Research report 2013/14. Studio Dwelling

ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНАЯ ПРОГРАММА 2013/14: ПОВСЕДНЕВНОСТЬ Жители российских городов ездят на машинах по загруженным улицам, сидят перед компьютерами в конторах и офисах, встречаются в кафе с друзьями, покупают в магазинах вещи и продукты, а дома — воспитывают детей, делают ремонт и смотрят телевизор. Всё это привычные будни, огромный и сложный мир обыденного, на самом деле очень мало исследованный и слабо отрефлексированный. В 2013/14 году «Стрелка» выбрала темой своей образовательной программы «Повседневность», или Urban Routines. Из чего складывается обыденная жизнь города? Как наша новая реальность соотносится с прошлым и каких изменений можно ждать в будущем? Возможно ли, исследуя структуру обыденного, прийти к масштабным выводам и сделать на их основе инновационные проекты? Эти и другие вопросы находились в центре внимания пяти проектно-исследовательских студий «Стрелки» — Жилье/Dwelling, Офисы/Offices, Автомобили/Cars, Магазины/Retail и Связи/Links. В этой публикации представлены результаты работы студии «Жилье».

Электронный вариант публикации и результаты работы других студий доступны на issuu.com/strelkainstitute

EDUCATION PROGRAMME 2013/14: URBAN ROUTINES Every day city dwellers drive their cars through over-populated streets, sit in front of their office computers, meet friends at local cafes, buy goods and groceries in stores and shops, at home educate their children, renovate, watch TV. The very usual routine, a gigantic and complex world of the ordinary, is in fact quite under-researched and poorly analyzed.

In 2013/14 Strelka chose Urban Routines as the theme of its education programme.

What defines the daily life of a city? How does the past influence our present reality and what will the future entail? By researching the fabric of the ordinary, is it possible to arrive at ambitious outcomes and create on their basis innovative projects?

These and other issues were the focal point of five of Strelka’s research and design studios: Dwelling, Offices, Cars, Retail and Links.

This publication presents research outcomes of studio Dwelling.

This and other studio publications are available for download at issuu.com/strelkainstitute

ДИРЕКТОР Анастасия Смирнова РУКОВОДИТЕЛЬ ПРОЕКТА Куба Снопек СТУДЕНТЫ Дмитрий Аверьянов, графический дизайнер, Украина; Анель Молдахметова, эксперт по культурным коммуникациям, Казахстан; Николас Мур, архитектор, США; Стивен Брукхоф, архитектор, Нидерланды; Владо Данаилов, архитектор, Македония; Анна Камышан, архитектор, Украина; Яна Мозоль, искусствовед, Беларусь; Светлана Гордиенко, журналист, Россия; Вера Лукьянович, юрист, Беларусь; София Новикова, архитектор, Россия; Яна Козак, архитектор, Украина. ЭКСПЕРТЫ-КОНСУЛЬТАНТЫ Алексей Щукин, журналист; Питер Сигрист, PhD, Корнелльский университет; Петр Иванов, социолог; Катя Гиршина, куратор; Кирил Асс, архитектор; Даша Парамонова, архитектор; Денис Ромодин, этнограф, историк; Роман Мазуренко, культурный предприниматель; Евгения Куйда, предприниматель; Ольга Быстрова, UX/UI дизайнер; Максим Зуев, архитектор; Татьяна Давидович, туристический агент; Сергей Козленко, аналитик; Михаил Алексеевский, антрополог; Виктор Вахштайн, социолог; Павел Степанцов, социолог; Роман Сабиржанов, предприниматель; Константин Осинцев, предприниматель; Дэвид Эриксон, эксперт в области медиа и коммуникаций; Вил Арец, архитектор; Мартино Таттара, архитектор; Петер Закланович, архитектор; Анна Броновицкая, историк архитектуры; Марта Ко-Галеотти, социолог;

Варвара Мельникова, директор, Институт «Стрелка»; Максим Авдеев, фотограф; Илья Осколков-Ценципер, медиа менеджер и предприниматель; Елизавета Глинка, филантроп; Святослав Мурунов, урбанист; Дмитрий Опарин, журналист; Константин Горанин, менеджер культурных проектов; Анна Желнина, социолог; Бланш Ньюманн, продюссер; Геннадий Стерник, аналитик рынка недвижимости, профессор РЭУ; Наталья Бухтоярова, генеральный директор ГУП “Моссоцгарантия”; Матиас Холлвич, архитектор; Алексей Муратов, партнер КБ Стрелка; Сергей Ситар, архитектор, критик; Ювал Яски, архитектор; Юп дэ Бур, архитектор; Александр Чемерис, хакер.

DIRECTOR Anastassia Smirnova PROJECT LEADER Kuba Snopek STUDENTS Dmitry Averyanov, graphic designer, Ukraine; Anel Moldakhmetova, expert in cross-cultural communication, Kazakhstan; Nicholas Moore, architect, US; Steven Broekhof, architect, the Netherlands; Vlado Danailov, architect, Macedonia; Anna Kamyshan, architect, Ukraine; Yana Mazol, art historian, Belarus; Svetlana Gordienko, journalist, Russia; Vera Lukyanovich, lawyer, Belarus; Sofia Novikova, architect, Russia; Iana Kozak, architect, Ukraine.

EXTERNAL EXPERTS Alexei Shchukin, journalist; Peter Sigrist, PhD, Cornell University; Pyotr Ivanov, sociologist; Ekaterina Girshina, curator; Kiril Asse, architect; Dasha Paramonova, architect; Denis Romodin, ethnography specialist, historian; Roman Mazurenko, cultural entrepreneur; Eugenia Kuyda, entrepreneur; Olga Bystrova, user interface designer; Maxim Zuev, architect; Tatiana Davidovich, tour agent; Sergey Kozlenko, analytic; Mikhail Alekseevsky, anthropologist; Victor Vakhshtayn, sociologist; Pavel Stepantsov, sociologist, Roman Sabirzhanov, businessman; Konstantin Osintsev, businessman; David Erixon, media and communications expert; Wiel Arets, architect; Martino Tattara, architect; Petar Zaklanovic, architect; Anna Bronovitskaya, architectural historian; Martha Coe-Galeotti, sociologist;

Varvara Melnikova, CEO Strelka; Maxim Avdeev, photographer; Ilya Tsentsiper, social designer, media manager and entrepreneur; Elisaveta Glinka, philanthropist; Svyatoslav Murunov, urbanist, branding expert; Dmitry Oparin, journalist; Konstantin Goranin, cultural project manager; Anna Gelnina, sociologist; Blanche Neumann, producer; Gennady Sternik, property market analyst, professor; Natalia Bukhtoyarova, CEO of Mossocgaranty; Matthias Hollwich, architect; Alexey Muratov, partner of KB Strelka; Sergey Sitar, architect and critic; Yuval Yasky, architect; Joep de Boer, architect; Alexander Chemeris, hacker.

ЖИЛЬЕ, ИЛИ О ВОЗМОЖНОСТИ ПОБЕДЫ НА ВЕЧНЫМ ВОПРОСОМ В 1932 году замечательный чешский публицист и идеолог модернизма Карел Тейге написал в своей книге «Минимальное существование»: «Проблема базового, минимального жилья для всех и каждого стала центральной проблемой современной архитектуры и архитектурного авангарда». Действительно, в ХХ столетии проектирование жилья оказалось неразрывно связано с понятием «экзистенцминимума» («existenzminimum»), который впервые сформулировали участники Конгрессов современной архитектуры на рубеже 20-х–30-х годов. Архитекторы и урбанисты всего мира пытались вывести золотую формулу для удовлетворения минимальных человеческих потребностей, определить параметры той жилой ячейки, в которой современный горожанин, как правило, рабочий индустриального предприятия, мог жить достойно, гигиенично и безопасно, — и обеспечить такими ячейками возможно большее количество людей. Начиная с 1950-х годов и в СССР развернулось подлинное сражение за «экзистенциминимум» для населения. В 1970–80-е годы в стране строилось до 75 миллионов квадратных метров жилья в год — цифры невероятные, даже с учетом невысокого качества массового строительства. Решить жилищную проблему в советскую эпоху не удалось по многим причинам, но архитектура минимального жилья в социалистическом изводе радикально изменила образ российских городов и определила жизнь подавляющего большинства населения вплоть до сегодняшнего дня. С приходом рынка, даже несмотря на проект жилищной реформы, принятый российским правительством в 1992 году и во многом следовавший американской модели кредитования домовладельцев, — ситуация с жильем в России радикально не изменилась. Хотя оптимистичные прогнозы рынка середины 2000-х годов обещали значительный подъем в этой области, жилищный вопрос остался «вечным больным вопросом», а неумолимое старение фонда жилья обещают новые волны кризиса. По опросам Фонда «Общественное мнение» многие россияне описывают положение, как «катастрофическое, безнадежное…». Пользуясь уникальной возможностью поразмышлять в несколько более абстрактных категориях, студия «Жилье» предложила совершенно иную точку зрения на проблему. А не делаем ли мы серьезную ошибку, пытаясь разрешить сложнейшую ситуацию с жильем средствами прошлого столетия? Так ли актуальны критерии экзистенцминимума сегодня или,

