creative city

Abstract

Creative self-expression is one of the highest forms of happiness. At least that’s what many authoritative sources claim. After the release of The Creative City by Charles Landry, the phrase became a trendy meme and a beacon for urban planners. It is believed that the opportunity for creativity can attract the most valuable, educated, efficient and productive residents to the city.
How reasonable is this attitude to creativity? How realistic are the hopes for a ‘creative class’ (R. Florida) in the development of cities? Or is it a poetic myth, a dream of some ‘blue cities’ from an old song? The materials in this section reflect on the relationship between poetry and urban planning, the search for happiness in the nostalgic memories, in the transformation of old industrial
buildings into cultural centers, and vice versa, in the transformation of old districts into centers of new technologies filled with the romance of tomorrow. An article on the dreamlike substance of such a familiar element as the staircase concludes this section.