(RE)ASSEMBLED CITY ONDREJ JANKU ondra.janku@gmail.com
Fictional Map of (Re)Assembled City 2
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Based on typologies detected in the research: 1 Rurban development; 2 Gated Countryside; 3 Entrance settlements; 4 Coctail typologies; 5 Lines of a New Life
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Introduction 2 4 5
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4 3 The project is looking at patterns of cohabitation in the Moscow Region. It discovers that as the existing system of planning produces a lot of designs and schemes, other things that nobody keeps tracing are happening at the same time. One would say that everything there have been already mapped and discovered. However, the territory is changing so years ago is far from the image of the Moscow Region now and it is worth researching it again. There is, in a way, new terra incognita of 21st century appearing in from of our eyes. New patterns of cohabitation are emerging as a clash of informal and formal planning that is too stiff to react to quickly changing lifestyle of citizens. Changing demand for the quality of life, proximity to the city makes the building activity in the suburbs
anarchy that are almost prevailing
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Perhaps, the chaos in the Moscow Region is actually a beginning of the new order that is yet to be understood. While detecting these patterns I am trying to imagine what the city, in which those patterns will be exploited to their best abilities, will look like. And, perhaps, the system of planning can also rethink existing suboptimal results and help the city to reassemble into new optimised and user’s oriented urban condition.
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(Re)Assembled City is a prediction based on very particular method. There are Certain signals and chemical reactions happening in the territory of Moscow Oblast that are in the project exaggerated and interpolated to the near future in order to make the prediction credible and clearly readable already today.
system cannot simple overlook it. It would be missed opportunity not to try to learn from forces of
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Growing Metropolis
Unlike a movement in some other big European cities, Moscow expands out of its border rather then upwards and inwards.15 The city planning and system of governance of the Moscow Region, together with the geographical characteristics of the territory, allow a lowdensity, horizontal expansion. Moscow has changed the boundaries - it has new territory in the South-West. Since agglomeration tends to be uniform in all directions, it is not necessary to consider this sector as the only possible direction of development. It is a pilot project, eventually to be extended to all sectors of the circle.16 Meanwhile, suburbs and surrounding territories are being conquered by new development and settlements of different kinds initiated both system. These fast-changing and organically growing areas around the city often result in a suburban sprawl, which negative feature of urbanisation. Arguments opposing urban sprawl run the gamut from health and environmental issues to more abstract consequences involving neighbourhood vitality.17 Other
criticised elements include visual intrusion, a lack of legibility, sub-optimal functionality. However, speaking about residences built formally or informally, for better quality of life, the suburb cannot only be regarded as negative. Whereas the inner superimposed layers of history and different interests, growing suburbs create quite a vivid picture of contemporary urban lifestyle and changing trends. Interestingly, the inventory of typologies that already exist or that are now being build in Moscow Region is rather limited. On the list are clusters of expensive villas and gated communities, dacha colonies of different kinds, residential high-rise buildings from different periods, old rural settlements and renovated cottage houses, commercial zones around the ring road, storage units and fenced-off zones that belong either to the state or to private companies.18 All that is scattered around the Moscow Region has simply found the most convenient spot between state forest zones, natural reserves, military zones and agricultural
land. What was previously a clearly recognisable border between urban and rural has been transformed into a landscape of urban and/or rural pockets. Sometimes they merge into a soup of disparate units and sometimes they stay tightly pressed against each other, setting physical borders between the incompatible patterns of cohabitation they represent. Studying this suburban growth not from the top-down position of the from the position of the users of the listed typologies, will help to decipher the organic and seemingly incidental growth. There are good intentions, reasons, forms of logic and even of beauty in the existing situation. An understanding of the citizens’ values and intentions will reveal potentials and possibilities for future formal user-oriented development. Today’s clash and future balance. 15 Andy Asbury, Cities Expanding Up not Out, 2013. Source: www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/71895/ real_estate/cities_expanding_up_not_out.html 16 A. Gnezdilov, “I can not imagine Moscow just inside ru/article/gnezdilov-interview/ Brno, 2012 18 An interview with Nikita Tokarev, Moscow, 2013
Fig: Odintsovo, Moscow Oblast. Source: odinews.ru/news/ V-Odintsovo-obsudili-genplan
Towards new patterns of cohabitation
The case studies, including Exposure 1: Lines of New Life, are exposing patterns of cohabitation related to currently the most fast-changing, emerging or disappearing settlements in the Moscow Region that arguably present the biggest potential for current and future development of the area.
