Аннотация
This article reviews the primary ideas that have been proposed about the «ideal city» from the time of ancient civilization to the present, and it draws key findings that are important for comprehending the details of contemporary urban development. The article pays a lot of attention to the social essence of the dynamics of the city, ideas about the ideal organization of urban space and its infrastructure. The comparison of modern models of the ideal city with the views of Plato, Aristotle, Al-Farabi and other thinkers and scientists on the ideal city testifies to the importance of these ideas. The authors consider the evolution of ideas about the geometry of urban space, conditioned by certain socio-ethical, aesthetic, mythological and religious priorities, basic scientific concepts and prevailing worldviews, as well as practical tasks of ensuring the safety of the city. Projects of urbanization and social reconstruction, where the ideas of spiritual and moral transformation of man and society prevail, for all their utopianism, cannot sink into the past. They encourage thinking about the possibility of building models of urban and social reconstruction that meet millennial aspirations for security, justice, the common good, and comfort. The article draws attention to the growing negative consequences of the urbanization process, the need for a serious justification of the policy of formation and development of megacities, its implementation taking into account the principle of multifactoriality.