photographic and print-based projects frequently document transitional or abandoned structures where place gradually dissolves back into undifferentiated space through decay and neglect. These environments reveal how planning, maintenance, and policy decisions determine whether locations remain socially meaningful or become invisible remnants within the urban landscape.
Through layered printmaking, photographic documentation, and mixed-media, I construct visual records of cities as living systems shaped by infrastructure, governance, and collective memory. By foregrounding how planning decisions structure everyday life—affecting mobility, socialization, economic opportunity, and psychological experience—the work proposes that urban design is not merely technical but deeply cultural and political. Ultimately, these projects position the city as both artifact and process: a continually evolving environment where spatial organization, historical memory, and human aspiration intersect.
Works Cited
Le Corbusier. Toward an Architecture. 1923.
Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. MIT Press, 1960.
Tuan, Yi-Fu. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. University of Minnesota Press, 1977.
All Text and Artwork © Nicole Patrice Dul 2026