not meet the user’s needs and where the gaps in the system are found in order to accommodate the missing values. Such categorisation also shows the sub-optimal mode of both formal and informal systems that cannot provide ideal conditions and underpins the urgency to react to the resulting situation.
From the user’s perspective, the
Following case studies are exposing some of many phenomenons and patterns of cohabitation, that although overlooked or considered as negative, have major impact on forming the city fabric and environment around Moscow. The case studies focus on gated communities around the city and a trend of inverted tourism, worker’s villages, new rural commuters and urbanised countryside, dacha settlements dependent on Moscow and the cultural landscape they create.
into series of values met or systems. Categorising values from paying taxes in the city, health conditions, connectivity to nature, independence from commuting, commercial amenities and work opportunities in the place of residence, ownership of a dacha under electricity power lines and the cultivation of cultural landscape, helps to map
Fig: Moscow Oblast. Foto: Anastassia Smirnova
Opportunities Changing demand for the quality of life, the city makes the building activity in the opportunity not to try to learn from the seeming chaos in the Moscow Region that could actually be a beginning of the new order that is yet to be understood. New, (Re)Assembled City.
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Area and scope:
Foundings:
LINES OF A NEW LIFE ONDREJ JANKU ondra.janku@gmail.com
Exposure 01 - Lines of New Life Settlements under electricity power lines
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Fig: The Moscow Region, 2012 Source: Google Map
Fig: The Moscow Region, 2012. Source: Google Map
Fig: The Moscow Region, 2012. Foto: Ondrej Janku
Fig: The Moscow Region, 2012. Foto: Ondrej Janku
Fig: Settlements under electricity power lines near Ivanteevka, Moscow Oblast
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Private houses
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Fig: Evolution of settlements under electricity power lines in Moscow Oblast
Fig: Sanitary zones around electricity power lines
Fig: Settlements near Ivanteevka, Moscow Oblast - Cadaster Map
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Fig: Settlement under electricity power lines, Moscow Oblast, Norht-West
Fig: Nazca Plain, Peru. Source: sciencedoing.blogspot.ru
GATED COUNTRYSIDE & ENTRANCE SETTLEMENTS ONDREJ JANKU ondra.janku@gmail.com
Exposure Gated Communities, Inverted Tourism “The transition from the Soviet to the post-Soviet period in and around Moscow manifested itself in increasing production of segregated space both in the urban core and suburban areas to accommodate the preferences of the new Russian business and governmental elite. Approximately 260 of such suburban communities of single-family housing have been developed within 30 km from Moscow ring road during the past few years (written 2006), of which a majority have some form of exclusion mechanism. However, only about 11% of Russia’s upper class claimed to live in such new cottages, with the rest owning condos and luxury apartments in the inner city or older detached homes in villages and small towns. Therefore, not all the needs have been accommodated and more development is certain to take place”.24 Related to the text above, from 1991 to 2001 almost 22% of suburban ‘green belt’ has been
Fig: Zavidovo Resort. Source: www.zavidovo.com
converted to new construction. Current new construction is now focusing on the remaining fragments of natural vegetation, which will likely lower air quality and water quality available for the city. Ironically, the new developments advertise themselves as ‘clean and green’ with massive investments in unnatural landscaping. This investment highlights the wellknown paradox of development in which people move out of town to live near nature, while destroying the wild nature they come to enjoy.25 However, in many cases the wild nature is not exactly that kind of ‘clean and green’ that the investment counts on. Achieved freedom together with an international tourism, life of worlds celebrities and living abroad set the trend of the development of high-end suburban complexes inside the borders of a country: For the basis of a successful scene of freedom,
housing estates takes pictures of aristocratic life from the West. But not only luxury houses are build to remind of foreign architecture styles or even particular buildings but also a landscape surrounding villas are false. It is a completely new reality brought to Moscow. ‘Nowadays, after a half-hour journey by car in the Moscow Region, one can stand in the shoes of a privileged foreigner. From this perspective, a drive through the Moscow Region could remind one of sightseeing around the world: Little Italy, Monaco, Belgium, Benelux, Baden Baden can by now be found only 30-40 km away from Moscow’.26 However, all these locations are encapsulated in impenetrable bubbles of security, which are only accessible to residents and selected guests. The perception of freedom is twisted. An archipelago of dreamlands scattered around the Moscow Region prevents free access to people who cannot afford to pay. Former nature reserves and summer leisure
