The icebreaker “Angara” is one of the most ancient ships of that kind that still exist in Russia. It was built in Newcastle (England) in 1899 and is now located on the shore of the Irkutsk water reservoir. It is a monument of regional significance. The ship’s technical data make it unique to our country. This monument comprises the age-old traditions of conquering the severe nature, Russian inventors’ innovations, English ship builders’ skillfulness, dramatic events of the Patriotic war, everyday life of Baikal sailors and public struggle for preservation of the best traditions of the past. It is necessary to provide the icebreaker with proper conditions, giving it a status of federal significance.

Baikal is not only one of the greatest lakes of the world. Baikal is a system of myths and images which has been formed for many centuries. The analysis of old maps shows that only 200-300 years ago the existence of Baikal was the subject of wild speculations. Today the image of Baikal is a world brand. However citizens of Irkutsk and other towns located around Baikal can hardly make any profit on it. The reason is the absence of specialists who would be able to work with such a complex and strong image as Baikal.

The main difference between a temple and any other religious structure is that the former has an altar and a function of offering sacrifices. For thousands of years people have been offering various substances. The simplest sacrifices, like food or possessions, fragments of one’s own body or human lives gave way to more complex and symbolic ones as the civilization evolved. People offered individuality, logic, common sense, lifestyle etc. Architectural features, structure and appearance of a temple are also formed according to characteristics of sacrifices. The temple of the 21st century is featured by sacrificing different kinds of emotions. That is why the temple architecture of the 21st century has such a wide range of diversity.

In the article architectural ideas of space and time are connected with radical changes in the world views, historical and perpetual, transcendental and radical. It is a paradoxical comeback of Christian Renaissance culture to pagan Roman and Greek antiquity from its recent achievements denied in gothic architecture. Avant-garde in 20th century did even more radical attempt to tie prehistoric past and futuristic utopia in radical architectural forms.

Today we approach a new revolutionary change of space and time concepts coming to the end of modernism and global disillusions of cosmic expansion.

The boulevard is viewed in historical perspective, from the late 18th to the 20th century. The article points out the change in the cultural functions of the boulevard and in the rituals of human behavior. It features the flanerie phenomenon. The authors link the destruction of bourgeois culture with democratization of the society and development of transport in the first half of the 20th century. They give grounds for criticism of the contemporary design of boulevards. Revitalization of boulevards involves searching for new forms corresponding to contemporary
culture.

Since the XIIIth century the number of universities in Europe has been constantly growing. During the XXth century similar growth was in the countries of the USSR, but its character changed. Until the 1950s universities appeared in big cities on a well-prepared staffing and organizational ground. In the last quarter of the XXth century there were tendencies towards inflation of the higher education, decrease of its prestige and its formalization. In the 1990s and up to the present time, bureaucratization of universities extended so much that it put the system of Russian universities on the edge of survival.

While taking black or white threads from the fanciful, absurdist and far from black-and-white pattern woven by the time of changes into the strong fabric of the Soviet history of the 1920s-30s, we get simple models of the real life processes. Basing on such models, we get an opinion, that avant-garde art and architecture of the 20s had a great support in the post-revolutionary society, the voluntary twist toward “implementation of classics” was irreparably wrong, and the twist toward modernism in the 60s was too late, that is why architecture of that period was secondary. The refusal of these simple models in interpretation of the history of Soviet architecture and art is a matter of course.

Today there is a growing interest toward the personality of Georgy Petrovich Schedrovitsky (GP) and the Moscow Methodological Group (MMG). The MMG is sometimes called a sect. In fact, these people offered an innovative and tough school of thinking. The Methodology emerged due to the intellectual ambiance in the USSR that turned into a variation of the totalitarian idiotism, which had only two ways out: either immigration or focusing on independent brainwork. G. P. Schedrovitsky was sure that no one intellectual tradition could surpass the Methodology in power. Today the MMG already exists without GP. But today’s MMG is also different from that of 1967 or 1987. Thus, such questions as “What is Methodology?” and “What place does it occupy in the contemporary thinking?” remain urgent.

Methodological issues of historical research on architecture and town planning of the Soviet period are represented in the article within a new paradigm, which is called by the author ‘a political history of Soviet architecture and town planning’. Its subject is how architects that became ‘government officials’ were made dependent on the power, how housing and town-planning policy was predetermined by external circumstances and how designing was considered as production but not as creation.

The tolerance and ability to smoothly admit borrowings are considered as attributive peculiarities of the Russian culture and the Russian language. Comparison of Confucianism’s fundamentals with corresponding principles of western ideology reveals essential differences between them. The cult of the past (the principle of xiao) and the idea of deep inequality of people (division into junzi and xiaoren) in the Confucian philosophy define the ideology of the architectural and town-planning field. Despite the fact that many construction principles had been established in China long before their European counterparts, in the modern and contemporary times they have slowed down the development of architecture of the region. The article makes a conclusion on mutual complementarity of the western and eastern approaches. The differences in basic principles not only hinder mutual understanding, but also provide prospects for joint development.

