From structures to landscapes - towards re-conceptualization of the urban condition

C This paper presents an original approach towards the phenomena of re-naturalization of cities and indicates its possible consequences for the urban design and planning strategies. It focuses on the ongoing shift "from structures to landscapes" in understanding urban conditions. While modern architecture introduced geometric compositions against the background of nature, early modern theories of architects and sociologists started the pursuit toward a new perception of urban reality. Studies of later researchers supported by emerging philosophical re-interpretations continued questioning the oppositional character of natural and artificial, and juxtaposed the rigidness of a plan with the direct experience of urban geography. It contributed to an important shift towards understanding the city as a landscape, and consequently urbanism as landscape urbanism. The processes of re-naturalization of cities are influenced by this shift, which results in new genres of public spaces and building typologies based on the inseparability of the natural and the built.