destinations are being placed out of their reach.27 And inversely, those who can afford to pay are becoming voluntary prisoners in a delusional world of what seems like freedom. One of those encapsulated bubbles currently under construction is Agalarov Estate. Located just 24 km from Moscow, next to Novorizhskoe highway, it describes itself as a symbol of a new form of civilisation.28 This suburban complex is designed in such a way that a kilometre of land before the approaching houses is left vacant despite the extremely high cost of the land. This 300-hectare zone not only creates protected sanctuary with trees, water features and a golf course, but more importantly serves as a buffer zone from any visual or mental intrusion coming from the imperfect reality of the postSoviet countryside of cowsheds, dachas and poverty. Long before construction, landscape architects
the various eco-zones, developed a special drainage system, began to remove insects and rodents from the area, and have planted more than 8,000 large trees.29 In another words, they have changed the place into another place and prevented it from having any confrontation with its original model. To enhance the level of inequality, and therefore
exclusivity, the owners of the estate set special rules of private life that free users from making decisions. According to the owners, everything is arranged so that one is surrounded by peace and happiness. Taking ownership of this land, one feels a commonality with those who share with them its boundless and amazing space.30 The phenomenon of gated communities could be regarded as strong transformative tool for
Fig: Agalarov Estate. Source: www.agalarovestate.com
planning in and protecting the countryside. Although it needs to be turned into a conceptual project with a long-term policy and a vision that is relevant for the urban development around the Russian capital. Currently, being mostly ruled by private companies
balancing on the edge between the formal and informal systems, it grows organically with often very sub-optimal results that are
24, 25 M. Blinnikov, A. Shanin, N. Sobolev, L. Volkova; Gated communities of the Moscow green belt: newly segregated landscapes and the suburban Russian environment, 2006
26 Anton Ivanov, Neo-Dacha Freedom Kit, 2010 27 E.g. Serebryany Bor Island in western Moscow 28, 29, 30 Agalarov Estate, Moscow Source: www. agalarovestate.com/en/about/
development, nor for preserving the countryside.
Proposal Gated Nature and Entrance Settlements Different notions connected with celebrating and preserving the natural beauty of the Russian countryside could be also observed in the development of gated communities in green areas around Moscow. Exposure 03 Gated Communities and Inverted Tourism has proven that these settlements have an extreme transformative power, where foreign landscapes conquer Russian countryside from within to accommodate the desires of the rich. Although the new Capitalist landscape of suburban Russia is segregated according to a different principle of connectedness to the new postSocialist elite, gated communities have a long tradition in the country and are an inevitable part of Russian culture.46 Unfortunately, the way gated communities are built and the treatment of the landscape inside the fence, is subject to trends coming from abroad, resulting in replacing anything local including topography and vegetation by alien identity from foreign countries (see Inverse Tourism). However, changing the mindset of people by promoting Mother Russia back into fashion might turn the focus on foreign values back towards the home country. After all, patriotic relationship to Russian countryside and its natural beauty is imbedded in Russian culture and has an even longer tradition then gated communities. Reintroducing it as a revivalist trend and as being the only true identity of the country would be the right trigger to turn replacement and degradation into celebration and
preservation. Perhaps the culture of fences is now reaching its milestone, when negatives such as segregation from controlled masses, exacerbating the level of inequality or restricted access to land can turn to positives. Providing work opportunities, preventing land from devastation and allowing limited access could become a new programme connected with phenomenon of gated countryside. A similar notion of preserving natural topography is already visible in larger gated communities of the white rich around the Johannesburg metropolitan area in South Africa. chosen sites with natural beauty amenities which attract and differ from one another. The standard of houses built is similar, but the natural elements are unique. In the scale and speed of the development, an interesting phenomenon could be observed: gated communities create a continuous zone of fences natural features from being swallowed by urban sprawl of different kinds.46 The scale and location of gated communities in and around Moscow could eventually help preserve or even reintroduce the disappearing ‘green belt’. As in Johannesburg, different types of gated communities with different levels of services and access could be introduced and limited access to ‘nature reserves’ could be provided on a similar basis as access to some national parks in Europe.