DWELLING FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM In 1932, the outstanding Czech writer and key proponent of Modernism Karel Teige wrote in his break-through book Minimum Dwelling: “The minimum dwelling has become the central problem of modern architecture and the battle-cry of today’s architectural avantgarde.” About a century ago, the first daring experiments in the new organization of dwelling and of everyday life began simultaneously in many countries in Europe, culminating by the late 1920s in the program of the “minimal habitation,” based on standardized elements, individual “living cells,” and the idea of collective unity. Details varied from country to country, from regime to regime, but the concept of subsistence living for all — a certain number of square meters per person plus the very basic amenities — fascinated architects, urbanists, sociologists, economists and politicians almost everywhere. Existenzminimum, as members of the CIAM dubbed it at the their first conferences in Frankfurt and Brussels, became the key notion to the whole discourse on dwelling in the twentieth century.

In the Soviet Union, the struggle for minimal habitation reached its peak in the 1970s–80s, when about 75 million square meters of housing were being built every year. For many reasons, the dwelling crisis has never been solved, but the unprecedented scale of production of living cells changed the urban fabric dramatically, creating ubiquitous daily routines and rituals shared by the majority of Russians.

Despite the introduction of the market and of financial institutions modeled on the American mortgage system, post-Soviet capitalism was similarly unable to deliver Existenzminimum to all, even if for different reasons than during Communism. Although the official norm of square meters per person is steadily growing — from 18 m² in 1995 to 23 m² in 2011 — it is still not truly supported by reality. And today — sixty years after Khrushchev’s speech on new methods in construction — only 67 % of all Russian households have bathrooms or showers. Day and night, Russian factories, the so-called DSK, churn out panels for ubiquitous mass-produced housing developments, yet to own an apartment remains a dream for the majority of the Russian citizens. With fast and imminent deterioration of the shotgun constructions of the socialist era, the situation, according to several polls made by the Public Opinion Foundation, is “critical, catastrophic, and hopeless…”

Using the unique opportunity to deliberate on this “eternally pressing issue” on a more abstract level, Studio Dwelling suggests looking at the problem from a different angle. In the past few decades, entirely new

по крайней мере, равно ли актуальны эти критерии для всех? Трудно отрицать, что за последние десятилетия в современных городах — особенно в мегаполисах — возникли совершенно новые паттерны повседневного существования, новые стили жизни, новые виды услуг, новые ритуалы и даже новые ценности, ставшие нормой для жителей большого города. Можно ли надеяться обеспечить горожан всем необходимым для комфортной, динамичной, мобильной, современной жизни простым приумножением панельных многоэтажек? Понимая всю силу инерции, весь консерватизм общественного мнения в том, что касается жилья, «дома», «своего угла», мы тем не менее решились предположить возможность перехода к некоторой новой парадигме, которую мы назвали — в антитезу к существующей — «экзистенцмаксимум» («existenzmaximum»). Нам представляется, что в информационном, пост-индустриальном обществе могут появиться совершенно иные способы проживания в городе, когда наравне с пространством (квадратными метрами на человека) большую роль начинает играть время, проживаемое горожанином в том или ином месте, и качество этого проживания, определяемое доступностью определенных услуг, сетей, сообществ, а также количеством функций и удобств, которые сам город представляет своим жителям. Даже если на данный момент невозможно вывести новую золотую формулу жилища, самое предположение о возможности ее существования заставляет думать и действовать иначе. Восемь проектов студии, а также предваряющее их исследование центра Москвы, выстроены вокруг основных понятий, которые мы выделили в процессе обсуждения. Это прежде всего — мобильность, доступность информации, открытость ресурсов, разнообразие услуг и сервисов, гибкие и разнообразные схемы пользования, примат временной собственности над постоянной, баланс коллективного и индивидуального, проницаемость границ, темпоральность, усиление горизонтальных связей и ослабление вертикальных. Исследуя интересующие их темы, авторы проектов попробовали сделать свои предложения навстречу новой парадигме —иногда очень частные, иногда более масштабные, — но всегда заряженные энергией эксперимента.

— Анастасия Смирнова, директор студии «Жилье»

patterns of daily life, new lifestyles, new services, new rituals and new values emerged in big cities all over the world and have become the new norm for many.

Is the once powerful paradigm of Existenzminimum still relevant? Does it indeed respond properly to the needs of the contemporary dweller, and to the lifestyles modern urbanites aspire to? Could our homes and the very organization of daily life better reflect the ambivalence and whimsical rhythms of life in a post-industrial city? What would another more polyphonic concept of habitation potentially look like? And do we actually need to build more square meters of housing?

Fully understanding the great power of inertia and the conservatism of public opinion as regards the desire to have a dwelling, a “home,” a “nook of one’s own,” we nonetheless decided to theorize the possibility of a transition to a certain new paradigm which we called — in contrast with the existing one — Existenzmaximum. Our increasingly complex urban environment could potentially provide for a richer dwelling experience, defined not only by space (or mere square meters per person), but also by time and a spectrum of new services.

Many factors might play an equally important role: the time lived by a city dweller at this or that location, the quality of living determined by the accessibility of certain networks and communities, as well as by the number of functions and amenities provided by the city itself. Even though it is hardly possible to develop a magic formula for a dwelling of an entirely new kind right here and now, the very idea of it prompts us to think and act differently.

The eight projects and the study of Moscow within the Garden Ring we began with, are centered on several concepts we have detailed in the process: mobility, accessibility of information, openness of resources, diversity of services and amenities, flexible and diverse patterns of use, predominance of temporary property over permanent, balance between the collective and the individual, insubstantiality and transparency of boundaries, strengthening of horizontal connections to the detriment of vertical ones, and temporality.

While researching their topics of interest, the authors of the projects have attempted to make their own suggestions in anticipation of the new paradigm — some of them concerning mere particulars, some of a greater scale — but all undoubtedly charged with the energy of experiment.

— Anastassia Smirnova, Studio Director

This book is designed for personal, non-commercial use. You must not use it in any other way, and, except as permitted under applicable law, you must not copy, translate, publish, licence or sell the book without the consent of Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design.

TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME I: CONFESSION OF THE CENTER

12 Introduction 14 An Anchored Arba 20 Heart of Chambers 38 Occupation Zone 61 The Plateau 78 Shadow Island 100 Hodge–Podge 118 Reference List 141

VOLUME II: DWELLING Dwelling in moscow The New Norms for Old Moscow Sloboda as a Project City Dweller XXI: Towards Another Bureacracy Service Maximum Temporary Dwelling in Moscow City Without Houses The New Ritual or Feed the Bum Theory of the Domestic Exterior

145 146 152 172 196 208 220 234 250 260

VOLUME I

CONFES OF THE C

SSION CENTER

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCT

We are the Confessors of the Center

This book begins with a provocation: dwelling is no longer simply a place. Rather it is a set of actions, life spread across rooms and buildings, and sometimes across entire cities and between countries. With this in mind, 11 researchers staked out the center of Moscow in search of previously undocumented boundaries, characters, needs, and lifestyle mutations—clues leading to the definition of new dwelling paradigms. We chose the center of Moscow precisely because it is assumed to be known; so close at hand, it escapes inspection as we pass through it on our daily routines. Yet the center is dynamic, a constantly evolving island of exceptions at the heart of Russia.

What does it mean to live in the center of Moscow today?

Six teams identified new neighborhoods of the center, and intensely examined them, documenting signs of life. Because we sought to redefine the notion of dwelling, the reader will not find here a study of typical apartment types, or the composition of a typical Moscow family.

