On the condition of post-(communist) urbanism and urban public squares in Lithuania

ENAt first sight, the term “post-communist” may look no longer relevant and quite speculative, especially when talking about the transformation processes of urban spaces in Europe and at the beginning of the 21st century, in particular. But its relevance becomes obvious, when we start comparing the urban development processes in the West and sociocultural and socioeconomic transformations typical to the Eastern European countries. It may seem that transformations of the sociocultural context conditions encompassing such characteristics as social order, locality, social mentality, culture and its expression forms have taken place in these countries a long time ago, and their results are evident, thus making any discussion on the post-communist condition the matter of the past. But when taking a closer look at the urban contexts and nature of still existing problems in the former communist block countries, especially their urban public squares, the reality of the post-communist condition and its transformations, as well as the fact of dealing with its after-effects, are obvious. To cut it short, the problems of urban development and planning, including public space formation, typical to the post-communist countries, still exist and the ways of their solution still are rather peculiar. On the one hand, many post-communist cities, especially the capital ones, have obtained features typical to the Western sociocultural space in the accelerated way, experienced their image brandifications and have not avoided some of the urban planning errors, quite common in the Western European cities of the 1970s and 1980s (e.g., unnatural densification of downtown areas and building the capitalist business “sanctuaries” in them). On the other, these typicalities are present not only on the macro, but also micro levels of the urban structure, such as public space, the need for and quality of which is constantly increasing.