Fig: Zavidovo Resort. Source: www.zavidovo.com
Fig: Gated communities, Johannesburg, South Africa. Source: Karina Landman, Lecture: Urban enclosure in South Africa, Pretoria, 2013
But that is only one part of the story. Russian gated communities as well as those in South Africa are largely dependent on the city. Commerce, work, going to school and dependence on commuting are needs that the gated complex cannot provide. It is neither big nor dense enough to function as South Africa, there is a new trend in Johannesburg and Pretoria of development of small nodes of commercial and retail just outside the gates of closed communities, since there are very few commercial activities inside. Residents approaching gates to the complex can drive in between two arms of commercial façades, before crossing a secure border. Additionally, staff and people working for the rich cannot afford to live in secure zone, but often cannot afford to commute daily, either. As a result, informal settlements are emerging on the periphery of these estates. However, these are not just the homes of low-income workers but also gardeners, housekeepers, chefs, teachers and the lower middle class.48 It is an interesting play between the rich escaping from supposedly dangerous conditions in the city and those they wanted to get rid of – but they have become mutually 46 M. Blinnikov, A. Shanin, N. Sobolev, L. Volkova; Gated communities of the Moscow green belt: newly segregated landscapes and the suburban Russian environment, 2006
dependant. Workers’ villages near construction sites in suburbs of Moscow are generated through a similar set of needs. In the case of rural settlements converted to new enclaves of the city, migrant workers temporarily supplement former permanent inhabitants (see Exposure 04 Worker’s Villages, Rural Commuters and Urbanised Countryside). Gated communities and emerging informal towns can help in the redistribution of migrant workers and offer them seasonal work opportunities in various sectors, as an alternative to working on construction sites. Different job opportunities can better meet the different professional backgrounds that migrants are coming from. New informal towns and nodes, generated by the sub-optimal state of gated communities, are emerging. Such a situation is reminiscent of a cluster of medieval fortresses, with the villages outside the walls looking for work opportunities and protection. In this case, however, the biggest treasure of the oligarchy living inside is an empty space and natural landscape that is so quickly being swallowed by fast urbanisation outside.
47, 48 Karina Landman, Lecture: Urban enclosure in South Africa, Pretoria, South African Republic, 2013
Fig: An entrance to a gated estate attracting commercial amenities and informal settlements to settle outside the gate.
Supporting gated communities will equal protecting the green belt around Moscow. Perhaps, the culture of fences is now reaching its milestone when negatives such as segregation from controlled masses, exacerbating the level of inequality or rejected access to land can turn to positives. Providing working opportunities, preventing land from devastation and allowing limited access could become new program connected with phenomenon of gated countryside.
New informal towns and nods generated by suboptimal state of gated communities and emerging. Such situation remind of a cluster of medieval fortress and villages outside the walls looking for work opportunities and protection. In this case, however, the biggest treasure of the oligarchy living inside is an empty space and natural landscape that is so quickly being swollen by fast urbanisation outside.