Rather, this is a study of the Center that looks between the apartments, behind the families, around the edges of what we called home.

Maps are the lingua franca of this investigation, but each group mapped their region according to its peculiar character. Thus, each zone speaks in its own tongue, revealing tales of buried rivers, forgotten hills, demolished prisons, and secret invasions. To make sense of these cartographic narratives, the teams interviewed residents and experts, learning their languages, their habits, and their memories. Here, the voices of local characters supplement field observations and archival research, exposing the paradoxes, struggles, and triumphs of life in the center.

From young white–collar workers living in a hostel on Arbat to the last remaining priest, the characters we interviewed describe a hidden Moscow Center, a place, a series of acts never seen from the street. In the chapters that follow, pocket articles highlight physical and cultural mutations that offer potential models for the future of dwelling in the Center, as well as in the rest of Moscow, and Russia beyond. Conclusions are ambiguous; for example, new models of collectivity are countered by turf wars between luxury retailers and entrenched politicians. It is certain, however, that the emergence of mutant strains of city life signifies the ongoing evolution of Moscow. Like the Center itself, the evolution will be uneven, and in places tempestuous, violent.

Due to the force of identity that the center maintains, defined by the walls of the Kremlin and the shops on Tverskaya, in many ways the Center will change imperceptibly. It will continue to evolve in the yards and lanes of Zamoskvorechye, or behind the windows on Lubyanka Square. In this moment, however—the spring of 2014—the Strelka Dwelling Studio has paused the invisible evolution, and captured a version of its progress. These are the Confessions of the Center.

Nicholas Moore

14

TION

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Searching Moscow Center for new sites and patterns of Dwelling

15

INTRODUCTION

THE RESIDENTIAL CENTER THE CENTER OF MOSCOW IS DENSE WITH LIFE, BUT HOUSING IS INCREASINGLY SPARSE IN THIS AREA. IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND CONTEMPORARY PATTERNS OF “DWELLING” IN MOSCOW TODAY, WE SEARCHED THE CENTER FOR WAYS IN WHICH IT IS STILL INHABITED

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CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

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INTRODUCTION

THE MOSAIC OF PROGRAMS WE DISCOVERED A CITY CENTER DOMINATED

BY OFFICES IN CONVERTED HOUSING, PUNCTUATED BY STATE INSTITUTIONS, GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS, AND MANY EMPTY STRUCTURES. WE FOUND THAT THE AREA IS NOT STATIC, BUT THAT IT IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING AS RESIDENTS, BUSINESSES, GOVERNMENT, AND MARKET FORCES SHAPE THE CITY ACCORDING TO THEIR OWN CONTRASTING INTERESTS

LEGEND: Dwelling Temporary dwelling Culture Offices (and retail) Retail Healthcare Institutions Education Religion Governmental Industry Universities Empty / Renovation

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CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

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INTRODUCTION

AN ANCHO ARBA*

*

ARBA – A TURKIC WORD, TRANSLATED AS “HORSE WAGON”

20

ORED A part of Moscow center with three anchor points and two V–shape street compilations

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Vlado Danailov and Anel Moldakhmetova

21

AN ANCHORED ARBA

AN ANCHORED ARBA: ANCHOR POINTS AND STREET COMPILATION WE RECOGNISE THREE BUILDINGS WITH STRONG IDEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND AS THE AREA’S ANCHOR POINTS. FOUR STREETS ARE THE MAIN CREATORS AND CARRIERS OF THE URBAN IDENTITY

New Arbat Old Arbat Prechistenka and Ostozhenka Anchor points / Symbols Ministry of Defense Ministry of Foreign Affairs Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

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23

AN ANCHORED ARBA

CITIES, LIKE DREAMS, ARE MADE OF DESIRES AND FEARS, EVEN IF THE THREAD OF THEIR DISCOURSE IS SECRET, THEIR RULES ARE ABSURD, THEIR PERSPECTIVES DECEITFUL, AND EVERYTHING CONCEALS SOMETHING ELSE Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino

Following the quotidian paths of Moscow city center inhabitabts, we define new area, “Anchored Arba“, which has never been percieved as one entity before. Old Arbat is only one part of it

INTRODUCTION

Definition

Territory size: 316 hectars Official population: 22 440 people

24

The area that we explored is not an officially recognised administrative district — it is a territory that we ourselves have defined, comprising parts of two official administrative districts: Arbat and Ostozhenka. It is located between the Prechistenskaya Embankment in the South and Povarskaya Street in the North, on the west it is cut off by the Garden ring, and in the east it borders with the Kremlin. During our research we conducted interviews of the dwellers in this zone and asked them to draw their own mental maps of their area and name it. After putting these mental maps together, we understood that this area is perceived as a whole by the majority of the interviewees. The borders of this urban district are strictly defined toward the river bank on the south–east, Smolensky Boulevard on the south–west, and Novinsky Boulevard on the western side. It is the big distance between the front–row buildings on the boulevards that creates both a physical and psychological border; one is either in the circle or out. Povarskaya Street is more of a connecting border towards Tverskaya district in the northern part, and Vozdvizhenka Street is a continuation of the belt zone surrounding the Kremlin.

The name relates to the roots of the original name of the administrative and toponymic name of the area — Arbat. There are two versions of the story about its origin. According to the first, the name comes from the Arabic word ‫ ضابرأ‬or ‘arbād, which means “suburb”. The second version is believed to derive from the Turkic word “Arba”, which is translated as “horse wagon”; this name may refer to the Tatars who used to stay in this area during their visits to Moscow.

‘Anchored Arba’ signifies the anchored identity of the area, its movement and transition currently captured, and reveals the potential for movement and change. This district is a part of Moscow center widely known for its bohemian spirit and long list of famous residents, including many poets, writers, painters, and musicians.

AFTER ANALYZING THE PROCESSES TAKING PLACE IN THE AREA AND ITS HISTORICAL BACKGROUND, WE NAMED IT: THE ‘ANCHORED ARBA’

The northern part was transformed from a place for artisan settlements in the 16th century to a dwelling place for troops of riflemen in the 17th century. By the end of the 19th century, the merchants and artisans had been forced out by aristocrats mingling with intelligentsia of various social backgrounds. Into the newly built tenement houses there moved artists, professors, scientists, lawyers and administrative officials. The last major transformations were between 1962 and 1968 when New Arbat was built, and in 1986, when Old Arbat was transformed into a pedestrian zone. The southern part situated near the riverbank was known for the meadows once found there with their characteristic haystacks called “ostozhye” in Russian. Two streets which are always mentioned together are Ostozhenka and Prechistenka, streets where famous noble families lived (the Gagarins, Lopukhins, Naschekins). Many of the mansions survived through all the historical cataclysms and today have been turned into offices or cultural institutions.

Description THE GENERAL PATTERN OF THE AREA IS FORMED

BY THE FOUR MAIN STREETS — NEW ARBAT, OLD ARBAT, PRECHISTENKA, AND OSTOZHENKA

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Through history this district underwent a great deal of transformations, including demolition of entire parts and of important “memory monuments” of the city, resulting in the creation of a heterogeneous urban tissue. Today, four streets are the main creators and carriers of the urban identity of the area. These streets are entities of their own, with specific details and atmospheres that are quite distinguishable from one another, yet different from the neighborhoods in which they are located. They divide the tissue into sub–zones, fragments with diaphanous borders. There are nine sub–zones developing according to their own scenarios, barely affected by the scenarios of the main streets. The speed of their development differs dramatically — they are changing at a much slower speed. The sub–zones are therefore the keepers of the historical and cultural legacy of the area, creating a durable static tissue amidst the ever–changing main streets. Three buildings with a strong ideological background (the Ministry of Defense, Church of Christ the Savior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) are the anchor points. These are well known landmarks on a city–wide scale, and constitute the starting and ending positions of the sub–zones within the whole. Toward the Ministry of Defence and Church of Christ the Savior, two streets meet and overlap. This intersection precludes the possibility of creating a potentially high quality public space. Instead it is a non–place par excellence, generating neither singular identity nor any relations; only solitude.

