ABOUT senseofplaceLAB ~ ABOUT Laurie Halsey Brown

ABOUT senseofplace LAB:

senseofplace LAB is an intra-disciplinary laboratory to Research + Develop + Present + Discuss

ART + DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE + URBAN PLANNING concepts that communicate a ‘sense of place’.


senseofplace LAB seeks to serve a broad scope of communities; heightening their relationship to where they live, and an understanding of how they contribute to their own communities’ ‘sense of place’. An inherent process of senseofplace LAB is to work with communities to tap into their creative, geographic and social resources in order to benefit its members on a personal, economic and social level, as well as heighten the profile of the community itself. senseofplaceLAB seeks to take community engagement to a new level. These projects will create a strong sense of ownership, stewardship and pride in the community members towards the community where they live – as well as a stronger connection with the valuable resources that make up their community. Recent projects are on the ‘Projects’ page.

senseofplace LAB focuses on research which intends to address the significant social problems that arise from the lack of interaction between those who shape the built environment and the public. Psychological factors - such as social and cultural indicators-connect people and form an identity of place. Through a heightened awareness of a ’sense of place’, both the architectural community and the public can share a renewed understanding of the context that surrounds the built environment . senseofplace LAB seeks develop common ground, a shared language to encourage architect/public communication.


senseofplace LAB uses, designs and develops online media to support its mission.


senseofplace LAB seeks to create international residency programs In the Netherlands and Mexico that explore ‘sense of place’.


ABOUT Laurie Halsey Brown

Laurie Halsey Brown founded senseofplace LAB in 2008 based upon research and socially based public art projects she developed from 2003 to 2007 which were funded by the Dutch Government. She is a practicing artist, and has shown her public art projects, videos, video installations, photography and drawings internationally. She has a Masters in Fine Arts, as well as business training. Before moving to the Netherlands in 2002, she lived in NYC where she created over twenty five curatorial projects and worked as an arts educator with at-risk youth. She has also worked there as Education Director for non-profit digital media centers and museums. Presently, she lives in San Francisco developing a photography series, running a business that supports non-profits, teaching media theory and continuing a community based tenant organization that she founded. On the senseofplace LAB blog, she creates a series of photo/haikus describing places she’s been.

<<Site-Responsive Poster Project as part of beingthere.r’dam.07 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 2007

The following are images from her videos, installations, curatorial projects and photographic works that have been shown nationally and internationally, in museums, galleries and alternative spaces.>>