Merve Yucel “Segregated Landscapes. Kottedzhi of Rubljovka”

SEGREGATED LANDSCAPES Kottedzhi of Rubljovka

1975

1991

Urban agglomoration between 1975 - 1991

1991

1999

Urban agglomoration between 1991 - 1999

1999

2008

Urban agglomoration between 1999 - 2008 source : Analysis of urban sprawl in mega cities using synergistically using LANDSAT and TerraSAR-X data

ALMOST 22% OF SUBURBAN ‘GREEN BELT’ FORESTED LAND WITHIN 30km ZONE HAS BEEN CONVERTED TO NEW CONSTRUCTION FROM 1991 TO 2001

The post-Soviet transition manifested itself in increasing production of segergated space in suburban areas outside of the beltway

Triggered by the reorganization od the sociatal and economic system, the outskirts of Moscow became an investment zone in the last 20 years

LARGE SCALE alll the settlements in Rubljovka

permanence of process

REALITY CHECK

future possiblities

Nature of development

form

different typologies dacha, cottage, town house,

function

change in landuse patterns and infratructure

COTTAG on Rubljo Spatial-Urban change

policy instruments affecting change legislations, land codes, local politics

New behavioral patterns – economic activities, spatial mobility

DACHA culture New LIFE STYLE

MEDIUM SCALE selected settlement in Rubljovka

global-local dualism hypertrophic growth westernatlization in post-socialist context

Suburbanization

social polarization Price range - property market differentiation Desire of nouveau-riches

GES ovka Social segregation

segregation of landscapes

obessive surveillence environmental destruction forced evictions GATED LANDSCAPES

Actors involved Bureaucracy

constrution workers policy makers Private interests architects-residents The Market real estate businesses

Triggered by the reorganization of the societal and economic system, the outskirts of Moscow became an investment zone in the last 20 years. The outskirts has always been attractive for Muscovites, especially those with young children. They enjoyed moving to the suburbs for the weekends or summer months, where they owned or rented a vernacular seasonal house called dacha (wooden summer houses). But this tradition is now giving birth to an other suburban Moscow, where single family brick and stone houses and mansions cost up to several million dollars. The Kottedzh is the Russian translation of the word cottage, to emphasize the resemblance to its foreign cousins. They appeared only in the 1990s, after the construction of private houses became possible, and dramatically transformed the suburban

landscape of Moscow territory. Initially they were wooden and in close proximity to the city.

But as more and more 'Nuevo riches' started to appear, their size and price began to grow rapidly. The kottedzh became stone or brick, two-to-four story, stylized medieval castles.

They spread rapidly, either inside existing dacha settlements or on the fringes of farming fields. What is more striking than the gradual process of suburbanization, is the excess of surveillance in such settlements. The majority of the new developments are not only fenced, but strictly controlled by private security guards, surveillence cameras, checkpoints, alarm systems and so on. The research investigates this phenomena throught the protagonists of the Rubljovka Road, a symbol of wealth, social ascent and decadent lifestyles.

We left city for the weekend, It was raining, saw no stars, There were fences everywhere, Our chiefs behind the bars.

Gennady Shpalikov

DACHA

SELF-ORGANIZED

RECRATIONAL VERNACULAR The size and type of dacha buildings were restricted during the Soviet time, In 1985 only single-story summer houses without permanent heating and with living areas less than 25 m² were allowed as second housing . Since 1990, all such limitations have been eliminated.

COOKIE-CUTTER CANADIAN HOUSES, SCANDAVIAN HOUSES WESTERN-EUROPEAN DESIGN

The kottedzhi differ in appearance from the standard dachi in terms of their size and style.

Through their sheer size, the most extravagant variants have become symbolic of the rise of the new elite. In 2009, the market for suburban cottage real estate near Moscow increased from 12,500 homes to 20 500 homes.

The average number of houses in the village - 60, the average living area of the house - 250-300 m 2

GROTESQUE CAOTIC NEW RUSSIAN Some kottedzhi are indeed cottages (small, usually one-story wooden houses) but most are more like mansions than cottages. Initially kottedzhi were constructed of wood, surrounded by a plot of 00.008 to 1.0 hectare. They mushroomed either inside the dacha settlements or on the fringes of the farm fields.