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AN ANCHORED ARBA New Arbat

Old Arbat

Prechistenka & Ostozhenka

WE DISCOVERED NINE SUB–ZONES WITHIN THE SPACE IN–BETWEEN THE STREETS: + MIDDLE CLASS ELITE + REBORN DOG SQUARE + FAILED AMBITIONS ZONE + BOOMERANG + INTERNATIONAL ZONE + GREEN GOGOL + KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE + GOLD MINE + BLACK HOLE

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PARADOX BOX

Streets

The city is a theater, the streets are the stage, and the drama is repeated everyday as the four streets act their roles as ever changing entities. The people walking these streets are mostly visitors, tourists who have come for a walk, stopped for a seemingly tasty coffee in a chain restaurant, or a boring souvenir from the ‘authentic’ shops. New Arbat with all of its grandiosity cuts through the ring like a knife through butter and, starting from the Ministry of Defense expands its border out towards the river in the west. Old Arbat’s borders do not expand longitudinally beyond the anchor points of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Old Arbat is not a cut; it is a stitch carefully formed between the first row houses, subtly penetrating the narrow inner streets and yards. In Prechistenka one can appreciate the transformation from province to capital. With the growth of the city and the change in its importance, the need arose for different types of facilities that had not previously existed. Almost all of the once–famous city mansions have now been converted into offices or cultural centers. One of the main attractions is the exhibition center of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts. Ostozhenka is unique in its exclusiveness. It is an entity very similar to Prechistenka, yet one step ahead in the process of gentrification. It is located on the edge of a black hole artificially created by a gold mine.

The area of Gogol Green is characterized by a pedestrianized leisure promenade. During winter it is transformed into a dangerous slippery slope

Sub–Zones

STREETS ARE PAIRED WITH EACH OTHER AND CREATE TWO V–SHAPE COMPOSITIONS

THE ANCHOR POINTS ARE THREE BUILDINGS/ SYMBOLS: THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, THE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE AND THE CATHEDRAL OF CHRIST THE SAVIOUR. ANCHOR POINTS PROJECT THEIR IDENTITY ONTO THE SURROUNDING CITY FABRIC, AND ACT AS NON– MAGNETS

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Gogol Green has a green promenade as its center in a sub–zone which includes the Boulevard Ring and the blocks around it. Starting from the intersection of Prechistenka and Ostozhenka, it ends at the starting point of New and Old Arbat. It is used as a unique green oasis by the locals, people walking with small children or pets, and couples young and old sharing secrets.

The Knowledge Archive is an area less connected with Gogol Green, and forms a continuation of the detox belt surrounding the Kremlin. The attraction points in this area are the 17.5 million books located in the Lenin State Library – the largest in the country – and the Pushkin Museum. The Zone of Failed Ambitions is a neighborhood where almost 70% of the buildings are dwelling units surrounded by greenery. Burganov’s sculptures, which did not win the competitions they were designed for, now “beautify” this area. An International Area is formed by the presence of embassies and offices of representatives, which makes the area active during the day time. Surrounded by a defensive Boomerang that follows the border toward the ring road, the International Area is the place where the dissolved tissue grows again and forms a solid entity. Indeed, one could continue zooming in and subdividing the sub–zones, and exposing the dwelling patterns that are present in the area, and the most influential dwelling monuments (to take the Melnikov House as an example). Yet, it is crucially important to zoom–out and capture the image of the area on a larger scale. In doing so, the phenomenon of paired streets creating two V shape compilations can be discerned.

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AN ANCHORED ARBA

Street Compilation Common denominators, anchor points, unite the street entities and create two pairs of streets. New Arbat and Old Arbat together are a perfect example of how two contradictions complement one another. The pair is active during the night as a result of the enormous amount of 24–hour facilities available. Their intersection is Arbatskaya Square, in front of the Arbatskaya Metro station, a cinema and the Ministry of Defense. The intersection point of Prechistenka and Ostozhenka is the Square of Prechistenskie Gates. This pair of streets is a pair connected by its similarity. Noisy and busy during working hours, yet calm and rather dead during the night.

Anchor Points THE THREE ANCHOR POINTS ARE THE STARTING/ ENDING POINTS OF THE SUB–ZONES. AROUND EACH OF THEM A PLACE WITH A NON– ATMOSPHERE IS CREATED.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, one of Stalin’s Seven Sisters, is a major landmark, a reference point not only for the neighborhood but for the whole city. Its monumentality makes it easily recognisable. On Smolensky Boulevard, one can hear the ironic, stifled laughter coming out of its grand, frozen façade. The Cathedral of Christ the Savior is one of the most disputed objects built in the area and the city. Following its demolition in 1931, a swimming pool was opened on the exact same spot. The increase in the market values of the surrounding properties is strongly linked with the final resurrection of the cathedral in 2000. Today, the Cathedral is an interactive monument – it is both a landmark and an attraction point for the Orthodox community. The last pillar to dramatically influence the area with its actual and symbolic significance is the Ministry of Defense. The overbearing presence of security and surveillance cameras, accompanied with high walls and narrow sidewalks all contribute to the “hostile” atmosphere of this place.

Migrants’ Habitat

Yusuf from Tajikistan, 26

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Walking through the remnants of a former age, one can see who used to live here from the plaques on the houses. There was a mystic aura here, once upon a time, attracting artists to this area. Apart from the tourists and temporary dwellers, there are few artists living here now; here and there a Steppenwolf appears. Entering a supermarket after midnight, we meet a guy from Tajikistan; We have seen him before, and we see his friends around all the time.

They clean the entrances of the buildings, the streets in the area, they take away the garbage and repair the broken pipes in the sidewalk. Dreaming of a day off, an alarm wakes them up in a two–bedroom apartment, 19 of them. Standing in a line to enter the bathroom, we doubt anyone has the privilege of taking a nice and relaxing 30 minutes bath, like the neighbor next– door. There are people in the city center still fighting for a minimal existence.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Migrant workers are usually treated as invisible by the city dwellers. Yet without these “orange ants” the city would descend into dirt

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AN ANCHORED ARBA Contemporary movie director A. Zvagintsev reveals a dark side of Ostozhenka. Its dwellers suffer from depression, commit crimes and, eventually, die.

A scene from the movie “Elena”, A. Zvyagintsev, 2011

IT’S HARD TO SAY WHAT I LIKE IN OSTOZHENKA, OUR PROJECTS OR THOSE OF OTHERS …

THERE ARE NO PEOPLE, YOU CAN SEE ONLY SECURITY GUARDS IN BLACK SUITS. THIS IS NOT A CITY, THIS IS A TYPE OF BANK VAULT, WHERE MONEY IS PROTECTED FROM INFLATION. WHAT IS THIS ARCHITECTURE FOR, THEN? THERE IS NOTHING IN THE PLACE OF THE AREA, WHICH ONCE HAD ITS OWN FACE, ITS OWN CHARACTERISTICS, ITS LIFE. EMPTY SPACE THAT COSTS A FORTUNE — Alexander Skokan, head architect of Ostozhenka group

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A Golden Mine and a Black Hole In the part of the area framed by the Prechistenskaya Embankment, Garden Ring, Ostozhenka Street and the Church of Christ the Saviour, we find the most expensive real–estate in Moscow, and one of the most expensive in the world. Property prices here reach the whopping amount of $30,000 per square meter. This place has been called a “gold mile”, a name given in early 2000 by developers and supported by investors and real estate representatives to emphasise the prestige and luxury of the area. At the end of the 20th century, old Ostozhenka became a platform for a construction boom and architectural experiments, and was invaded by developers. It was the least densely populated area in the center of Moscow back then, and thus was easier to handle. Its proximity to the Kremlin and embankment made it an attractive spot for investment in the new economic conditions (the post–Soviet market economy).

Many old buildings were demolished to make way for expensive housing complexes designed by leading architects, awaiting well–off future dwellers. According to the initial Ostozhenka reconstruction plan made by the Ostozhenka architectural bureau, further construction should have followed the guidelines and codes devised in line with previous urban planning patterns in order to maintain the historical layout of the territory. However, these guidelines were not observed. The face of Ostozhenka has changed dramatically. Now it is a mixture of elegant dwelling units, expensive fitness clubs, beauty salons, offices, with a lack of such basic public facilities as shops or kindergartens. Today, properties in Ostozhenka are an indicator of the financial capabilities and social status of the owners. Ninety–five percent of Ostozhenka dwellers are representatives of big multi–national business companies (in energy, communications, and the media). The “Golden Mile” has become a brand, and now it has turned into a gold mine. Its value is increasing and although people do not live there, they buy apartments as an investment.

