Rural character - Patterns of rurality in the public space of country settlements

The research project focuses on the public space in the intravilan of the Czech countryside. The topic of the research is the phenomenon of rurality, the rural character as a value associated with the form of environment of rural settlements. Being aware of the fact that the inhabitants define rurality namely by the form of interpersonal relations, the topic of the research is restricted to the physical aspect of the environment, which by definition participates in shaping the rural character. The objective of the research is to find, evaluate and describe the basic attributes and relations in space which co-create rurality, and to do it in such a way so that these findings could eventually be used in practice - e. g. in the intravilan's public space design in order to strengthen the rurality of the environment. The research project will deal with the visual detail of the Czech countryside's public space, which is an area that has not been separately processed in a scientific manner so far (it lies in the borderland between several specialized disciplines). Its ambition is to provide comprehensive information and technical data about an issue that - despite its current urgency - is not easy to grasp at all.