Everyone is speculating with dachas, throughout the country. There are a whole lot of disgraceful phenomena in evidence

Established a rudimentary land market for the suburban land. Restrictions and Gray areas HAVE remained

THE MOST EXPENSIVE NEW BUILDINGS IN MOSCOW

Address Korobeinikov per., b. 7-14/16 RC Granatniy per., 8 RC Granatniy per., 6

District «Ostozhenka Park Palace»CAO/Hamovniki (Ostozhenka) «Granatniy Palace» CAO/Presnensky CAO/Presnensky

Price$ per sq. m up to 37 000 up to 40 000 up to 43 800

decrees issued

argued the need to conduct an inventory of agricultural territories and reallocate the land that was used inefficiently

everyone is speculating with dachas, throughout the country. There are a whole lot of disgraceful phenomena in evidence

on land reform

the oblast' administ allot up to 40 000 hectare lan

50 percent established a rudimentary land market for the suburban land.

Restrictions and Gray areas remained

6 sotka

10 sotka

SUBURBANIZATION

Muscovites

KOTTEDZH

THE CRIME RATE IN peak, since the

SEGREGATED LANDSCAPES

the prices for renting cou annual

developmet of mos supermarket

1ring 2ring

3r

CP’s central committee had dacha acommodations for 1800 families in Moscow regionv

PRIVATIZATION often with reduction in the size

COLLECTIVE FARMS

Moscow set the target of providing not less than 300 m2 for each family

91 92 93

primary concern was USE of land not OWNERSHIP INDIVIDUAL GARDEN PLOT CULTIVATORS

tration decided to nd for cottage development

94 95

t of the people in Moscow Region were commuting 75 km or more to the dacha

96

600.000 commuters per day

97

great increase in the number of advertisements

began to exchange their apartments in the center for small houses on the outskirts

98 99

, appeared in the real estate terminology 00 01 developmet of moscow OUT of the MKAD

Moscow region is at its e hungry year 1948

02 03

Minskoe

Mozhaiskoe

Dmitrovskoe

Simferopolskoe

Volokomskoe

Leningradskoe

Kievskoe

Kaluzhskoe

Novorizhskoe

Rublevo

05 Pyatnitskoe

AVARAGE PRICE OF 1 SOTKA DEPENDING ON RIRECTION

untryside cottages have been higher than the average l prices by 15 percent to 25 percent

06

20 sotka 07

2 million commuters per day

scow OUT of the MKAD

ring

04

10 sotka

4ring

5ring

08 09

6ring 10 11

Growing “middl great demand housing gives f to suburban res

le class� and its d for suburban further impetus sidential growth

RUBLYOVKA ROAD

2950$

1080$

2050$

2050$ 4525$

6000$ 4500$

3755$

2925$ 3950$

3780$ 3430$

3320$

Rubljovka Road is the traffic artery connecting the powerhouse Moscow with the Russian outback. At all times, the region bordering on Rubljovka has had an attraction for the ruling elite classes: Tsars, dictators, presidents.. In today's Russia, Rubljovka has become synonymous with wealth, social ascent and decadent

social ascent and decadent lifestyles. Tell-tale signs of the past and gross excesses of Russian cut-throat capitalism have created a bizarre microcosm that does not have a parallel elsewhere in this giant empire.

Length

: 8.8 km (+ old station 1,2 km)

Are the current trends in security measures a result of the anxiety to display the status?

DEVELOPMENT NAME

AREA (ha)

SECURITY PROVIDED

SECURITY PROVIDED

Alpijski

11

Novorizhskoe (NW)

Common fence, centralized guards

Avrora

Not Available

Egoryevskoe (SE)

Centralized guards

Barvikha-Club

6.28

Rublevo-Uspenskoe (W)

Centralized guards, 24-h patrols, video & IR around the perimeter

Belgijskaja dervenya

28

Kaluzhskoe (SW)

Centralized guards, 24-h patrols, video sensors, in-house alarms

Benilux

107

Novorizhskoe (NW)

Common fence, gate, video surveillance, in-house alarms

Bor

8.09

Starokashirskoe (S)

Fenced perimeter, guards

Chigasovo-2

9

Rublevo-Uspenskoe (W)

Fenced perimeter, guards, video

Domik v lesu

10.3

Dmitrovskoe (N)

Gated entry, checkpoint

Evropa

Not Availabe

Ilyinskoe (W)

Fenced perimeter, gated entry, checkpoint, radio-equipped patrols

Finskaya Derevnya-2

10

Novorizhskoe (NW)

Gated perimeter, checkpoint

Fortuna

Not Availabe

Dmitrovskoe (N)

Guarded settlement

Grafskaya usadba

Not Availabe

Kaluzhskoe (SW)

Fenced perimeter, checkpoint, in-house alarms

Knyazhye ozero

80

Novorizhskoe (NW)

