PROJECT RUSSIA №38 - settlements

The American city is high in the middle, but descends quickly to the endless sprawl of suburbia. The Russian city gets higher the further you go from the historical city centre, following the development of prefabricated housing construction technology between 1960 and 1990. The ring road forms a border marking the Soviet city off from the surrounding agricultural landscape, which is scattered with settlements of dachas. Now, however, it is clear that this picture is starting to change. Due to the laws of ‘capitalist realism’, relatively low-rise five-storey housing blocks are being replaced by a new standard - the 25-storey housing block. This is only the beginning of a process by which Moscow's bowl-shaped urban landscape is being transformed: the bowl is now filling up. Within a decade or two, Moscow will be very similar to Asian cities such as Singapore or Bangkok - an endless field of high-rises divided by highways, parking garages, and shopping malls. To what extent this is the result of a conscious urban development policy, an inability to promote alternative models, or simply pure greed is a subject for another issue of PROJECT RUSSIA. What interests us here is what is happening outside the city borders. The fact is that at the start of the 1990s area bordering the megalopolis, left undeveloped because of the Soviets' radical rejection of private construction, presented an incredible resource for the further development of the Russian city. Planning is increasing in scale: instead of individual houses we now see ‘poselki’ – settlements on the scale of the American ‘housing community’. At the same time, developers are inviting architects to draw up plans for much larger units: 600 hectares, 1000 hectares, and satellite cities of 25,000 inhabitants. Alas, this planning process is largely taking place behind closed doors. Even this type of planning is privatised in Russia, and developers are not too keen on public discussions. Still, in the near future we hope to be able to show more of this fascinating process – the design of the Russian suburb. Bart Goldhoorn, editor-in-chief CONTENTS news Anna Bronovitskaya 10th anniversary of our magazine!   Anna Bronovitskaya A club for 300 people: Second try   Irina Korob'ina 1 look into the future with optimism   Anna Bronovitskaya Zodchestvo 2005: contemporary art has won   Anna Bronovitskaya The new beauty of industrial structures   Alexander Zmeul Jubilee nobility   Anna Bronovitskaya Architectural games in Sukhanovo   Yulia Pavlova On a steep turn   Vladimir Sedov Moscow towers in Brussels   Vladimir Frolov Norwegians in St Petersburg   EkaterinaLazareva Stairs and flights of Yury Awakumov   Maria Fadeeva Dialogues on new construction   Bart Goldhoorn Soft sell     Royal Ahrend: Reevaluation of values the Dutch way     Maxlevel: Global change of collection     WWTC sounds the assembly     ROOM: All for the Arch-Hockey   Sergei Sitar Luceplan: Lighting + enlightenment   Yana Soldatenkova Louis Poulsen: Danish collage     Mikhail Filippov architects -     Roman house. Moscow, Kazachy lane     A.Levinson and Partners -     Headquarters of Vizavi bank     Pestov & Popov architects -     Apartment block on Gorky street in Nizhny Novgorod   Anna Bronovitskaya Milano Furniture Fair in Moscow       housing estates Bart Goldhoorn Editorial   Bart Goldhoorn Towards a Russian model of suburbanisation   Alexei Muratov Housing estates outside Moscow: Settlements or colonies for urban evacuees?       objects Alexei Kozyr' Who commissions out-of-town houses     Project Meganom X-Rose, housing estate     Mikhail Belov Residentsii-Monolit, out-of-town settlement     Mikhail Khazanov Architects Housing estate at Serebryany bor     Aleksandr Asadov Architects Barvikha-2, housing estate     Aleksandr Asadov Architects Barvikha-Club, housing estate       concepts Dmitry Shvidkovsky,     Vera Kalmykova Rural condominiums or land to build dachas on?     asse architects Development regulations for Klyaz'minskoe Reservoir Health Resort area     Sergei Skuratov Architects Club 2071, housing estate     a-o.org Ozerna settlement     Tsimaylo Lyashenko & Partners Old Riga, housing estate     Panacom Architects Domino: new life for terraced houses     DNK1 Complex in the grounds of the disused Adler Chicken Farm         Natalia Bronovitskaya Garden settlements in Muscovy: a historical spiral       monitor   asse architects Gallery in the courtyard of the Embassy     of the Great Duchy of Luxemburg in Moscow     Dmitry Geychenko, Sergei Zarubin House in Zhukovka     Vitruvuis & Sons Mania Grandiosa Shoe Salon     DIA Architects Office for Vtorchermet company     ARDEPO Bungalow House in Pervomayskoe settlement       texts Mark Meerovich From the concept of garden city to the concept of sotsgorod   Yury Bocharov Moscow: on the way from authoritarianism to democracy   Alexandre Rappaport Design and crime: essay on the book of Hal Foster       marmoleum's     architecture           technology           project russia catalogue