The Gold Mine is creating a black hole in the city. Its central location, combined with an enormous amount of housing stock, creates immense potential. However, because of the incredibly high real–estate prices, only a limited group of people can afford to exploit this potential.

We believe there must be a better way to make use of these existing possibilities.

Voice from Arbat

Professor Fyodor Nikolaevich lives in the old Constructivist building at the heart of Ostozhenka.

He has witnessed all the major changes that have happened in this area over the past 80 years. He has been living in this area since his childhood. Now he is 86 and is still giving lectures on Physics at the Moscow State University. He speaks good English and travels around a lot, attending various science conferences. His lifestyle is quite unusual for people of his generation. The Professor doesn’t talk to his neighbors much, and they represent a crazy blend of different social backgrounds, and incomes, from the nouveaux riches to “starozhily”, people, who have been living there from the old times. “Many of my neighbors are relatively young people, there are only two old people here – me and an old lady who walks her dog every evening.” — he said. “These people are not Muscovites, and most of them are quite rich. It is terribly difficult to organize a collective meeting with them.” In the 90s, during the development boom, developers started to ask residents to move out, offering them apartments in different areas. The Professor initiated the creation of the Condominimum Partnership, which allowed the residents to privatize the land. That’s the reason why the house stayed here and escaped demolition.

It would be very difficult for the developers to move the people out of the house because of the land issue, nobody would want to deal with the legal issues. The Professors’ house is one of the few old houses left in this area, and it is the only example of active collective opposition of the local inhabitants to the intervention of developers. According to the Professor, all cozy corners with trees and many old houses that embodied the spirit of old Ostozhenka have disappeared. Now it has turned into a cold unfriendly environment with tall office–like buildings surrounding the house of the Professor, blocking its sunlight. The Professor is not positive about the future scenario of Ostozhenka. On the other hand, he cannot imagine moving anywhere else, because his house is an important part of his life.

Olya, a 23 year old student from Arzamas, working part–time in one of the chain restaurants located on New Arbat, could never imagine being able to find a place to live here. She lives in a so–called “hostel” located in one of the apartments of the building on Novinsky Boulevard, right opposite the Lotte Plaza Hotel. Although she shares a room with 13 other girls, and has to wait in a long line for her turn to use the shower in the morning, she finds her dwelling decent enough. “The good thing is, my workplace is just five minutes walking distance from here, so I don’t have to use the Metro every morning unlike the rest of my colleagues and can sleep one extra hour. Plus, I always have time to eat my breakfast”, — she explains, smiling. Olya is sitting on her bed, gracefully applying mascara while talking. She is getting ready for a date with her boyfriend, whom she met at work. “We are thinking about moving in together in the next couple of months, he doesn’t want me to live in these conditions, but I don’t really mind. It’s fun, we often cook together with the other girls and even go out for a drink in the bar sometimes. It would be difficult for me to find friends in Moscow if I didn’t socialize like this. Sometimes we fight, when I’m trying to fall asleep and the others want to involve me in their conversations. But usually we try to think about the others’ comfort.”

Olya’s favorite part of the day is late evening, when she walks along New Arbat after work, staring at the shop windows and the colored illumination of the book–shaped buildings. She likes the rhythm and the noise of this area and she is trying to keep up with the beat.

Olya from Arzamas, 23

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Voice from Ostozhenka

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AN ANCHORED ARBA

New Dog Square is a perfect example how the memory of a place shifts from one physical space to another throughout time

The Heart of Old Arbat The Arbat has always been a symbol of Old Moscow.

It is a concentration of the intellectual and cultural genetic code of the city. In the small streets between Prechistenka and the Arbat, time seems to stand still, frozen, and there is a feeling that one is located in two parallel worlds. The first one is modern, while the second retains the imprint of different ages, and of the people who once came into contact with this space for a certain period of time. The streets of Old Arbat have experienced and witnessed many political and ideological changes. The Russian intelligentsia of poets, writers and artists lived here and devoted poems and songs to it. The Arbat used to be a keeper of the cultural code of Moscow, its cultural memory. However, as time passes by, the memory of old Arbat’s glory is slowly fading away. The content of the area, its cultural identity and its role for the city is changing, as well as its magnets. The demolition of Dog Square, in 1962 during the construction of New Arbat, was extremely painful for the city folk.

Dog Square was a small triangular square, where the royal hunting dogs were kept long ago. It meant a lot to local people and was associated with the heart of Old Arbat. After its demolition, Moscow dwellers preserved the memory of it as a virtual image of the Old Moscow spirit. Today, this heart seems to be

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reincarnated, as local dwellers have given its name to the small Spasopeskovskaya Square surrounded by trees with a miniature statue of Pushkin in the center, beside a church from which it takes its name.

Whether by coincidence or not, Polenov, the famous Russian painter, was once fascinated by the view from his window here, and depicted this place in his 1878 painting “Little Moscow Yard”.

Is there any special magnetic force in this place?

Walking around Spasopeskovskaya Square, we spotted a crowd of pigeons, teenagers playing the guitar and drinking beer, leaving empty bottles on the ground, and three old ladies, walking around in circles. We came up to them and struck up a conversation. “What do you call this square now?” — we asked. “We call it a shitty place, because lots of people walk their dogs here and never clean up after them, and also because it’s always full of homeless people. But we can’t imagine walking anywhere else.” — one of them replied. We wonder if the ghost of Dog Square will continue traveling in future or fade away.

In the Catwalk Backstage, towards an anchor point: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Catwalk

New Arbat’s buildings were constructed according to the taste of Nikita Khrushchev, who had just come back from his trip to Cuba, where he had been deeply impressed by the American–style skyscrapers. He decided to build something similar in Moscow, and New Arbat was the perfect site to experiment. It was one of the first injections of western culture into the life of the Soviet people and into the local urban Moscow fabric.

The alien nature of Arbat for the urban fabric of Moscow is emphasized by the nicknames given to it by Muscovites: “the Moscow overbite” and “two kilometers of Broadway”.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Standing in the middle of Spasopeskovskaya Square, looking around, one feels captured between two zones, two worlds. One is the backstage area of New Arbat, full of mysteries and hidden nostalgia, and other is the main stage — New Arbat itself, futuristic, shiny and dynamic. The border between two Arbats is drawn here, in the heart of old Moscow. From here the tall book–shaped buildings of New Arbat are visible, as if they were models promising a glimpse into the show and inviting us to go and have a closer look. If one takes a short walk from Spasopeskovskaya Square, finds the gap between the buildings on Merzlyakovsky Lane and dives in, one suddenly enters a completely different world. The spirit of Old Arbat is left behind and feels like a backstage compared to this place, which resembles a catwalk in the middle of some strange show. Here, tall giant clone buildings rise on both sides of the wide street: open books on one side and closed books on the other. This is New Arbat, a contemporary center with developed infrastructure for life, business, and entertainment; with bars, shops, and a cinema theater. Although it is not perceived as ultra–modern anymore, it still has a retro–futuristic image and its architecture is a reminder of its foreign origin. Conceived as a part of the general plan

in the 1960s, its book buildings were constructed in 1964. They were supposed to demonstrate that the capital of world communism was a modern and advanced city. Today, the perception of New Arbat is quite ambiguous; old Muscovites think that New Arbat is something completely alien and foreign; others perceive it as a natural part of Arbat. Some compare it with Narnia, some call it an old–fashioned futuristic place, yet others associate its atmosphere with the cyberpunk aesthetic. The feelings of people interviewed have one common point — they perceive New Arbat as an absolutely unique individual zone, which differs dramatically from its surroundings. It is a separate zone and at the same time, a border between the zones; it is a thing in itself, which lives its own individual life.

