The history of European architecture contains many examples of the search for a non-alternative, the only correct approach. For several centuries, the Greco-Roman ancient classics served as such an ideal model. The pictorial fantasies of the architect (in the “architecture parlante” of the eighteenth century), rationality of functionalism, the ironic mixing of styles in postmodernism, the biomorphic curved surfaces of parametricism, and so on, also claimed the role of the ideal. But all attempts to get rid of alternatives and find the only way were unsuccessful. Uncertainty and alternativeness are an integral and necessary attribute of a living and developing architecture.

Thousands of years ago, a system of routes was taking shape across the Eurasian continent, transporting people, goods, ideas and technology from east to west and from west to east. The armies of Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan passed along those routes; caravans of merchants carried silk, porcelain, spices and wisdom books. Today the concept of the Great Silk Road is not just coming to life, but is becoming one of the large-scale ideas for the development of dozens of states, up to the global level. The New Silk Road will be implemented simultaneously along many parallel paths. The southern ones will pass across the territories of Central Asia, Iran and Turkey. The northern routes will mainly run through Russia, including its Arctic territorial waters. These large-scale linear projects represent a major challenge and, at the same time, a tremendous development opportunity for many decades (centuries?) ahead. We start to discuss the New Silk Road by selecting materials on some specific aspects of the project and look forward to discussing it further – as its global nature demands.

The color component of the urban environment is the most flexible and sensitive to changes. Of course, it is easier to repaint façades than to change the street pattern. Especially with the arsenal of tools offered by modern technologies.As lighting of streets and squares changes, facades also become variable, turning into gigantic screens before our eyes. Will we be able to keep the technological break-through within reasonable ethical and aesthetic limits? Experts from Sofia, Moscow and Smolensk are looking for answers to this question.

The 14th Dalai Lama Lhamo Dondrub said that one can achieve happiness in two ways. The first way is external. By acquiring a better dwelling, better clothes, nicer friends, we can achieve happiness and satisfaction to a greater or lesser extent. The second way is the way of spiritual development... But for the architect, spiritual development is inextricably linked to the dwelling, its arrangement and appearance. Probably, only the place where one is happy can be called home. At home even the walls help, my home is my fortress, there is no place like home... The dwelling that a person calls home reflects and preserves his or her image and style of life. Interior painting is an ancient and everlasting way to make a dwelling cosier, friendlier and closer, that is to make it a home. Especially in the case of mass housing, when the houses are initially standard and impersonal. Builders can provide people with square meters of housing, but the houses are often seriously transformed by landlords after their occupancy. How should we deal with these processes? Alejandro Aravena’s projects welcome the self-activity of tenants. Are the standard designs which are now replicated in mass construction ready for this?Our view on a happy house is supplemented by comparing standard housing with unique projects of talented architects (the article about the manor designed by Totan Kuzembaev). Comparing traditions and customs of different and distant cultures helps to see the complex nature of a happy house. It includes not only walls and furniture but also methods of protection against climate extremes, the music playing in the house and the role that the ancient element of fire plays in the house.Not humant hills that oppress the individual, but Houses – stable, worthy of a long life span of generations, and renewable. Like in our favourite books by the Strugatsky brothers, where the most diverse people, regardless of age, education or worldview, find their own, intimate thoughts, we want everyone in our cities to find a place to live and fulfil themselves, a place to be happy.

Теория архитектуры осваивает новые подходы. Программная статья Ларисы Копыловой приводит ответы архитекторов нового урбанизма на вызовы современной цивилизации: постинду- стриальность, экологическй кризис, разрушение исторических городов – и дает эстетическую оценку роли ордерной и верна- кулярной архитектуры в современном традиционном городе. Читатель найдет здесь примеры историзма в национальных школах США, Англии, Франции, Италии и Голландии.Тем временем растет уровень теоретических и практических опытов стран Ближнего и Среднего Востока. Подборка статей от авторов из Иордании посвящена нескольким аспектам этой древней культуры.Статья авторов из Казахстана и Британии представляет своеобразный взгляд на ситуацию в британском городе Кардиффе в плане представлений о социальной справедливости и инклюзивной городской среде. С этим материалом перекликается статья, напоминающая об основах правовых, законодательно оформленных отношениях между жителями города, которые берут свое начало еще в Древнем Риме.Диалог, совместное творчество и взаимное обогащение регионов – вот наиболее перспективный путь развития архитектуры и урбанистики сегодня и завтра.