Work. Change of matter in a city

Abstract

The subject of the paper is a cultural analysis of the phenomenon of work in public space. The conditions of work and its consequences for spatial planning are described. Based on the contemporary urban reality, the growing difficulty of separating work from leisure using traditional criteria, which also affects individual persons, is shown, as it frequently becomes a source of social unrest leading in consequence to various separating practices, or attempts to delineate once again the borders between those two spheres of life. A concept of an open city is also presented, as it constitutes a counterweight to the approach of a functional balance that has been in use so far. Further, examples of relevant contemporary trends in urban development have been offered. Selected issues related to such planning prospects have also been considered. The paper serves as a certain address to architects, urging them to design public place in a manner that accounts for the current transformations in the dynamics and form of work, as a chance for a city to regenerate, reducing at the same time the negative consequences of the permeation of work and leisure, which brings about a threat that social inequalities will simply increase and the vision of even greater social inequalities and exclusion.