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AN ANCHORED ARBA

Temporary Arbat The Arbat is maintaining its position as one of the most expensive areas in central Moscow in terms of real estate value. Paradoxically enough, however, it is also an area with the biggest concentration of temporary dwelling, including high–end hotels, airbnb apartments, short–term rental apartments, hostels and family–run minihotels. a hostel is by far the most affordable type of accommodation for tourists with a low budget. Recently, another type of temporary dwelling has become available in this area, although it is not so obvious or visible. One can find many cheap apartment rental options, such as a room in the flat with other dwellers, or a place in a shared room. But there is also a rather curious option, which is even cheaper — the so–called “koiko–mesto”, or a bed in a shared room. We found several ads for “koiko–mesto” around New and Old Arbat. We arrived to check the place out at around 6 p.m. The first thing that we saw was a pile of various women’s shoes, which occupied almost the whole corridor space. The administrator showed us the room. It was a middle–size room with suffocating air and six bunk beds and cheap mobile–shelf storage. There were three other rooms for two and for four people, a big messy kitchen and shared bathroom. “How long can one stay here?” — we asked. “Minimum one week. Normally girls leave after one or two months, but we also have perma-

nent residents that have been living here for about a year, like that old woman, who is sharing a room for two. Some of the girls are students, some work in the center, and all of them have to live here due to life circumstances. We don’t let everyone in, we have to make sure that the newcomer doesn’t have an alcohol problem, is tidy and respects our rules.” The administrator pointed at a hand–written poster with the rules, hanging right next to the mirror. “And one important point, the bathroom can’t be occupied for longer than 20 minutes, and it should be cleaned after each use.”– she added. We thanked her and headed for the door.

The desire to live in the city center combined with financial scarcity paves the way for the development of different forms of collective dwelling, creating little voluntary communities of people who come to Moscow in pursuit of better career prospects and life opportunities. Ironically enough, former Arbat dwellers in Soviet times didn’t have any other choice but to live in the communal apartments, often facing the same conditions as in these so–called hostels for Moscow dwellers. Today more and more apartment owners in Arbat area rent their apartments out to others. It seems as though the temporary invisible dwellers of Arbat are becoming more and more visible and permanent. There’s nothing so permanent as the temporary.

N

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MAP OF TEMPORARY DWELLING: JUXTAPOSITION OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF TEMPORARY DWELLING PRAGA

Apart. Astra

Philip Guest House

Faro Hostel ART Hostel

Moscow Suites

B. Nikolopeskovsky 8

Bear Hostel Like Home

Narniya Hostel Bulgakov mini Malliot

Thomas Hostel Apart. Lux

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Lotte Plaza AVENUE NEW ARBAT

NOVINSKY BOULEVARD

Novinsky 7/1

500m

Hotel and hostel prices per night in RUB 300–800 1000–4000 5000–8000

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Versal Hotel

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AN ANCHORED ARBA

PHANTASMAGORICAL CATWALK INTERVIEWEES COMPARE NEW ARBAT WITH NARNIA, AN OLD–FASHIONED FUTURISTIC PLACE OR EVEN A CYBERPUNK ZONE. IT IS PERCEIVED AS A SURREAL WORLD OF ITS OWN

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CONCLUSION

Apart from economic and political factors, there is another variable influencing the future scenario of the area — its identity status. For instance, an identity shift in the Gold Mine will definitely affect the type of dwellers in the area, as well as the infrastructure and the rental opportunities, allowing temporary dwellers to use the zone. In this case, therefore, an identity shift could be stimulated by changing the vector of territory branding, which can be a top– down initiative, or by creating some experimental identity injections, allowing other types of dwellers to live here.

As tourists, migrant workers and Moscow newcomers stimulate the demand for affordable housing in the city center, temporary dwelling creates paradoxical combinations. Luxury hotels stand side by side with Soviet residential buildings which host private apartments, legal and illegal hostels. It is in this paradox that we see the opportunity to rethink and explore the existing potential, and create alternative ways of dwelling in the city center.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

The “Anchored Arba” is an area uniting 9 smaller unique sub–zones with different tempos into a single, bipolar unity. The two poles are represented by the inertia of the Gold Mine, and the rapid reaction speed of New Arbat with its spirit of freedom and experiment. There is a friction created between the poles, between the unused dwelling potential and the increasing demand for affordable housing in the center, which creates a vector for changing the dwelling paradigm. In the Gold Mine, the most important priority for dwelling is capital and status, whereas in Arbat it is time and convenience.

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HEART O CHAMBE

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OF BERS The Hidden World of Moscow Center

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Nicholas Moore and Sofia Novikova

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THE HEART OF CHAMBERS

THE HEART OF CHAMBERS A NEW DEFINITION OF THE URBAN BLOCK: THE CHAMBER IS DEFINED BY WIDE STALINIST STREETS AND BOULEVARDS (SEEN IN RED). INSIDE, EACH CHAMBER IS A DISTINCT MICROCOSM OF MOSCOW LIFE DEFINED BY THE CHARACTER OF THE YARDS (IN BLACK).

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Dwelling Government Culture Commercial Church Office Institutuion/University School Kindergarten Hospital Hotel Brezhnev exceptions Embassy Former dwelling Other/utility Restaurant Construction Metro Yard Streets

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THE HEART OF CHAMBERS

6.

Exterior and interior: the public border of Tverskaya frames the Chamber within

INTRODUCTION The Tverskoy neighborhood is thought of as the Heart of Moscow, but it is not a singular place.

Rather, it is a heart with many distinct Chambers, in which circulate extremes of Moscow society and culture, the wealthy and the desperate, the official with the clandestine. In exploring Moscow’s center, we discovered this structure of Chambers as we ventured from the principal streets, widened under Stalin, onto the winding paths of the yards between apartment buildings. We staked the borders of the Heart based on geographic and urbanistic features: the Valley of the Neglinnaya River to the east, and the other borders determined by the swift current of traffic on the Garden Ring and the subtle change in the city’s qualities south–west of Povarskaya Street. We believe that within the Heart we’ve defined, the Chambers are sub– zones that represent a sort of DNA of the center. The Heart of Chambers is home to fantastic luxury and monastic privation, immigrant workers and politicians, police squadrons and old couples who remember different times. Together, the Chambers of the Heart conceal a city center infinitely more nuanced than the slick rush of the main streets and shopping malls.

The area is intersected by arterial streets that radiate from the Kremlin, most notably Tverskaya—the main street of Moscow in the public imagination. The Boulevard Ring and the Garden Ring are the principal concentric streets of the region, tracing the successive fortifications of Moscow’s past. Most of the smaller streets are also concentric, rippling out from the Kremlin and pouring into the radial arteries. This circulation system of the Heart not only delineates the Chambers, but it also has spatial orders of its own, which contrast dynamism and passages with the stasis and enclosures of the Chambers.

Territory size: 395.7 hectares Official population: 23,190 Residential Buildings: 452 Density: 58.5 People/hectare M2 of housing: 1,161.303 Average M2/person: 50.1

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The streets have only outsides—indeed, the Russian word for “outdoors” is literally translated as “in the street.” The Chambers have outsides and, crucially, insides, courtyards removed from the streets. The outsides of the Chambers are best typified by Stalinist apartment blocks, which were built as borders to define grand routes through the city. These borders are firm but they are ambiguous: the border buildings are the walls of the circulation system, while they are also the enclosing structures of the Chambers. In many cases, especially on major streets, pedestrian and vehicular access passes through the ground floors of these buildings.

ISOLATED MICROCOSMS THE DISTINCT CHAMBERS OF THE HEART, WITH EMPHASIS ON THE SPACE IN BETWEEN

2. The Mute Quarter 1. The Chamber of Balanced Chaos

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5. The International Hand 7. The Kremlin’s Belt

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CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

8. The Sponge Composition

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THE HEART OF CHAMBERS Stalinist edges: Tverskaya façades create an iconic public trajectory through the heart of Moscow

The Usadba type through the years.

In spite of different political and economic regimes, we observe a consistent relationship between building, site, and street.

From top: 19th century bourgeois mansion; Brezhnev–era apartment block for elites; Luzhkov–era luxury apartments

Though Stalin’s projects are the most ambitious examples of this border characteristic, his built works follow patterns previously established in Moscow’s history. Stalin’s monumental street enlargements further isolated Chambers between the arteries, but Moscow’s smallest blocks already showed signs of aggregation following Napoleon’s invasion of the Russian capital.

