Authors

Babina Elena A.
THE PAST, THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE OF URBAN PEDESTRIAN AREAS

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №2 (42) June, 2013

Streets as a special type of city space are subordinate to the requirements of time and the needs of society, acquiring various forms and meanings.

For centuries, city areas have been dominated by pedestrians. Streets corresponded to the range of pedestrians routes. Historical changes affected the Renaissance cities, and new principles emerged in town-planning.

Dynamic street transformations along with the growth of cities were especially evident during the Modern period (16th – 17th centuries)

By the early 18th century, the random character of the cities came to be quickly replaced by the dominance of mainly two patterns of urban growth: the regular plan, developed by the French architects based on the Renaissance principles, and the structural approach, characteristic of the acolytes of English traditions.

The spontaneous industrialisation of the 19th century endangered the landscape framing and orderliness of the cities. With the advent of the car, the city environment is getting adapted to it, and in the 1980s the automobile expansion in Europe reached a critical level and the cities were becoming increasingly less suitable for living. The public started reviving pedestrian lines, and this process is now gaining momentum, but it seems to be creating a boomerang effect.

The beginning of the new millennium is marked by a new search for rational interactions between man, technology and nature in the urban context.

The future of the city territories may be viewed as a space that allows man, transport, nature and technologies to comfortably co-exist. This principle should be the basis of a town-planning concept according to which the new architecture will be pierced by pedestrian spaces, transit transport lines and green plantings.

Babina Elena A.
THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF PEDESTRIAN STREETS IN RUSSIA

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №3 (39) September, 2012

Our country is heading towards realisation of its potential, shaping an image of associate equal partner on the international arena. Image-related spaces are places that leave an impression about the city in human memory, both residents and tourists. Pedestrian streets are just among such image-building spaces.

The article reviews the history of the first pedestrian street in Russia and its impact on the character of development and the appearance of the pedestrian streets of other cities that followed it. The author identifies deficiencies and positive experiences in the organisation of the material and spatial environment.

The review has revealed the obvious copying of techniques and expressive means used in the design of such streets in essentially different major Russian cities with their own history, geography, character, and philosophy.

What has surfaced as a result of this study is a problem of individualization of pedestrian streets. It is becoming important to identify methods and techniques in various areas of art and design that could be used for designing the interiors of pedestrian streets.