Editorial material

  • A native Polynesian can identify this or that place of the archipelago by tasting the Ocean water. In the fog of the night, with his eyes closed, he is engaged in a dialogue with his environment; he comprehends it and trusts in it.

    Since the time when Project Baikal devoted the main topic of the issue to environment and advertising, a lot of things concerning our cities have changed, some of them for the better. It is increasingly recognized that the condition of urban environment is of the essence, that it can make the city attractive and competitive, and that it has an effect on...

  • The problems of urban environment are discussed, and practical measures to improve it are proposed by the Discussion Club on city environment.

News items

Book review

  • It is a new issue of the series of mini-books about culture, traditions and customs of the inhabitants of Pribaikalie - “We Live around Lake Baikal” - published by the Irkutsk Regional Children’s Library named after Mark Sergeev. The issue is about the emergence of Russians in Eastern Siberia, their culture, traditions and family life.

  • The author of the review, professor I. A. Dobritsyna evaluates the Monograph “Colour. City. Culture” by O.E. Zheleznyak as a distinctive work. This thorough and methodically organized monograph presents a profound idea of the colour phenomenon as a part of the culture and the city life and observes a new untraditional treatment of colour and its role in the space of culture and the city. This work can be recommended as a scientific publication for a wide range of specialists and as a manual for higher educational institutions, which train specialists in architecture and design,...

Items about an individual

Short articles

Articles

  • The article observes intellectual and cultural level of architecture and its important functions in social process. Historical analysis shows constant decline of intellectual level of profession, as a reaction on radical changes in its social functions and mass scale, leading to degrading of individual critical reflection and growing dependence of architecture to political and economical bureaucracy.

  • The author studies the peculiarities of management in Russia and its current experience in the field of architecture and construction in particular. He believes that Russian managers’ activity often follows a specific logic, which is incomprehensible to professionals. Basing on the examples of Soviet and Russian reality, the author concludes that managers have their own world view, ideals, religion, self-consciousness and even language.

  • The theoretical urban studies consider urban environment one of the central notions. The lack of clear definition of this notion prevents from successful evolution of theory and practice of urban development management. It is suggested to define urban environment as a system of information flows. The suggested approach allows consideration of town-planning, economic and social aspects of urban life from a unified position.

  • The history of outdoor advertising extends back many thousands of years. At all times, the city environment included various kinds of advertising. In the XXth century, due to industrial and trade development, architectural objects and outdoor advertising objects came into sharp contradiction, which had grown into an open conflict by the end of the XXth century. In the West this process was faster than in Russia because of the peculiarities of social development of the latter. New techniques of outdoor advertising made this conflict sharper in the XXIst century. At the same time, the...

  • A colour space is seen as an actual discourse when discussing problems of formation and inhabitation of the modern city environment. The key aspect of such understanding is an activity-cultural interpretation of the urban environment colouristics proposed by the author, which allows building of an integral sphere of colour existence. This model of working with colour includes basic components and structures a colour space, while matching up all the elements (basic paradigms that provide proper functioning and development of the colour space; mechanisms of formation of colour paradigms;...

  • The article observes the problems of formation of socio-spatial environment of new cities of the Irkutsk region in the period of pioneer development of Siberia in the XX century, and the impact of this environment on the modern living conditions. Identification of the key features and main factors affecting the development of new cities and the definition of the specificity of the socio-spatial environment of residential units of Bratsk, Angarsk, Shelekhov and Sayansk cities are presented.

  • The essay presents the analogies of turning city borders and walls into boulevards and gardens through the examples of Moscow and Irkutsk. The main street of Irkutsk is viewed in a new light, as a boulevard. It is proposed to take into consideration the peculiarities of the four sense-parts of the street when working on design codes.

  • The architecture and art regulations for Karl Marx Street and adjoining territories have been worked out for the Committee for town planning of the Irkutsk city administration. Basic provisions: facades of buildings and structures, outdoor advertising and information facilities, artistic illumination of buildings, elements of land improvements. The main principle is to preserve historical appearance and to create a contemporary and comfortable environment.

  • The article presents a concept of visual environment within the boundaries of the historical settlement of Irkutsk. The concept is aimed at formation of an integrated architectural-artistic appearance and ordered arrangement of outdoor advertising and information facilities.

  • The 130 Quarter in Irkutsk was rebuilt more than seven years ago. Since then it has been constantly debated. The article demonstrates the results of the analysis of the Quarter’s environment with the help of two original methods. Comments made by guests of the Quarter were examined by using the frequency content analysis method. The Quarter’s environment was studied by using the key visual shot method. The author reveals the reasons why the Quarter’s environment attracts Irkutsk citizens and guests of the city. The directions of the Quarter’s development as an environmental and...

  • The urban heat island is considered to be one of the contemporary health aspects that cities urgently need to respond to. The Hotterdam research project addresses the Rotterdam urban heat island, in order to explain the links between the health of the city’s population and the features of its built environment that make it more or rather less warm. The work resulted in two heat maps that make the city of Rotterdam and its inhabitants more aware of and less susceptible to the health effects of heat waves. The insights into the urban heat island that were gained in this project are...

  • All urbanization processes in the USSR were quite different from those in other countries. When the industrialization started, all new cities were built far from the existing big cities, which served as supporting points of displacement of population within the framework of the Soviet town-planning doctrine. The pre-revolutionary structure of economic zoning was purposefully replaced by a new one, where ‘industrial-residential’ formations – the places of nodal conglomeration of population – were deliberately located in the area favorable for allocation of war productive facilities. The...

Short reviews