The book describes the life and creative activity of Iosif Yulievich Karakis, one of the talented Ukrainian architects of the Soviet period, who designed many buildings, which later became outstanding historic landmarks of architecture of the Soviet period. Iosif Yulievich is featured as a talented teacher, expert in architecture, who had not only deep and stable professional principles, which he did not renounce even in the times of strong ideological pressure, but also human principles, which caused him to make decisions according to his conscience, but not “the demands of the moment”. These principles often had a crucial effect on his destiny.

Hagia Sophia in Istanbul is a great grandmother of all Christian temples. The Muslim period of its history brought a lot of architectural additions and alterations. But none of the latest changes has come close to the highest standards of Byzantine architects.

In the 1960s an architectural school of high international level was established in Irkutsk. It was headed by young specialists, graduates from capital universities. Their activity was very fruitful, but it also drew a mixed reaction among other non-metropolitan “stars” – writers and journalists, who had grown up in Irkutsk.

The article deals with the history and architecture of the Belarusian city of Grodno, one of the ancient cities built up at the intersection of diverse cultures. It provides extensive historical materials on the city and its most outstanding buildings. The author’s personal impressions and photos enliven the text.

The article reviews the dynamics of the spheres of the society, as well as the role of culture as a whole and of arts in building the image of the city. It introduces the notion of “peripherity” (with the reference to G. Stanishev) as a peculiar situation in the modern world, which occurs in opposition to globalization and unification of social flows. The article addresses the question of the resources of the peripheral situation required for development of social systems. The author analyses the role of art in intellectual culture and studies it as a system of world view and practice,which encourages comprehension of the uniqueness of the peripheral places.

In 2013 the foundation stone of a new campus of Ural Federal University was laid in the area of the lakes Shartash and Malyi Shartash. In 2016 its first stage will be put in commission. Construction started despite all compelling comments from ecologists, sociologists, transport specialists and architects. The architecture of premises also triggers a lot of questions among specialists. Building of the new UrFU campus “from scratch” is the third attempt within 100 years to create a student campus in Yekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk) by examples from the West. The first attempt to build the Mining Institute was a failure because of the revolution of 1917. Realization of the Ural Polytechnic Institute campus took 20 years. The future of the new UrFU campus is uncertain, but the construction is going ahead at full speed.

The article reviews the book “Irkutsk in Illustrated Open Letters” by S. Medvedev and V. Kurenkov. This edition is compared to the previous one (1996). The article features the catalogues, text content and the quality of printing. The article places emphasis on consistent consideration of the postcards and its significance for the historical and regional studies, deltiology and architectural restoration.

The article presents a renovation project for the territory of the former silver smelting works (match factory) in Barnaul. The history of the works is given together with the proposed concept of the museum and exhibition complex as an integral part of the tourist-recreational cluster.

The term ‘conversion’ is used in different fields of science and practice. It commonly means rethinking, renewing of the
meaning of something. The emotional content is regarded as a basic meaning of architectural works. The article shows
the connection between emotions and characteristics of informational flows in the society. The parameters of the movement of information in the society (and, as a consequence, the dominant groups of emotions) naturally change over time. The changes are cyclic. Consequently, the dominant type of emotions (style, fashion) cyclically defines the currently dominant meaning of architecture.

The article observes thematic, graphic and semantic peculiarities of the works by Siberian artist Anatoly Pogrebnoy. It discusses the significance of the historical experience of pictorial art and culture for the development of personal creativity. The article describes the peculiar features of the artist’s still lifes, thematic pictures and portraits.

The article considers the aspects of teaching of history and theory of architecture and the relations between humanity and design subjects. The touch point of design and history may consist in consideration of the tasks, which have been facing the architecture throughout its history, and their solutions. The educational result of the course should be not only students’ historical knowledge, but also their ability to analyze projects regardless of the time of their construction.

The article is based on the interview with Frank Gehry conducted by Georgi Stanishev in 1998. The master of deconstructivism reveals the foundations of his creative method, in which his distinctive personality combines with gradual search for an architectural decision in a complex many-sided dialogue. It results in a conversion
of senses not only of the local architectural space, but also of the whole city.

The article presents the history and evolution of the gardens of Sissinghurst Castle. It features the owners of the castle and the styles of some fragments of the garden.

The article covers the history of formation of industrial areas in the urban fabric, from foundation of Irkutsk to the present time. It reviews the key factors that defined allocation of enterprises in certain areas, as well as the influence of the production function on the city development and transformation.