TEMPORALITY OF URBAN PLANNING AND ARCHITECTURE: A SYSTEMIC APPROACH

• Main Author: Zhuravlev M.Yu. Mikhail Yur'evich
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow State University of Civil Engineering (MGSU) 2012-10-01
• Series: Vestnik MGSU
• Subjects: time-distributed system; fl ow of transitions; time-based architecture; architectural theory; dynamic system; history of architecture
• Online Access: http://vestnikmgsu.ru/files/archive/issues/2012/8/ru/3.pdf

The article is focused on the contextual characteristics of architecture. From the viewpoint of gnosiology, architecture is part of major areas of knowledge, such as science, technology, and art. At the same time, it is of the same importance as other related areas, including history, art, and construction technology. Being an open system, architecture is strongly interrelated both with upperlevel and same-level fields, and no solid system is isolated. Subsequently, architecture has strong links with history. As the result, development of architecture has a strong temporal connection with development of all areas mentioned above. The author argues that architecture should essentially be treated as an open dynamic system in correlation to its context. After a closer look at urban planning, it is considered to be the essence of architecture-related activities, and the author comes to the conclusion that it (as well as the architecture itself) is the most large-scale and complex phenomenon from the viewpoint of time and space. The system classifi cation by A.V. Boldachev is applied to describe the characteristics of architecture treated as a system. In light of this theory, architecture can be described in terms of a 'dynamic system as a flow of transitions'. Based on this conclusion, the author states that architecture as a knowledge system needs to be studied with closer attention from temporal point of view, it should be treated as a process, a flow of changing states of the system in time.