Abstract: The subject of this research is the urban communities that provide regular group classes in writing practices. The key research instrument was the method of interview proposed by Steinar Kvale. The goal of interviewing consists in determination and analysis of the reasons why modern citizens choose a leisure activity that involves joint writing followed by group discussion. The respondents became ten attendants of the community “Breakfast with Tesoro Notes” and “Written Practices” (in Perm). This article is methodologically based on representation of the city as a social laboratory pf R. Park, the concept of “a third place” of R. Oldenburg, understanding of communities through communication process proposed by V. Vakhshtayn, and the concept of social solidarity of E. Durkheim. The scientific novelty is defined by insufficient examination within the scientific literature of the phenomenon of urban communities engaged in writing practices . The following conclusions were made: the activity of urban communities engaged in writing practices takes place in public locations, such as cafes in the city center; people of different social status and age can become the participants of such practice,  although such event mostly attract female audience; urban writing practices form a social model, within which the participants establish communication of a supportive type. The main motive for attending the writing practices is the process of self-identification through self-nurturing. Due to the common thesaurus that develops among the participants, the rules and norms of activity that are observed by all participants and form a sense of security, such communities have well-established in the urban life. At the same time, they are open to new people and social processes, which promotes their long existence as a cultural form.

Keywords: social solidarity, self-identification, urban community, urban culture, free writing, writing practices, writing, reader, communication, modern city

Abstract: The goal of this article consists in the demonstration of the distinctness of the principles of distribution of color in space that are contained in the Japanese norms of urban design. The author thoroughly examines the mechanism of formation and perception of the urban coloristics. Special attention is given to the analysis of the link between the norms of urban coloristics and characteristic to the Japanese art culture principles of spatial composition, to which pertains the absence of linearity and symmetry, special attitude to the integral regardless the independent existences of the separate, the idea of cyclic movement, emphasized attention to the opposition between the top and bottom. For solution of the set task, the author uses the method of informal analysis of the documents aimed at interpretation of the actual content, purposes of creation, and context of the Japanese laws that regulate the urban coloristics. The scientific novelty lies in reconstruction of the key principles of mental model, which comprises the foundation of the Japanese urban coloristics. The author’s special contribution is the explanation of the establishment of Japanese norms of urban coloristics towards “closeness” of the space, its “framed” perception, two-dimensionality, as well as temporalization of the color images.

Keywords: legislative regulations, mental model, color design, urban color, city, color, Japan, space, cultural norm, document analysis

Abstract: The subject of this research is the rules that regulate the urban coloristics in Japan. The author’s task and its solution consist in imagining the Japanese norms of color projection in the context of Japanese culture, and thus preserve them from the destructing reflective symmetry ion perception and assessment. The author thoroughly examines the legislative norms of urban coloristics of Japan, and gives special attention to the analysis of connection of the suggested principles of regulation of the urban coloristics with the Japanese aesthetics, as well as with the established in Japanese culture ideas about beauty and color harmony. The main methodological principle which defines the perspective for examining the Japanese model of urban coloristics consists in shifting of the accent from the form of normative documents to the content of the cultural norms that lie in their foundation, which they are the product of. Scientific novelty lies in determination of specificity of the Japanese model of urban coloristics: main idea of the introduced color restrictions, structure and content of the palette, principles and rules of color schemes. The author underlines that the Japanese urban coloristics carries a “nature-imitating” and “self-developing” character, in which the norms of color design as a rule do not specify a strict color scheme, but give to each city resident a choice to choose it.

Keywords: landscape act, model, Japan, color plan, color design, urban coloristics, city, color, legislative regulations, cultural regulations