RURBAN SETTLEMENTS ONDREJ JANKU ondra.janku@gmail.com
Exposure - Worker’s Villages Rural vs. Urbanised Countryside
According to the World Bank, some 4-9 million migrants in Russia are workers; 80 per cent of whom come from the nine countries of the former Soviet Union with which Russia maintains a visa-free regime. Approximately 40 per cent of migrant workers are employed in the highly unregulated construction sector.31 In Moscow and the Moscow Region, migrant workers cover 90 per cent of
employees of construction companies.32 The rapid expansion of Moscow predetermines the construction sites to be mainly located on its outskirts and suburban areas, where migrant workers represent a noticeable part of the population. If possible, workers stay in hostels or shared apartments. But in many case they are bound to live directly on construction sites in
workers’ villages33 or in shanty towns on the outskirts of Moscow. Seven per cent of workers that are employed informally are included in this category.34 A typical migrant construction worker travelling to Russia is a young man aged 18-39, who leaves his family in his home country and enters Russia for six to nine months of seasonal employment,
often for many years in a row. Migration for work is a long-term life strategy.35 And so is the cohabitation with local population. Case studies show that in many locations in the Moscow Region, migrant workers create the
New developments of detached houses on the outskirts of Moscow
have registered 10 out of 100 new plots as being occupied by families with children, whereas the rest is still under construction. Meanwhile there are several hundred workers who lived in settlements around construction sites for a time period of several years. For young families that moved from the city to the countryside, this is a completely unexpected experience. They are condemned to learning new ways of cohabitation with the prevailing population in conditions that are sub-optimal of both parties.36 A different situation occurs when a former rural settlement is being redeveloped to predominantly
residential units as an extension of expanding Moscow. The unsatisfactory state of the location that is neither a village nor a city can last several years, for local inhabitants. However, its temporality discourages the formal system from investing time and money to make the transition from rural to urban more pleasant. In such an in-between period, the location suffers from a lack of identity, a lack of facilities and services, and a minimum of working opportunities for the original inhabitants. As a result, former rural populations that used to work on local farms are condemned to commute to surrounding, still-
Fig: Kommunarka, Moscow. Source: Google Earth, Panoramio
functioning villages to work on farms and enterprises there. New future-oriented urban populations, on the other hand, commute daily to work in Moscow. Initially, they moved to this location due to reasonable prices and proximity to desired rural landscape. Its current state is only perceived as a waiting period.37 Nonetheless, the settlement does not transform into a ghost town that is completely deserted during the day. The presence of hundreds of workers living on construction sites turns the location into a lively place: public spaces are
used from daybreak. Remaining stores in the villages are dependent on the presence of workers. Migrant workers have become the only permanent inhabitants of the settlement for the period of its transition.38 And one could argue that they represent the last throb of lively community spirit before the location turns completely into
31, 35 Human Rights Watch, Exploitation of Migrant Construction Workers in Russia, 2009 32, 33, 36 Interview with Nokita Tokarev, 22.02.2013, Moscow 34 Moscow Division of the Federal Migration Service; Moscow City Government, 2013
37 Interview with new residents of Kummunarka, 2012
the remaining 80 per cent of residential development around Moscow.39
Village; Strelka Research Simulator, 2012 39 An interview with Nikita Tokarev, Moscow, 2013
Fig: Worker’s Villages, Kommunarka, Moscow, 2012 Source: Google Map
Fig: Gullart Architects, Sociopolis, Spain. Source: www.gullart.com
Fig: S.Holl, Spiroid Sector, Edge of a City, Princeton Architectural Press, 1996
Proposal Rurban Landscape
