SOVIET HOUSING REDEVELOPMENT Location: Siauliai, Lithuania Edmundas Jankevicius Advisor: Michael McCloskey
Housing large numbers of people with comfort, privacy and affordability remains a challenge for today`s architects, as does the issue of how to build sustainably. Successful housing projects suggest that besides comfort and affordability, social interaction was of crucial importance for a thriving community. Over the past few decades, manufactured housing rapidly decayed and gained a bad reputation because of its plain design, small apartments, relationship to the neighborhood and high maintenance costs, while in some countries manufactured housing was reinvented and successfully implemented. Former soviet block countries changed rapidly over the past two decades and so should their attitude towards communal living and premanufactured housing. To explore these issues I redesigned an existing housing block in a town of Siauliai, Lithuania. My personal experience living in a soviet apartment gives me a unique advantage of exploring personal and communal spaces as well as surrounding landscapes and infrastructure that were inspired by The Garden City movement. Particular importance in the design will be given to thresholds as places of change, and continuity as well as forming a local identity that juxtaposes plain degrading soviet architecture. Other important issues to be explored include: implementation of garden city movement ideas, sustainable building design and the change between open-closed and personal-communal.
In my vision of housing for the 21st century Lithuania, human scale and pedestrian circulation has the priority which dominates throughout the neighborhood connecting housing, schools, transportation and shopping nodes. Building expression through pagan symbols and vernacular building materials will celebrate human integrity with nature which dominated in Baltic culture.
SOVIET HOUSING
I I
Soviet apartments in Cuba
Soviet apartments in Mongolia
Soviet apartments in East Berlin
In 1950`s when Soviet Union was experiencing a boom in industrialization, hundreds of thousands of housing units were built from prefabricated building blocks or concrete panels. The buildings had standard specifications and were developed in various locations ranging from China to Berlin and all the way to Cuba, without addressing local context, climate or culture.
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LOCATION
Lithuania
Located in Eastern Europe between Latvia, Poland and Belarus
25 212 sq. miles
Population: 3 million
Temperate climate
Access to Baltic Sea
Pennsylvania (US) (119,283 sq.km) is 1.83 times as big as Lithuania (65,300 sq.km)
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KEY ISSUES
Design a courtyard that can be easily observed from the surrounding apartments
Preserve existing and connect new bike lanes and pedestrian paths to make a continuous path system
Overloaded parking lots should be relocated underground to minimize impervious surface area and allow more space for the courtyards
Create safe playgrounds away from car traffic
Preserve pedestrian and bike paths that connect to lakes outside of town
Develop the playgrounds to be accessible and visible from the surrounding buildings
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CASE STUDIES Habitat 67
Prefabricated units were assembled on site similarly like mass produced Soviet housing, except, Habitat 67 had 18 different unit types that were arranged in a complex order creating unusual and intricate spaces. Some of those spaces were successfully utilized as common areas and private patios, and others created unnecessary voids and very ample surface area degrading building efficiency.
The building has 3 cores for vertical circulation, as well as horizontal circulation with adjacent common areas providing good stimulus for social interaction.
Viravent Apartments
Unite d`Habitation
A courtyard separates two buildings of a similar scale as proposed in my project. Two levels of parking for residents are located underneath the courtyard and can be reached by taking an elevator under the building. Buildings have large balconies with mechanical sun shading and are enclosed in dark panels that contribute to energy efficiency of the building.
Long, straight through apartments let the residents take advantage of different sun positions. Each apartment has a balcony and great cross ventilation. A two story open area lets ample sunlight in the apartments. The building is raised on piers to avoid having apartments at ground level.
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EXISTING BUILDINGS 1-464-15 SERIES
1-464-18 SERIES
1-464-52 SERIES
Existing buildings have small apartments ranging from 350 to 700 square feet. Buildings 5 stories or lower do not have elevators. Each apartment has a balcony. Basement level has dedicated storage for each apartment. The buildings are heated by a central heating system and all apartments are controlled by one valve the supplies heat to all the radiators in the building.
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CLIMATE
Heating degree days (base 65F): 7,027
Precipitation (year): 23.6 in
Cooling degree days (base 65F): 381
Sunshine hours (year): 1784
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SITE ANALYSIS
Raised pedestrian crosswalks with different pavement, woonerfs and dedicated school zones would improve pedestrian safety and slow car traffic
Minimize impervious surfaces with pervious pavement, combine pedestrian and vehicular traffic with woonerfs and/or move surface parking to underground garages
Existing green spaces between the buildings and current building placement suggest public or semipublic courtyards, or squares which can be achieved without major changes in master planning or changing street grid.
Shopping centers, schools and bus stops are the most important nodes for pedestrian circulation and every building should have a convenient access to them.
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ENERGY
One of most common complains of soviet building users is the energy cost for heating. People choose to move outside the city to live in a single house that has contemporary autonomous heating systems that save up to 90% on heating bills. Source: Siauliai Regional Administration
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CONCEPT
Archeological findings
Cultural identity
Symbols
Lithuania doesn`t have a significant architectural identity, although it has a rich mythology which was the basis for the architectural concept. Archeological findings from IV-V BCE tell us a story about pagan gods, and daily life of people through symbolism. One of the key animals worshiped by pagans was Zaltys (Grass snake) who is considered a household spirit in the Lithuanian mythology. A sacred animal of the sun goddess Saule, it is a guardian of the home and a symbol of fertility. People used to keep it as a pet by the fireplace or other special area of the house, believing that it would bring good harvest and wealth. Grass snake kept at the heart of the household (fireplace)
Snake as guardian of the eggs
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DIAGRAMS
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MATERIALS AND SYSTEMS
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SECTIONS
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FLOOR PLANS
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SITE PLAN
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BIRDS EYE VIEW
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DESIGN
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DESIGN
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