Urban Ruins: Visuality of Social Meanings

Abstract

Architectural ruins in the context of the urban landscape carry many meanings and functions: they reflect changes in fashion, security, cultural values, and show the peculiar struggle of urbanization and the “recapture” of abandoned places by plants and animals. The article offers an analysis of the perception of architectural ruins in modern urban everyday life. Conceptualization is built through such functions and properties of urban ruins as providing a symbolic refuge for representatives of certain groups and symbolizing cultural trauma, i.e. trauma of a social group bound by a common culture and solidarity Based on the observations, the authors describe two cases: the ruins of the unfinished military camp “Olgino” in St. Petersburg and the ruins of the “Enthusiast” cinema in Moscow. Some recommendations are provided for researchers interested in studying urban ruins.

Keywords

• ruins
• sociology of architecture
• informal groups
• aestheticization
• cultural trauma