Urbs et orbis: (Re)charting the center, (re)positioning the limits

Abstract

The paper examines the concept of finiteness and its implications on urban space focusing on the relation between urban(ized) environment, social context and spatiotemporal perception. Furthermore, it analyzes and evaluates various roles which the notion of the center and the limit has had through history - representing an inseparable part of traditional city planning or being completely transformed in order to transmit and express contemporary identity. Considered as a residue of a particular mythical narrative and a distinctive feature of the first philosophical speculations, this concept was rooted in primordial technical matrices of archaic and classical cities, but its latest manifestation has distorted previous models. Consequently, the original significance has been manipulated - shaping a new urban geography as a post-modern, multi-scale setting for our future life. .