Checkpoint, video surveillance, 24-h patrols, electronic surveillance

Lapino-grad

10

Rublevo-Uspenskoe (W)

Checkpoint, 2-level armed guards, video surveillance, concrete fenced

Lazurny bereg

8.15

Dmitrovskoe (N)

Guarded perimeter, 24-h high-tech surveillance, using police methods

Lesnye prostory-2

15

Rublevo-Uspenskoe (W)

‘‘Double security’’

Medvezhi ozera

12.82

Shchelkovskoe (NE)

Fenced perimeter, check-point, 24-h guards on duty

Nikolina gora

Not Availabe

Rublevskoe (W)

Guarded territory

Novoarhangelskoe

Not Availabe

Novorizhskoe (NW)

Checkpoint, guards’ stations, patrols, Video surveillance

Novoglagolevo

Not Availabe

Kaluzhskoe (SW)

None specified

Rasskazovka

Not Availabe

Kievskoe (SW)

Fence, checkpoint, guards, alarms, video

Sareevo

2.5

Rublevo-Uspenskoe (W)

Checkpoint, fence, video

Sosnovy bor

30

Yaroslavkoe (N)

Guarded territory

Staraya Riga

6

Novorizhskoe (NW)

Checkpoint, 24-h patrols, video

Turovo

7.23

Volokolamskoe (NW)

None listed

U lesnogo ozera

Not Availabe

Volokolamskoe (NW)

Fenced perimeter, checkpoint, video, alarm

Velich

20

Novorizhskoe (NW)

3-m metal fenced perimeter, video, guards, alarms, 24-h patrols

Waldorf

23.5

Yaroslavskoe (N)

Gated, fenced, guards, entry permits, video

Zelenograd–Andreevka

Not Availabe

Leningradskoe (NW)

Fenced with ‘‘good guards’’

An evidence of a society, which fears crime or physical insecurity?

POLICE

.

70% of the adversitements for cottages in Moscow promote some sort of security measures.

BEYOND MOSCOW DACHA MAKES WAY FOR SUBURBIA Price Boom In CIty FAuels Middle Class Exodus

Fear and reentment as Moscow’s rich grab land for luxury home

Owners of shabby wodden dachas forced out amidtales of threats, corruption and now murders

demolition war over 12 dachas in rubljovka

Moscow police report sharp rise in crime rate

TESTIMONIES

traffic control

party of nouvea riches

Ljubov Jermilina, resident

Vladimir Vorobev, resident

Vladimir’s Dacha built in 94

Olga Aleksandrova, resident

Do the Dacha discourses serve as strategies for attempting to convert economic or cultural capital into “symbolic power,� that is, the power to represent the social world to others?

A newly built mansion with a church

Natalia Kuznetzsova

A cottage settlement with 3 layers of security: 2 fences, a dog, alarm system

Construction workers from ex-Soviet countries 8 people living in one container

an old dacha resident, farmer

To what extent the new dacha settlements resemble the new residential areas built during the transition period?

‘‘We came to Russia to earn money Many are here from Ex-Soviet countries. We are 16 people in this shelter. We have gas and water. We also pay rent: 10,000 rubles a month. Rubljovka is a work place, everybody here works without permit. If the police stops us on the street they take us to the infirmary and then we are quickly sent back home, but we come back next year.’’

‘‘They came to ask me to sell my place, but I do not want to.

Many have sold their homes here, we are left few.’’

‘‘There was a forest over there, The green lung of Moscow. You would hear bird chirpings like music in the morning. And now there are only buildings everywhere, only roofs. They destroyed the forest.

The noise has increased dramatically, either day or night. We have no access to the river or to the forest. All around there are only fences behind guys with machine guns. We were surrounded on all sides as Indians on the reservation.’’

This adaptation of the foreign model for suburban developments are recomposing the landscape and fragmenting the idea of garden city. The newly erected suburban settlements are isolated from their surroundings in both a physical and social sense.

It would not be a mistake to conclude that although the market is in a stagnation period at the moment, it will continue to grow in a dispersed setting. As a result of the ambigous regulations and fragmented local government structure, the restructuring processes in Moscow Oblast are uncontrolled: the quick suburban growth and urban sprawl leads to the ‘usual’ environmental problems of suburbanization. Moreover, in addition to that, due to the quick population increase also new tensions are emerging within the suburban settlements, between the original residents and the newcomers.

Can Moscow learn from the mistakes made in the oversuburbanization of Europe and the US?