The Methodology of Ethnographic Analysis of Space in Urban Environmental Design and Its Potential

The article raises the problem of justification of the sociocultural form of urban space, which is central for environmental design. The methodology of ethnographic analysis is involved to address this issue. Its initial position is that the city space acts as a socially constructed and materially embodied phenomenon. The conceptual correlations of the categories of space and place for the analysis of urban environment objects are defined. To guide a potential direction of the ethnographic analysis methodology, this study looks at two approaches: 1) social production of space and artificial environment (built environment) and 2) social construction of space (place making). Ethnographic methods of analysing social production and social construction of space are identified. Practical research of ethnographic analysis of space on the example of objects of urban environment of Blagoveshchensk, Amur Region is given. The design potential of the methodology of ethnographic analysis in the design of urban environment is revealed. The analysis of social production shows the interrelation of historical, economic, political, and sociocultural processes of city territories with their architectural and planning solutions. It reveals macro and microcultural processes of development, gives an explanation of how this or that place has acquired a sociocultural form in a particular point of physical space. The ethnographic analysis of the social construction of space in the methodology of environmental design is intended to reveal the processes of formation of meanings and senses of space (place) and appropriation of space by people.