This study explores the connection between humans and nature, distinguishing childhood as the critical period of its formation. Based on these studies, it is argued that early experiences in nature determine not only the formation of an emotional connection with the environment, but also long-term human ecological awareness and psychological well-being. However, urbanization processes, loss of biodiversity and the reduction of natural spaces in cities weaken the opportunities to experience everyday connection with nature, which raises the need to study the cultural, historical and visual roots of this phenomenon. In order to understand the cultural and historical context of this connection, a visual graphical analysis of historical works of art, revealing how nature, children and their interaction were depicted in various periods is conducted. European paintings and other visual sources created from prehistoric times to the 21st century are analyzed. The analysis aims to determine how representations of the relationship between people and nature have changed in various historical periods, what sociocultural meanings these images convey, and how they reflect broader societal changes. A literature analysis was also conducted to understand how the relationship between people and nature has changed over historical periods. Artistic narratives reflect not only the change in the concept of nature, but also society's attitude towards the relationship with the environment. The analysis shows that from early images, in which nature is perceived as the source of human life, to urbanized modern images, the connection with nature is weakening. Based on the results of the study, it is concluded that the connection with nature experienced in childhood is the essential basis of the human-nature relationship, which has a long-term impact on emotional, cognitive, and social development. It is recommended to create more accessible natural spaces in cities, and apply urban strategies that help restore children's daily contact with the natural environment.
In contemporary urban development the quality of public open space, opportunities for social interaction and residents’ well-being have gained importance, while sedentary lifestyles, social isolation and generational segregation have become pressing concerns. In spatial planning, however, playfulness has remained associated almost exclusively with children’s spaces. This paper examines how play elements are integrated into public open space beyond the conventional playground, tests public attitudes towards such integration in Latvia, and proposes an operational framework for design. The study combines a literature review with a purposive comparative analysis of nine international cases and a questionnaire survey of 139 respondents in sixteen Latvian cities across three age groups. Roger Caillois’s four categories of play agôn, alea, mimicry and ilinx are operationalised as spatial design categories and cross-tabulated with four development domains. The comparative analysis indicates that playfulness operates at three non-substitutable levels – policy, process and form, and that the most spatially ambitious cases generate play without dedicated equipment. The survey shows that a large majority in both the adult and adolescent groups regard playfulness as intended for all ages, but that preference is weighted towards elements affording bodily movement and multifunctional greenery over sound-based interactive elements, indicating that internationally celebrated solutions are not uniformly transferable.
Timber occupies a different position in the public realm of Aotearoa New Zealand than it does in most of Europe. It is not principally a warm accent applied to a mineral substructure but a load-bearing, surface-forming and space-defining material, used continuously across decks, edges, seating, terracing and shelters. This paper reports the second phase of a comparative field study of timber in public outdoor space. The first phase surveyed eleven European cities from Oslo to Barcelona; the present phase applies the same photographic and assessment protocol to Wellington, New Zealand. The method combines structured photographic documentation with visual condition assessment and comparative analysis of the standards and chemicals regulation governing outdoor timber in each region. Three arguments are developed. The New Zealand approach is material-led: the timber deck is the public ground plane, and seating, steps and thresholds are generated by folding and thickening that plane rather than by placing discrete furniture on a hard surface. In the surveyed European cities the same operation appears, but almost exclusively within one typology, the harbour bath and its sun deck, while the remainder of the public realm reverts to timber as an applied accent on mineral construction. Because that pattern holds across the full latitudinal range of the European sample, and in small cities as well as capitals, it cannot be read as an adaptation to the northern climate or to municipal budget; it is a design and procurement convention, and therefore open to change. Comparable service lives are reached by different routes: New Zealand makes a fast-grown, nondurable plantation softwood serviceable through a prescriptive hazard-class treatment system, whereas European practice relies on naturally durable species, modified timber and constructive protection, in part because the most effective preservatives have been progressively restricted. Reclaimed timber occupies a narrow but instructive niche: it is technically and narratively attractive, but its use in the European public realm turns less on the gesture of reuse than on the documented provenance of the source stream. In both surveys, observed condition correlated more strongly with detailing than with species or treatment class, and the decisive detail is the junction: how timber meets timber, steel, concrete and ground determines durability, repairability and the prospects for material recovery more than the specification of the board itself. That is the finding most readily transferable to Baltic conditions.
Human survival, health and well-being depend directly on ecosystem services or the benefits humans derive from ecosystems. Regulatory ecosystem services are essential to humans, as they represent services that regulate the environment, such as climate regulation, clean air and water availability, and flood control. Different plants provide ecosystem services in cities, but the authors focus on bryophytes (or mosses) in this article. Moss's ability to provide ecosystem services is represented broadly in the literature, but there is no systematized approach to view them. Therefore, the author's objective of the study is to develop systematization and answer the research question "What ecosystem services provided by mosses to the urban landscape should be included in the systematization of regulating ecosystem services?". To answer the question, authors fulfilled such tasks as analyzing theoretical sources on the ecosystem services provided by mosses in urban landscapes; to develop a systematization of the regulating ecosystem services and benefits mosses provide to the urban landscape, using systemic analysis. After the execution of the analysis, regulatory ecosystem services provided by mosses were prepared in a systematization depicting interactions and implications. Identified ecosystem services provided by mosses that fulfil regulatory services include improving air quality, photosynthesis of CO2 into oxygen, rainwater retention, reduction of the heat island effect, promotion of biodiversity, reduction of noise pollution, and mitigation of the long-term impact of climate change. The research rationale is novel in its outcome, as there is a current gap in knowledge of a structured, systematized summary of regulatory ecosystem services provided by mosses. These finding carry both theoretical and practical value, as they can be used both for study purposes and envidening view on ecosystem services and specific plants providing them; at the same time from practical perspective, this research brings a framework for policy makers, urban planners, and landscape architects on regulatory ecosystem services provided by mosses.
The German occupation of Lithuania, which lasted from 1941 to 1944, was a period that affected all areas of life, including architecture and construction. Thus, the aim of this paper is to present a short, yet dramatic and difficult period in the history of Lithuanian architecture - the development and transformation of public and residential structures amidst the German occupation. The research is based on the study of archival material, literature, and periodicals of that period, as well as recent works on this topic, while the text is supplemented with the design projects of public and residential structures. The article demonstrates that even under the conditions of the German occupation, there was still a strong emphasis on developing public and residential architecture in Lithuania, and the processes regarding the matter were quite actively taking place. As most of the planned structures were not realized at that time, the article assumes that architectural activity during that time can be identified only with the compilation of plans for the needed construction, the development of civil building projects, and theoretical discussions regarding the stylistic properties of Lithuanian architecture.
