ABSTRACT
Multi-scale urban layouts of space create definite values, but also reveal the mechanisms of social behaviours and relations with space. The scale of modern cities and their multi-functionality results in the fact that it is difficult to find durable social standards obliging all inhabitants and reconciling all interested parties, especially in view of an increasing role of neo-liberalism and relativism. However, there are examples of smaller settlements, implemented by and for smaller social groups and functioning in accordance with the superior values system. This is particularly true as far as the relations between local communities and the natural environments are concerned,
1 INTRODUCTION
The problems and threats that city inhabitants have to face nowadays lead to a continual search for ideal solutions that could measurably improve the quality of life. Utopia is a foundation of various urban development ideas, as it proclaims the creation of a new social order and the assumption of commonly shared ethical values [Pańków, 1990, p. 170]. A considerable number of theoretical concepts of future cities entail solutions aimed at ecological problems associated with the connections between social and spatial concepts. Thus, they are closely related to utopian ideas. Visions of virtual cities and eco-city concepts are based on the Sustainable Development principles, often aspiring to the idea of utopian metropolis. They are successive attempts at creating an ideal city, perceived in terms of architectural and aesthetic solutions. Undoubtedly, they look for new solutions as far as the equilibrium between the natural and the anthropogenic environments are concerned: referring to a certain degree to the utopian desire for harmony between man and nature-which is a key issue in the majority of ecological concepts of cities and housing estates. According J. Wines: The objective of (green settlements-the author’s com-
which makes them similar to utopian assumptions. Moreover, the concept of the functionality of such separate communities is grounded on social relations based on a new social order and prioritizing the well-being of the community over specific individual benefits.
