The Cultural Foundations of Sustainable Urban Development

The modern city realizes two multidirectional trends of development: the desire for unification and segmentation, on the one hand, and the intension for diversity and integrity, on the other. This article explores urban culture as the basis for the development of the second trend; it clarifies the role of the culture of people living in the city as a condition for further urban development. The article considers several dimensions of the unity of space and time in the city and on this basis introduces the concept of «cultural chronotope of the city». It is shown that urban culture exists in two dimensions: objectively existing unity of space and time of the city, embodied in buildings, structures and other elements of the urban environment, accumulates in diachronic and synchronous aspects the culture of this place; and the effective culture of the city dwellers themselves, manifested through cultural practices, expressed and realized ideas, meanings implied in the everyday actions of the city dwellers and their subjective assessments of the quality of the urban environment. A conscious integration of cultural and chronotopic dimensions into the strategic planning of the city is proposed. The results of the study provide important recommendations for implementing sustainable, culturally sensitive urban development strategies and provide valuable insights for urban planners and policy makers.

15-minute city, culture, urban culture, urbanism, 15-minute city, sustainability, Carlos Moreno, humane cities