The center of Paris maintains the character of medieval density, with tight courtyards wedged between buildings; Barcelona’s Eixample is a grid of regular blocks with a calculated amount of open space within each block. Unlike these two examples of urban planning, Moscow lacks a certain relationship between buildings and unbuilt space. The Heart of Chambers especially is a zone with multiple block typologies, the result of multiple historical patterns and moments of trauma intersecting on the ground. There is a mix of medieval blocks that survived destruction in the fire of 1812, 19th century fabric built up afterwards, the dramatic modifications of Soviet planning, first under Stalin, then under Khrushchev and Brezhnev, and finally the new development since the fall of the USSR. Moscow was never designed as a collection of courtyard blocks, but the medieval monastery, with fortified boundaries surrounding protected buildings, is a prototypical example of much

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Figure/Ground diagram showing the structure of blocks and the patterns of circulation that define the Heart of Chambers

The Heart of Chambers is dominated by the Monastic type, but frequently Chambers exhibit examples of hybridization between types. Different Chambers conceal radically different programs, but the circulatory exteriors unite them with masks of publicly experienced identity. Tverskaya, radiating through the entire Heart of Chambers, is a clear example of this. Walk-

Variations on the Yard: Interior of a monastery; residential courtyard between apartment buildings; communal labyrinth of ad–hoc construction and historic remnants

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

urban fabric visible today. This typology, defined by streets and border buildings, is designated the “Monastic Chamber” typology. There are counterexamples to the Monastic type: the Usadba Chamber type and the Extrusion Chamber type. In tsarist times, an usadba was a noble family’s palace, built as a city residence. The name contains the root ‘sad,’ meaning garden, and the houses were generally built away from streets, with protected land in front and behind. Following this pattern, elites—from the industrial bourgeois, to Soviet apparatchiks to Russia’s nouveau riche—have constructed isolated dwellings in specific areas. These Usadba Chambers are defined by streets and gated land. The Extrusion type is a lot extruded by construction. It is the product of mechanized space, usually in the service of capitalism or entertainment. The prototypical examples are the Bolshoi Theater and the GUM department store with its glazed roofs.

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THE HEART OF CHAMBERS

Tsvetnoy Boulevard follows the valley of the Neglinnaya River, visible in the center of the 1771 map below

Residential Availability in the Heart of Chambers: approximately 4,000 listings for the area on cian.ru; approximately 125 apartments and rooms for rent on airbnb (compared with 4,500 temporary stay apartments for rent in the entire center).

Price range: Low: hostel rooms on Tverskaya, 30 m2 room for up to 6 people, minimum ₷250 RR/night (adjusted according to demand).

High: Granatny Lane 6: six room apartment of 381m2. Total price $11.9 million ($31,000/m2)

ing or driving its length, one experiences a continuous strip of retail, food–service, offices, and cultural institutions. The circulatory structure is that of a fractal: as the grain of circulation diminishes, it winds into the hidden parts of the Heart. Moving through the borders of the main streets, from the breadth of Tverskaya Street down to the winding foot–paths behind the Izvestia complex, circulation gradually becomes entwined with–and indistinguishable from–the yards of the Chambers.

Within the Chambers, the traffic and public destinations of the streets lose influence to the yard. The yard is neither public nor private space, but rather common space, between and behind the streets and the houses. The yard is where cars park, where there are playgrounds and schools, where one has to explore to find a shop in the basement, where one enters the house.

In many cases, there are gates and fences that limit passage to different areas. Often, these are an attempt to prevent cars from clogging the already crowded space. However, there are many fences, controlled by electronic keypads, that also limit pedestrian passage. Since the fall of the USSR, the number of these fences has gradually increased, fragmenting the common space and interrupting the local flows of citizens who use these unmarked paths through and between the Chambers.

Terrain & Conditions The Heart of Chambers is bisected by Tverskaya Street. Widened as part of Stalin’s modifications of the city, Tverskaya leaves Red Square and heads uphill to the north–east. Radial streets define four quarters of the territory: Bolshaya Nikitskaya, Tverskaya, and Petrovka. The gradient of dwelling thins out along these roads as they approach the Occupation Zone and the Kremlin (see chapter “The Occupation Zone” for details on this area). Where there were once walls of the city, there are now major ring roads: the Boulevard Ring and the Garden Ring. Along with Tverskaya, these are some of the most significant streets in the public image of Moscow. Tverskaya crosses the Boulevard Ring at Pushkinskaya Square, considered the central public place of the city.

The territory is bounded on the east by the Valley of the Neglinnaya River. The river has endured successive modifications: it was canalized, then buried in engineered piping (hence “Trubnaya” metro), which was subsequently modified to assuage periodical floods. The buried river still runs under Tsvetnoy Boulevard, Neglinnaya Street, around the Kremlin and into the Moscow River. The opposite boundary, in the south–west, is formed by Povarskaya Street (behind and to the north of Novy Arbat) and Vozdvizhenka Street, which dead–ends into Manezhnaya Square in front of the Kremlin.

The Heart of Chambers contains some of the best–known sites of Moscow, including the Bolshoi Theater and Patriarshiye Ponds. It is home to numerous theaters, governmental offices and institutions. Several prominent shopping streets have been redesigned as pedestrian– only promenades. As the symbolic heart of the city, it is seen as a glamorous and desirable place to be.

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CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Yard Operations: Conicting forces produce mutant spaces within the Chambers

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THE HEART OF CHAMBERS

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Disorder, built and unbuilt: dense construction contrasts with the experimental public spaces of the Hermitage Gardens in the east.

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CHAMBERS OF THE HEART It is the Heart of Moscow, but it is not a singular place. We identify the following Chambers of Moscow’s Heart:

1. The Chamber of Balanced Chaos TVERSKAYA — PETROVKA BETWEEN GARDEN RING AND BOULEVARD RING Between the public bands of the Garden Ring and the Boulevard Ring, the Chamber of Balanced Chaos is a yin–yang of urban phenomena. One half is a zone of chaotic building, while the other half is a zone of chaotic open space. It is possible that this chaos is, however, both symptom of and recipe for building opportunity in the Heart of the city.

The Chamber of Balanced Chaos is a hybrid of the Monastic type and the Usadba type. The western half of the Chamber, including the Izvestia publishing complex, is a frenzy of building. Its yards are a labyrinth of sheds, offices, and garages; construction is underway throughout, but with no apparent order. Instead, everything follows the logic of the cars parked in the yard: anything, anywhere, with no indication of a way out. It is said that Izvestia itself is a permanent construction site, the result of a mysterious real–estate deal.

The eastern half of the Chamber, including the Hermitage Gardens entertainment park, is disorderly disurbanism. Lacking coherent form, the park is a collection of successive experiments in public diversion. Temporary pavilions are scattered between several permanent the-

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Experimental urban voids. Above: the Hermitage Gardens in the 19th century.

Source: wikimedia.org

aters, which were established in the beginning of the 20th century. On this disurbanized half, there are numerous schools, but other than the border wall of housing along the Garden Ring, dwellings are sparse. Former usadbas (now converted to offices and embassies) face Malaya Dmitrovka, the street between these two faces of chaos. The prominent border streets of this Chamber distract from its disorder, allowing the disorder to persist.

KARETNYY RYAD – TSVETNOY BOULEVARD The most monastic of all Chambers, the Mute Quarter keeps its secrets. It is the home of the Moscow Police Criminal Investigation Department (nicknamed “Petrovka 38”), but the presence of detectives seems to discourage residents from saying much about the neighborhood.

Residential buildings, mostly built in the early 20th century, are in good order, with fresh, matching paint. Many surrounding businesses and clubs support police or military customers. In the north and east, the Garden Ring and Tsvetnoy Boulevard border the Chamber with housing and public shopping, dining and entertainment (why must the police surround themselves with circuses?), but on the south, the Mute Quarter crosses the Boulevard to include the High Monastery of St. Peter and a block totally enclosed around the Dynamo skating rink and sports club. These silent blocks are supportive neighbors for the Occupation Zone and its front lines.

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CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

2. The Mute Quarter

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THE HEART OF CHAMBERS

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Density of the Devil: the Devil’s Development has a high density of residential buildings, giving it a strong neighborhood character unusual for Moscow.

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3. The Devil’s Development PATRIARSHIYE PRUDY – MALAYA BRONNAYA – TVERSKAYA In The Devil’s Development, residents make a Faustian Bargain: to savor life in the neighborhood that feels least like Moscow, they must suffer the process of living in Russia’s preeminent gentrification test case. While many cities have gentrifying quarters, this one is marked by the special combination of Russian money and the Russian penchant for ‘Byzantine’ excess, as a life–long resident remarks. There are no half–measures here. Of all the Chambers, The Devil’s Development is most dense with residential buildings. It is also dense with myths, particularly the one of its desirability. Those who heed its siren call can promenade ‘round Patriarshy Pond, brunch as though they were in Manhattan, ‘but you can’t find anywhere to fix a zipper!’ The scale of the neighborhood, its pond as a focal point, and its mix of grand and everyday buildings, give it a unique feel, that one is somehow transported out of Moscow.