habitat of high-rise residential blocks was proposed for an outskirt of Valencia, Spain. triggering social interaction between inhabitants, proposing a new type of housing for young families and individuals. The the typical growth of European cities, causing nature and agriculture to be pushed aside, and rural and urban to become two opposites. On the building fertile lands are protected, an irrigation system is constructed and the historic country houses that existed on the land are being restored and re-used, alongside emerging residential blocks. City vegetable gardens and small-scale agriculture are meant to bring back the culture of gardening and its values, getting citizens involved again in the production and consumption patterns of today’s economy. The bring back the rural to the city, create a new kind of landscape and enhancing its citizens’ well-being through a more social and natural environment. Rural and urban merge into rurban. Furthermore, the emerging post-industrial era and new techno-agricultural society, in which as citizens of the planet we participate in its culture and economy through the information technologies, we travel to distant places by high-speed transport systems, but at the same time
local, of the immediate habitable environment; of a new intelligent balance between what we generate and what we consume’.43 Exposure 04 - Worker’s Villages, Rural Commuters and Urbanised Countryside shows that similar from Valencia are, to a certain extent, celebrated by people from Moscow and surrounding villages. A young generation of citizens is moving to new apartments in redeveloped rural settlements around Moscow. These people seek a healthier environment, closely connected to nature. They appreciate affordable prices and rural landscape. They want to be independent from commuting to the city centre. On the other hand, their lifestyle is urban. In many cases smart technologies allow space but to work from a place of residence. Virtual networks city. Former rural communities have more traditional values and prefer to stick to farming, agriculture and production in local enterprises.44 The locations around Moscow that sit within its transition point between urban and rural, now have the possibility of becoming either mono-functional sleeping districts that utilise the space of abandoned farms, or public housing that researches and develops new kinds of buildings, which respond to the present needs of citizens In case of Moscow, we would not speak about introducing gardening
into the middle of a micro-rayon or bringing the rural to the city, but about setting citytype buildings in the middle of functioning agricultural land. Preserving farming and agriculture around newly build residential districts, with the possibility of interaction and participation of newly moved citizens, can bring similar results to those predicted in Valencia. Lonely panel houses sticking out from the middle of agricultural land known as an anomaly of bad Soviet planning will be transformed into new Spiroid Sectors as described by Steven Holl in Edge of a City.45 These new types of houses will not only have an ambition
to become residential blocks but will condense living, working, recreation and social activities, preserving the rural landscape at the same time. Located on the frontier of urban fabric and agricultural land, housing and multifunctional amenities will
43 Guallart Architects, Sociopolis 2002-2010. Source:
Village; Strelka Research Simulator, 2012 45 S. Holl, Edge of a City, Princeton Architectural Press, 1996
Villages around Moscow that are under threat of being completely replaced by the mono-functional sleeping districts that destroy former rural communities will turn into mixed-user city nodes that celebrate the marriage of the urban and rural.
Fig: Mixed-use building structures at the edge of the city connect urban and rural landscapes, while maintaining a borderline between both. The physical border has become a place of communication between two different patterns.
Located on the frontier of urban fabric and agriculture land housing and multifunctional amenities will Villages around Moscow that are under a thread of being completely replaced by mono functional sleeping district destroying former rural communities will turn to mixed-used city nods celebrating marriage of urban and rural.
COCKTAIL TYPOLOGIES ONDREJ JANKU ondra.janku@gmail.com
Exposure Cultural Landscape & Thriving Dacha Colonies
Dacha settlements, a ubiquitous feature of the Russian landscape, are familiar urban phenomenon with a rich history. This case study focuses on the period of last 20 years, when the change in state governance and in the mindset of citizens caused a rapid and uncontrolled metamorphoses of entire dacha settlements as well as single dachas,19 which produced distinctive landscapes of individual and collective of contemporary owners. As the dimensions and types of dachas were severely restricted during the Soviet era, some permitted features, such as attics and glazed verandas, became extremely widespread and often oversized. It was not only regarded as a way to get as many square metres of inhabitable space indicators of many homeowner’s desire for freedom of selfexpression, accommodated in the physicality of individual dachas.
