MISUAL PATTERNS OF THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT AND LOCAL IDENTITY

This article correlates the trend towards the “digitalization” of a person and the trend towards the atomization of urban space. It shows that the fragmentation of modern man and his practices is similar to the fragmentation of the urban environment. The concept of the visual frame (texture) of the urban space is presented, and the heterogeneity of this frame is substantiated. Various approaches to determining the content, role and number of elements of the urban environment, or patterns of urban space are explored; the semantic and visual nature of these elements is argued. The difference between the urban pattern and the architectural, urban planning, and design patterns is demonstrated. The connection between the urban texture and the individual appearance of the city is shown. The qualities and functions of the visual patterns of the urban environment are investigated. The thesis is substantiated that the unity of the urban environment is maintained due to the mutual openness of the key patterns, and the degradation of the urban space is caused both by the violation of the integrity of the patterns and their mutual isolation. Patterns as key nodes of the visual-spatial environment are presented as interrelated localized socio-cultural processes aimed at forming elements of the unique image of the city, that is, they function as coordinated ways of building a local identity.

city, habitable environment, texture, fragmentation, visual pattern, urban space, urban practices, city structure, local identity