Before a place can be narrated, charted, or planned, it has to be witnessed. Observe is the single act that puts a story onto the map — and the only thing every Habitus project shares.
Observe isn't a fifth perspective — it's the source the four perspectives draw from. Whatever the subject, it enters the same way, and leaves as four kinds of insight.
A sign, a diner, a motor court logged where it stands — the roadside, captured before it changes.
An afternoon with someone who remembers — their stories anchored to the places they lived.
Archives, planning records, old photographs — evidence reconciled to a point on the ground.
Surveys, site visits, measurements — observation as a deliberate, structured pass.
It gets a permanent UUID — its identity, which never changes even if the place moves, is renamed, or disappears. Where it makes sense, it also caches a mapbox_id — how to find it on a map today. For things that are gone or historical, it keeps lat/long and a former description instead.
From there, the four Habitus lenses each ask it a different question:
A neon sign, a road trip, a grandparent's story, a regional model — all enter through Observe, all keyed to place.