Reconstructing the environment of historic cities. Methods of incorporating new objects into the historic urban fabric

The presented study is aimed at identifying factors that significantly influence the patterns of designed development in the existing historical urban environment. The paper reviews theoretical grounds and design methods of architects and urban designers exploring the practice of incorporating new architectural objects into a semiotic, morphological and functional context. The time frame of the study was determined due to the relevance of the issue. Actually, cities built before the 20th century are characterized by the cohesion of urban fabric, hierarchy of elements, calibrated silhouette and perception angles of the environment, while modern cities or modern inclusions lack these properties and look scattered and sporadic. The paper suggests two possible reasons behind that: the architects from before the 20th century appeared much skillful than their followers; or the professional architects and urban designers are consciously inclined to the separateness of buildings and their incoherence with the environment. The analysis revealed a number of approaches: three-part construction of architectural form, space as a structure of relations, formalization of the object to structural content, spatial structure of residential environment as socio-spatial bodies, spatial grids, continuity, coherence of the building fabric, navigation factor, formal similarity, relation to the urban framework.