Urban Waterfronts’ Wilderness as a Space of Engagement

The article presents theoretical considerations on the philosophy of designing and protecting wild urban waterfront spaces. Its goal is to examine the sense of these places in terms of their significance for urban and ecological structures, city social life, as well as for individual human beings. The analysis presented here based on the theory of architecture, environmental psychology and aesthetics, leads to two conclusions. First of all, such spaces are important places for city residents to engage in behaviorally and emotionally. Secondly, when it comes to managing wild water areas in cities, it seems to be more important to create places than to implement a specific project. What seems to matter most in creating such places is an emphasis on their familiarity, openness, effective simplicity and harmony in balancing the requirements of water nature and social life.