#5
THE CITY. Breakpoints

The city is one of the most controversial structures of civilization, an integral part of modern culture, often personalised, adored and demonized. It is constantly changing, thriving or declining, it is surprising or disappointing, and the permanent change keeps it as one of the most popular objects of research.

The city and its physical expression is influenced by many factors: historical circumstances, natural conditions, demographics, financial or political power, even individual personalities. So if we consider the city as the system of those elements, the question arises, how is it changing along with changes of the constituents, with their decline or with the appearance of new ones? What other forces act on the cities, what events of the past have defined their present and what awaits them in the future? When this system reaches equilibrium and stability, what are the breakpoints that may dramatically alter or destroy the previous system? Or maybe the city is an organism where critical changes may cause mutations and malformations?