Magnetic Places in Riga Soviet Residential Areas

Abstract

This article focuses on magnetic places in Riga Soviet residential areas – locations which are differ from ordinary spaces due to their naturalness, possibility of restoration, perceived beauty and possibility to appropriate such places. This paper utilises two theoretical fields – the one of evolutionary aesthetics in dealing with such elements as prospects and refuges that is crucial for survival, but also phenomenology dealing with mental maps and subjective perception of space. The method in use is semi-structured interviews, since they provide a valuable in situ material for proving a theoretical thought. It can be concluded that the magnetic places that often are as much as 200 m far from the interviewees’ homes are more attractive than the location outside their window. This finding is in stark contrast to Oscar Newman’s Defensible Space Theory. There are also few recommendations for landscape architects included in this text: one of those is to not only invest more resources into the design of magnetic places, but carefully design the ordinary places. The latter should be done not only in order to avoid the arousal of no-go areas in a residential complex, but also because any ordinary space has a potential of becoming a place.