Spatial integration of site development of Irkutsk historical centre

Abstract

The aim was to investigate the integrity of the urban fabric of Irkutsk historical centre regarding interaction between urban morphotypes and their functional use in conjunction with orientation around the city. The study considered theoretical background to the analysis of integration of the historic city development, including the local approaches to working with places of interest. Two fundamentally different approaches were identified. The first approach addresses the issues of organizing the spatial structure and generating the geometry. The second approach examines the socio-functional issues of the environment, its cognitive psychological aspects. Local approaches to working with places of interest focus on dividing the city into environment protection zones and subzones, each of which corresponds to its own type of reconstruction, regeneration and transformation. Here, the conventional approaches to city protection zoning and zone regulation are supplemented by a new approach to the topological regulation of site development. The evolution stages in the development of the place of interest in the centre of Irkutsk were revealed. The research involved a chronological analysis of publications of Irkutsk authors on the development of “place” as a historical area of the city, starting from the period of its initial development (the second half of the 17th century) to the beginning of the 21st century. The content of the stages is a new feature in the context of site development. The research revealed evolution of site development of Irkutsk from the middle of the 17th century to the 2000s, as well as approaches to arranging the territories adjacent to buildings among themselves.