During the 1963–1985 period, when the limitations were especially strict, only single-story houses without permanent heating and living areas less than 25 m² were allowed as second housing. Since 1990, however, all such limitations have been eliminated. Soon after, the collapse of the Soviet Union allowed the return of private land ownership and most dachas have since been privatised.20 All that, together with unclear regulations and gaps in planning,21 provided the right impulse for rapid modernisation and informal redevelopment of older settlements, which in some cases literally ballooned in proportions, in order to accommodate the desires of their owners. Nowadays, many of these settlements located near Moscow are criticised for strong visual intrusion, disorder and for endlessly spreading into a countryside that is being spoilt, and having its free access
Fig. - Modernisation and redevelopment - an expression of individuality and an outlet for creativity, Old Strogino, Moscow. Source: Google Map
blocked. These settlements, which are sometimes 80 years old, are often compared to their original form, which was strictly regulated to guarantee an ideal result. The current absence of regulations creates situations where more houses are being build on a plot originally dedicated to single dachas; the number of storeys is being increased; former relations with neighbours are being ignored; and materials and colours are being freely applied, with no regard for architecture unity. Thus, a stereotypical image of a dacha colony from the time of
the Soviet regime has greater aesthetic value for the general public then similar settlement, rebuilt in the time of post-Soviet consumerism.22 However, looking at the whole site, users do not really notice ‘the nasty bits’. The whole thing is satisfying to them. By accepting ‘the mess’ a truer representation of the allotment could be captured.23 The current situation shows how clearly the formal system is not able to reach the needs of modern citizens. From a conventional point of view, this is recognised as a disorganised and visually
Fig: Dachas Outside Moscow, 1954. Source: Georges Bortoli: Moscow and Leningrad Observed. New York: Oxford University Press. 1975.
disturbing situation. But at the same, it shows a true landscape of collective culture expressed through gaps in the formal system and through lack of regulations. As aforementioned, it cannot be only perceived in a negative way. It was created with predominantly good intentions, but due to compromises and improvisation, it only achieved sub-optimal results somewhere between success and failure.
As one of few landscapes in the Moscow Region with no intended aesthetics, dacha settlements these days can be regarded an expression of individuality and an outlet for creativity that is lacking elsewhere in the city. They represent a great potential for the formal system of planning to be studied. In order to become user-oriented, the city can learn from its inhabitants who are so obviously expressing preferred models of cohabitation.
19, 20 Russian Dacha. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Dacha 21 Interview with Nokita Tokarev, Moscow, 2013
trip, Ivanteevka and surrounding settlements, 2013 23 E. Bonny, The landscape and culture of allotments, University of Nottingham, 2010
Fig: Dachas outside Moscow, 2012
Proposal Social Incubators, Cocktail Typologies
Although historically, it could be problematic to compare dachas in Russia to allotment gardens in Europe since both phenomenons originate from different contexts, there are many similar features that are especially relevant nowadays to be reviewed, revived and taken advantage of. The ways in which each plot-holder in a dacha colonies as well as in allotment gardens cultivate their land and/or house becomes an expression of the self, and
Fig: Basel Stadt, Switzerland. Source: Google Map
produces a culture with its own distinct landscape. The active engagement of allotment and/ or dacha owners with the land produces individually crafted mosaic that comes together as a collective landscape.49 In Europe, gardeners in cities are very attached to their plots and sheds because they represent something that belongs to them, an ideal of home and an ideal of small ownership.50 So it counts for dachas in Russia.
In European context, whilst plotholders recognise that the allotment enshrines values which would resonate well in wider society, the very value of the allotment as an escape from, and an act of mainstream urban culture.51 In Russia on the other hand, the tradition of having two homes - an apartment in the city and a garden house in the countryside - is recognised as an inherent part of Russian culture in a wider society that decided to collectively
defy the city. These days, when the very notion of the Russian capital changed, this collective phenomenon could perhaps work inversely as a tool to reintegrate the values connected exclusively with dacha colonies back to the city. This is similar to the aim of allotment gardens, initially a rural phenomenon to compensate disenfranchised cottagers. It was an antedote to urban migration from the late 19th Century in Western Europe.52 Reintroducing dachas to the city may help in rebirth of community spirit as was the case in many
allotment gardens in Europe. But more interestingly and for the Moscow Region more relevantly, introducing the city elements to existing dacha colonies can established and functioning communities. Formal city planning can learn from the existing situation and use a map of the dacha settlements around Moscow as a template for possible city expansion. Carefully planned residences, commercial amenities and services in close proximity to dacha settlements can bring the city to the dachas, and through that, reintroduce many missing
Fig: Chekhov, Moscow Region. Source: chekhov-city.narod.ru/foto_polet.htm.jpg
values such as independence from the city centre, while preservating the culture of two homes at the same time. So residents can live an urban life, but in connection with nature, with functional neighbourhoods established as core units of new urban clusters. Many examples in Europe where allotment gardens, residences of plot-holders and places of work are all located
scale of dacha colonisation in territories around Moscow, such steps could initiate gradual decentralisation of the city as we know it. The further from central Moscow, the more one would be able to read the city as compact bubbles of mixed use – a city programme integrated between dacha settlements, vacant countryside, and other dense clusters of different typologies.
