This article examines the prevalent state of river ecosystems in the forest-steppe area of Ukraine with special focus on preservation methods and the revitalisation of river ecosystems in the coastal territories.

The development of organized green areas in the specific circumstances of New York’s „culture of concentration”1 takes place, among others, in areas whose original function has changed or found a new peripheral location. Many projects related to transport, storage, or freight forwarding have been completed in post-industrial areas. The issue of urban space recycling, besides the basic question of adapting the area to a new function, requires a particular reference to the cultural heritage of the place, including its material legacy, which is sometimes difficult to preserve and expose. This article presents characteristic examples of urban recycling in particular districts of New York where the new function of a city park has been overlaid on unused areas, while preserving their characteristic environmental circumstances and cultural identities.

The article analyses the origin of a peculiar phenomenon of glamour in different fields of human life and in various types of art. Based on the analysis of the source base, a direct connection of the appearance of glamour with the emergence of a new elite in the political arena was proven. The article has analysed the manifestations of glamour in interior design; it presents an assessment of this phenomenon and examples of the modern interior in the style of glamour.

This article identifies specific features of the interiors of the mosques of Persia and Maghreb which embody the best artistic achievements of different times. The relevance of this topic is connected with the fashion for the use of modernised oriental motifs in modern architecture. Examples of ornamental finishing of mosques of Persia and the Maghreb countries illustrate two opposite approaches to decorating and interior design, which originally developed in mosques from a single prototype – the Arabic hypostyle mosque.

Architectural archetypes, which can be defined as a timeless reference of the relevant typology of buildings, are labelled as such through purely intellectual appraisals. Their conceptual qualities do nonetheless translate into the design principles which have the potential to be used as guidelines of spatial definition. The contemporary American architect Louis I. Kahn, whose works are renowned for creating links with the built heritage, has adopted the notion of the archetype into his personal design philosophy. By means of studying a selection of his designs, this paper will try to explain what an archetype is and how it influences the architectural design. Moreover, it aims to show that deriving inspiration from the archetype is important in terms of creating unique places.

Typical mirrored interiors of Iran from the eighteenth to the beginning of nineteenth century are discussed in this article. Aesthetic, plastic, architectural and design peculiarities of such places in the Persian tradition are researched using examples of the Golestan and Saadabad royal complexes in Tehran, religious sights of Qazvin (the holy place Hossein Imamzadeh grave mosque and Friday mosque); the mausoleum of the descendant of Abraham, the prophet Keydar in Ostan-e Zanjan; the Sayed Alaeddin Hussein mosque, the Shah Cheragh mosque (blue or mirrored mosque), and Ali Ibn Hamzeh mausoleum in Shiraz. Peculiarities of the addition of mirrored sculptural elements, precious stones and silver plates to amalgamated glass in such complexes are clarified.

Postmodernism established the term ‘complexity’ as crucial for the twentieth century theory of architecture. Interdisciplinary complexity sciences developed independently throughout half of the century. The article tracks down relationships between the two, highlighting, among others, common genesis (Herbert A. Simon’s complex systems theory, adopted by Robert Venturi and Christopher Alexander) and theorists depending heavily on complexity sciences (eg. Lucien Kroll or Nikos Salingaros).

The Planty Garden in Cracow is the belt of greenery around The Old Town, that was formed in 19th century. Over the years the garden’s composition has been changed but independently of those changes, ‘green ring’ is one of the most important and valuable public greenery in the city. As an integral part of the Historic Centre of Cracow the Planty Garden was scheduled into UNESCO World Heritage List. This work shows character of those transformations with reference to beauty principles changes.

Global trends in the revaluation of wine culture and the importance of viticultural landscapes have led to a new era of wine architecture which celebrates its relationship with the landscape; a new era where the philosophy of considerateness and ‘fit into the character of the landscape’ or “adaptation to the existing landscape” has top priority. The main focus of our research is to analyse if this new trend – “the quest for integration of architecture into the landscape” – is valid in each case. To perform this study, three recently built examples of remarkable wine architecture were selected; these are owned by prominent entrepreneurs and designed by three world-famous designers and located in the same, valuable and protected viticultural landscape. The research goal is to discover how the professional, highly commended architects faced this challenge. Did they intend to subordinate the wineries within the landscape or did they intend to make a contrast and mark the territory in order to represent their personal artistic style as a brand? Did they treat the surrounding viticultural landscape as inspiration for their architectural concepts or as a background? Are these new wineries a part of the surrounding landscape or are these distinct and separate objects from it?

