meeting place

Abstract

What is the essence and content of a modern city? Not buildings, not engineering networks and not roads. People, citizens, relationships and meetings between them are the central purpose of city life. The city is a space riddled with meetings.

The news section of the current issue is devoted to meetings of architects. The anniversary of the oldest centre of theoretical architectural and town-planning thought and the Festival “Zodchestvo in Siberia” (ZVS) in Krasnoyarsk have become occasions for many heated discussions and celebratory meetings. This time the main exposition of the ZVS literally went out to meet the city – it was displayed on the museum avant-plaza above the Yenisei (11-44). The main theme of the festival – PERSONALITY –  was developed in this issue of PB (45-92).

Meetings can be constructive, and they can be conflictive. To prevent meetings from turning into conflicts, some flows need to be separated (e.g. pedestrian and car flows). A compulsory program of comfort growth is supposed to develop pedestrian zones in a modern city, as well as to make the embankments free from transport and industrial enterprises.

To what extent is a contemporary citizen ready and eager for meetings? Has loneliness become a norm of life? Konstantin Lidin is discussing this issue in the leading article (94). The city’s public spaces can also be introverted and extroverted: Andrei Bokov introduces the concepts of INTRA and EXTRA in relation to different spaces – open and closed, which encourage people’s meetings in a different way (108).

Who wins in the competition for full-fledged communication – social networks or open public spaces? This and many other questions were discussed in the PB Discussion Club dedicated to the theme of this issue: MEETING PLACE.