Search

Architectural ruins in the context of the urban landscape carry many meanings and functions: they reflect changes in fashion, security, cultural values, and show the peculiar struggle of urbanization and the “recapture” of abandoned places by plants and animals. The article offers an analysis of the perception of architectural ruins in modern urban everyday life. Conceptualization is built through such functions and properties of urban ruins as providing a symbolic refuge for representatives of certain groups and symbolizing cultural trauma, i.e. trauma of a social group bound by a common culture and solidarity Based on the observations, the authors describe two cases: the ruins of the unfinished military camp “Olgino” in St. Petersburg and the ruins of the “Enthusiast” cinema in Moscow. Some recommendations are provided for researchers interested in studying urban ruins.

The study tested that cities are studied from different perspectives: from city-to-city links, structural elements of urban space to everyday practices of cities. Among the representatives of the scientific field, which made a significant contribution to the development of the theory of urban research is to highlight J. Bodriyar, P. Bourdieu, D. Becker, D. Jacobs, C. Lynch, A. Lefevra, M. Castells, D. Garvey, A. Scott, R. Pal, J. Fischer, H. Delitz and others. Moreover interesting and thorough are the scientific works of Ukrainian researchers – V. Sereda, M. Sobolevskaya, L. Males, Y. Soroka, D. Sudin, A. Petrenko-Lisak, A. Mikheeva, L. Nagorna, O. Musiyuzdov and a number of others. In this case, the methodological position of the researchers is relevant, which states that the symbolic space of the city is formed through the ability of visual objects to translate cultural and symbolic codes with the help of geometric, semantic and aesthetic characteristics. For example, in this work, one of the key terms is «architectural landscapes» with which it is possible to analyze the combination of spatial forms in the city with meaningful cultural and ideological content. It was recorded that the signs or symbolic markers can serve as architectural buildings, monuments, memorable signs, street names, informational and promotional posters, and so on. The main objects of research in the sociology of the study of architectural forms gradually became the phenomenon of buildings and structures, as well as the development of theoretical directions in architecture, the study of the place and role of space in sociology and cultural studies. As a result in the methodological space, along with the phenomenological, anthropological, and linguistic turns, the term «architectural turn» appears. From the point of view of the system theory, architecture is not seen as the main subject of research, namely communication on architecture. Accordingly, institutional theory in sociology considers architecture as an «institutional mechanism» that firmly asks individuals a certain social order and allows for the implementation of architectural ideas. On the other hand, at the same time, open questions remain regarding the meaningful content of the meanings contained in the objects of architecture. The postmodern direction, which reveals other aspects of the study of architectural forms, deserves special attention. Discreteness Architectural of social life, «decentralization of the subject», the decomposition of reality into actual and virtual, freedom and spontaneity as characteristics of the postmodern era are reflected and read in the architecture of postmodern. The architectural space of the city is considered by a number of domestic and foreign researchers in the context of symbolic interaction between power structures and actors through architectural constructions and design of a living environment.

In this article urban architecture, acting as a «natural physical borders of mankind», creates a certain discourse of social practices that construct and define reality, forming views and values. Moreover, that discourse can be deconstructed and problematized through representation of the urban architecture, which provides an opportunity to explore different ways of forming those social practices among citizens. Thus, the main idea of this study is to examine the way in which social practices could be seen as a reflection of citizen’s actions, which, on the one hand, are set up by the urban construction as an objective structure and, on the other hand, modal behavior which are formed by the influence of a certain structure of thought and ideas. To implement the objectives of the study, we use the discourse analysis as a method of analyzing the meanings through which an attempt of deconstruction of practices of urban life is made, the analysis of themes which are brought up to reveal the featured characteristics and values of urban architecture and ways of its coding.