METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF INFLUENCE OF INTANGIBLE FACTORS ON THE SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF THE CITY

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Abstract

The article examines theoretical and methodological aspects of the influence of intangible factors on the spatial structure of the city. It is possible to study the influence of the intangible on the spatial structure of the city by combining a set of methods and principles of scientific knowledge. Given that intangible factors do not have clear quantitative traits, it is advisable to use general scientific methods, including phenomenological ones, to measure them. Applied research methods, in particular structural ones, should be used to determine the extent and extent of the influence of an intangible (which, unlike material factors, is harder to measure quantitatively) on spatial structure. On the basis of structural and phenomenological methods, the levels of influence of the intangible (legislative-regulatory, political-administrative, mental-ethical, religious-spiritual and landscape-aesthetic factors) on the spatial structure of urban systems are determined. The phenomenological approach is based on the ideas of Norwegian architectural historian K. Norberg-Schulz, who proposed the concept of «Genius Loci» to characterize the formal properties of the spatial system, as well as contemporary American architect-practitioner S. Hall, who is an apologist for practical phenomenology in architecture. The structural method is applied on the basis of methodological approaches proposed by the Russian scientist M. Shubenkov. The study found that intangible factors play an important role in the organization of the spatial structure of the city. Intangible provides the possibility of spatial existence of objects, forms a so-called shell of habitation, which can be any object-spatial environment created or adapted by man for his own activity. The creation of a place of life and space around it by man has led to the fact that architecture was formed as a complex artificial system. Historically, it seemed that the cave, as a natural phenomenon, would become an object of architecture only from the moment of its inclusion by man in the space of his residence. Intangible is formed in the spiritual world of people, is a reflection of their artistic preferences, physical and psychological experiences, but exists in the real world and is subject to its natural laws. It is the presence of the intangible and its impact on architecture that makes the latter unique and provides a distinction from the rest of the exact, engineering disciplines, forming a «methodological gap», because understanding the needs of people can not be unified.