From Functional Areas towards Structure of Public Space: Sustainable Development of City in Context of Social-Cultural Values´ Communication
Abstract: The paper classifies the background and the processes of development - or decline of urban sites in context of sustainable development of built environment and shows their communicative nature. Perceived consistently in the context of the city, examples of sites that did not possess the ability to sustain or lost it become the base of a new perspective on sustainable development of built environment and on its basic principles. Common ground of communication in terms of social-cultural forces´ and interests´ encounters, of transfer and appropriation of material, social, cultural-civilizational values turns the attention to public space, to its roles and types and to their functioning. Communication is the fundamental principle and the function of the city - both in historical and urban-planning sense. Public space is a platform for the communication: it is the physical space of streets, squares, buildings and plots accessible to the public – and the virtual public space of the media. Communication of complex urban values in vital public space claims to be a bottom-line of sustainable development of a city thus: the paper verifies the hypothesis and provides essential description of functions and types of public space. The paper summarizes the results of a research. Common and easily accessible reality is a platform for the explorative research plan: new, revising conclusions do not result from new findings on the situation, but from new perspectives, applied in relation to well-known phenomena. The same platform allows easy verification of hypotheses and newly adopted explanations. The results provide comprehensive basis for the theory of urban public space as well as a contribution to the theory of sustainable development of built environment and of sustainable life in general. On a practical level, the paper provides instructions for planning of development and renewal of cities and localities of settlement structure in terms of sustainability.