Issues relating to the shaping, care and protection of cemeteries are a multi-faceted issue due to the specificity of this type of space. In particular, it is a difficult subject for deserted bands located on the territory of the cultural and national borderland. The article will present two cemeteries, Jewish and Evangelical, created in the 19th century in the area of the modern boundaries of the village of Głogówek in Upper Silesia. These will be compared in order to determine their state of preservation, contemporary cultural reception, value indications and methods of protection. Selected teams, which are now closed, are characterised by a comparable period of their establishment, their location, and their similar surface area. Generally, in the case of both of the cemeteries in the region, there are no churches of denominations in question.

The main function of Sunni mosques in Algeria is to unite the community of believers – the so-called Ummah. This is in contrast to Christian churches, which are symbolic houses of God, in which the earthly world connects with the heavenly sphere. According to the teachings of Islam, every place is suitable for conversation with God, and building is a waste of time and money. Mosques have appeared over the years. Initially, a simple model of a courtyard dedicated to the prayer of Prophet Muhammad in Medina turned into a complex and luxuriously arranged building. As places of collective prayer, mosques are not only religious but also social. Currently, they are also adapted to be public facilities such as schools or hostels for pilgrims.

The term ‘commerce in the times of the Polish People’s Republic’ brings back memories of empty shelves (or filled with only vinegar and mustard), Pewex shops and ‘organising’ different commodities. However, it can be seen as a paradox that in years 1945–1989, many interesting commercial buildings were built. In this article, a subjective choice of the most interesting commercial buildings of Warsaw is presented and their post-transformation history is briefly summarised. The authors consider the disturbing tendency to displace post-war architecture from public spaces and attempt to identify the possible causes of this situation.

The legacy of the European secession from China is a lot of objects with different functions. Just like in Western Europe, the spread of the Art Nouveau style in Chinese cities was influenced above all by the economic factor – the development of trade with Europe and Russia, which led to the spread of the European tradition of modernist and Art Nouveau architecture. The Art Nouveau style of a Chinese architect combined the activities of several foreign cultures (German, including both the northern and southern regions; Russian; English; French; Portuguese) with the centuries-old traditions of China in many ways.

This article analyses the commonality of trends in fine art and architecture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the examples of the legacy of Wilhelm Kotarbiński, Arnold Böcklin, Oleksandr Verbytsky and Valerian Rykov it is proven how antique subjects were creatively reconsidered in the age of historicism-eclecticism and modern art. The difference between the paintings and bas-reliefs of the late 19th and early 20th centuries from the Greek images is analysed and the main features of the legacy of famous artists are determined. The distribution of a specific kind of national romanticism in Russia – the neo-Russian style of Abramtsevo and Talashkino – is characterised.

This article considers modern trends in the of development of intermodal passenger transport systems as factors influencing the formation of maritime passenger terminals (MPT). The paper describes the main intermodal factors that influence the structure of passenger terminals: master plan, functional organisation and formation of internal space. The article is supplemented with proposals for the reconstruction of the passenger terminal in port Odessa and its further adaptation to intermodal technologies.

A “landscape dominant element” – an object with the greatest range of visual impact on the surrounding space, of a strong form that integrates the whole composition, distinguished by its height, dimensions, colour, material, texture or a variety of details. These attempts to define the concept, which is intuitively perceived as obvious, illustrate its ambiguity. They bring to mind a visual contrast between this subject and others that surround it. This article attempts to analyse views using the author’s computer program. The objects in the photos are characterized by their interference in a panorama silhouette or skyline, size, colour, height, and shape. This helped to identify those that clearly stand out from the other forms, with which they come into visual interaction. The purpose of these considerations is to create tools that allow for a partial objectification of the landscape composition assessment.