of such an urban mix.53 In the 49,51 E. Bonny, The landscape and culture of allotments, University of Nottingham, 2010 50 A. Gigon, Construction casts shadow over city gardens, Zurich, 2011. Source: http://www.swissinfo.ch/ eng/index.html
52 Allotment Gardening, 2013. Source: http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotment_(gardening) Basel Stadt, Switzerland, 2009
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Fig. - Allotment gardents in the middle of other city functions, Basel, Switzerland, are taken as a template for the development of the Moscow Oblast. Carefully planned residences (2), commercial amenities and services (3) in close proximity to dacha settlements (1) bring
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1 1 vital elements of the city to dachas and through that, reintroduce many missing values. Where in Basel, the allotment gardens are founded development takes inverse direction.
Carefully planed residences, commercial amenities and services in close proximity of dacha settlements can bring the city to dachas and through that reintroduce many missing values such as independence on the city centre but preservation of culture of two homes at the same time, living urban life, however, in connection with nature and establishing a functional neighbourhoods as a core units of new urban clusters. In scale of dacha colonisation in territories around Moscow, such steps could initiate gradual decentralisation of the the city as we know it.
(Re)Assembled City - Conclusion
statements about (Re)Assembled City, since the patterns indicating it are just emerging. Nor we can say that we will learn from them right now. Proposals illustrating particular situations are only exaggerated signals from our present and as such may not be correctly interpreted, since the methodology of studying these emerging patterns is not quite invented yet. But perhaps the signals show very primordial forms of a possible future where the ideal city is one where certain things are planned by governance but also a lot of things are planned by those who live there with very interesting formal outcomes. If so, the case studies represent already visible seeds of this new urban condition. To follow this idea, we have to change the attitude towards the suburban as something behind the city, as a sub-optimal byproduct of the city. Suburbia is exactly where the city of users is being formed and, as such, represents a contemporary urban culture in the most vivid form. Nowadays, proposals for the city expansion and new development are usually based on traditional and successful historical or foreign examples that are not applicable to the local situation, since, while the city is planned by a planner, another city designed by third parties and driven by the un-met values of its users has already emerged. The new (sub)urban condition should by studied as such. We can learn from the clash of top-down design with another
type of design coming, not necessarily from the bottom, but from another direction. We can try to create a system of planning that will take into an account the different design forces. A precise explanation of market forces, stakeholders and power relations between people with regards to each studied pattern needs to be done to fully understand the situation. Such study is not included in this research, mainly due to time constraints, and it would need to be conducted immediately as a next step. Particular examples from the Moscow Region would need to be described to support given exposures and proposals. Moreover, the complete catalogue of patterns is yet to be assembled. The examples collected during the research and presented within the text are some of the most interesting cases of many other patterns detectable in the Moscow Region. The emerging patterns are a very complex constellation of components. A manual for future professionals that will help them to recognise and read these patterns needs to be delivered. The Manual for (Re)Assembled City will suggest where to look for the indicators of the new urbanity. It will not be a set of instructions about how to plan, but on how to understand and exploit the best from what is already being assembled out there. It will show how to read new connections, how to analyse positives and negatives of given situations and how to accept the new patterns of cohabitation as a reality that needs to be addressed.
Fig. - The Manual for (Re)Assembled City. How to read emerging patterns of cohabitation in the Moscow Region?