fences

Abstract

After the Public Spaces (PB 35), it is the right time to speak about fences. Space and fencing. We, the members of the editorial board, probably suffer from an acute form of agoraphilia – the love for an open space, a wide and open world made us talk about it (82). Our cities suffer from agoraphobia, a fear of open spaces, and its complication – fencephilia. Chekhov’s claustrophobia brought him to Sakhalin and gave widely cited descriptions to many Siberian cities. Irkutsk, unlike Tomsk, for example, was called “a cultured city… Almost Europe!” But not every Irkutsk citizen knows that this quotation is cut short. When using the word ‘cultured’, the writer meant the absence of “nasty fences, absurd advertisements and wastelands where signs prohibit stopping”. However, after 100 some odd years, “the cultural layer has grown, and the cultural level has dropped”. Why? Let’s return to education. Alexander Rappaport opens discussion about a school of the future (30). This issue comprises international and Siberian architectural events (14). And many good and different fences. Good fences are represented in the collection of articles on fences of all times and nations. The hot times of fencing are analyzed in the article by psychologist Konstantin Lidin (72).