Yet the Devil exacts his price for living this dream. Living here is expensive; residents are relatively wealthy, but they also hire many domestic servants to distribute the labor of daily life. Concierges, cleaners, and nannies are among the dwellers who do not actually sleep here each night. These people form a second, phantom population, nearly invisible, but integral to the functioning and life of the area. Behind the scenes of daily life here, they do the heavy lifting and the dirty work, and form communities of their own, based on their national origins, their places of residence, or their places of work.

As real–estate prices rise inexorably, the Chamber is increasingly populated by Moscow’s nouveau–riche. The small businesses that supported daily life—greengrocers, tailors, florists—are forced out by expensive cafés, spa services, and shops, all vying for the patronage of the wealthy.

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Image source: nancystan.wordpress.com

The Nomadic Nanny AS NARRATED BY HER EMPLOYER IN THE DEVIL’S DEVELOPMENT “I came to know A. by chance, through an ex–schoolmate. She was the first and the last candidate I talked to, and with us she remained (but I lived in a different part of the city at that time). She is originally from Kharog, a small town in the mountains of Pamir which used to be the highest village of all the USSR. The mountainous area is now part of Tajikistan, bordering on Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Ironically, it is exactly where my parents met back in the 1960s, so there is even a link to our family.

A.’s mother is a theatrical actress, quite well–known in Dushanbe (the republic’s capital), and since there is hardly any work (or money) to be found there, her three other sisters have all come to Moscow and work as nannies with some friends of mine (two of them — also around Patriarch’s Pond).

However, the good thing about the Pamir community in Moscow is that it’s very strong and organized. Together they try to invent solutions for the ever–tightening immigration laws, and they also collect money and provide all sorts of help for those in difficulties, either medical or legal (one of her compatriots works in a luxury tableware boutique next to our building, they come from the same town).

Poor A. was in the very middle of the anti–immigration uprisings in Biryulyovo last fall. In December, fearing the new regulations, the landlord drove them out, so she stayed mostly with friends or relatives living outside Moscow (Three hours spent commuting every day), and now when her elder sister comes back (mid–March), we are embarking on yet another flathunt, hoping to find something at least close to the Metro.”

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Unfortunately, it is quite hard to come by a place to live in Moscow if you are not Russian. When I first met A., she was staying with a couple of relatives in a poorly refurbished two–room flat at Prazhskaya Metro station, in the far South of Moscow, and had to travel for an hour in order to get to work. After five months, it turned out that the flat had been bought on a loan but the landlady, though duly collecting the rent from them, had never paid the bank. So the bailiffs turned up and confiscated the place along with the nanny’s belongings. After that she stayed with a relative, sleeping on a sofa in the kitchen, and it took us three months to find a new place where the owner could be convinced to allow my nanny and a cousin of hers inside, signing the contract with me for fear of their sudden disappearance.

Since then, she had to change places three times and it was always a nightmare, especially since estate agents in Moscow are fundamentally fascist. Each time a solution is found, the nannies have to fit more than one person per room. At one point, A. had to share a very small room with two of her children, a boy of 16 and a girl of 15. Now they have finished school, the boy is getting married in St. Petersburg and the girl is back in Dushanbe with their grandmother, maintained by A. who is sending back home three quarters of her salary to pay back the bank loan for the girl’s studies and the cost of her living.

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THE HEART OF CHAMBERS Walking the Front Line: on the left, black luxury cars for ministers; on the right, a recently created pedastrian zone

4. The Front Line of the Occupation TVERSKAYA – NEGLINNAYA SOUTH OF THE BOULEVARD The Occupation Zone has a front line. But the occupiers—government offices, security agencies, and luxury shopping—aren’t all allies. The Front Line of the Occupation is the site of a bitter struggle for domination of the territory. As the Moscow Mayor’s office tries to transform Tverskaya Square into the main public space of the city, it enacts pedestrian friendly legislation on the surrounding area. The Front Line of the Occupation has the most pedestrian streets in the city, which are loved by retailers and pedestrians alike. When Bolshaya Dmitrovka was pedestrianized, however, there was outcry among the ministers of the Federal Council of Russia, who demanded vehicular access to their building.

The chamber has large blocks, arranged in an almost–perpendicular grid. Several large buildings were moved as Stalin widened Tverskaya, creating layers of density in the yards. Most dwellings in this area are expensive and in demand, but there are numerous hostels that operate at low rates. For a bunk and 6 m² of personal space, one can pay as little as 250 rubles per night (though price changes with demand). Immigrant workers live in many of these dormitories, trying to avoid persecution by both landlords and local anti–immigrant activists. Like the politicians versus the retailers, low–income immigrants are another example of those struggling for this battleground Chamber.

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The profile of a new type of resident: the absent inhabitant rents out his apartment for most of the year, when he lives abroad

The Absent Inhabitant FRONT LINE OF THE OCCUPATION Ivan has two apartments at Tverskaya 4, numbers 113 and 114. He does not say how he came to have these neighboring flats, but his mother was born in the larger of the two, 114, as was he. Now Ivan spends most of his time in Hollywood. When he visits Moscow he lives in 113, with his books, his sheet music, and the piano his grandfather left.

Ivan makes 8,000 rubles per night on the flat. By the end of the year, the apartment has made him over 2 million rubles, plus the extra million and a half from number 114. Flat 114 is rented to a young lawyer and his girlfriend on an annual contract. Ivan hires the friend of a friend to handle the details, Evgeniy.

Evgeniy also sold Ivan the apartment where his (Ivan’s) mother and grandmother live, in a new building near the MKAD.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Ivan visits Moscow in July and for a week at New Year. He rearranges the books that have been misplaced; if he is very drunk or has a guest, he plays the piano with the rote ease of one who gave up music after a childhood of disciplined study.

The rest of the year, he rents 113 to tourists for short stays. The apartment is almost always occupied, over ninety percent of the time. Close to Okhotny Ryad, it faces the Telegraph building, and has a view from the balcony towards the Kremlin. Two years ago, Ivan invested in a remodeling of the flat, in the popular “Yevroremont” style, which fetches higher rental prices.

Ivan is a prototypical character in 21st century Moscow. a child of the USSR, he inherited privatized apartments as a young man. Granted a degree of freedom by the rental income from these properties, he lives and works where he pleases while maintaining a pied–à–terre close to his roots. He, like others of his generation, is making new, personal definitions for the ideas of ‘home’ and ‘dwelling.’ He dwells on two opposite sides of the Earth, rents his ancestral dwelling–place to strangers, and comes home to see his living family members in the type of apartment that has come to dominate Moscow today. The apartments on Tverskaya Street are his almost only in name; most of the time, he dwells far from the noise of the street, far from the Yevroremont. Paradoxically, it is the value of his connection to Moscow that enables to enjoy his globalized freedom.

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THE HEART OF CHAMBERS At Stay Hungry’s house, the domestic goes to work for a clientele seeking community

A House is Not (Just) a Home A SUPPER CLUB IN THE INTERNATIONAL HAND Stay Hungry is an idea with a home. It is a supper club with periodic dinners organized via facebook, and its creators, three young women, have rented it a dedicated apartment in the center of Moscow. The bedroom is rented to a barber. The bathroom door doesn’t lock. The kitchen is standard. The dining room is exceptional. It has a concave wall, giving the table—which seats twenty—plenty of space. The furnishings are those of a private home, although there is a larger than average collection of dishes and tableware stacked on shelves and tables around the room. While the idea of the supper club is new to Moscow, Stay Hungry’s larger innovation may be their redefinition of “dwelling.”

By selecting one band of the spectrum of activities that take place in the home, and maximizing the home for only that purpose, we can imagine dedi-

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cated houses springing up all over the center. These are urban amenities with a domestic character, an antidote to the familiar commercial services and with two distinct benefits: embedded in residential buildings, they are hidden from official controls, allowing for mutations to develop in the city’s structure of programs. This results in a second benefit, a service or periodic event that is based on a managed social circle. As the organizers of Stay Hungry admit, the food they make is in some ways an excuse; their greatest product is the group of interesting people that they assemble around the table. One can imagine an apartment full of washing machines with a chic espresso bar, or a group of friends investing in an apartment to rent for temporary stays, or a bibliophile opening her library to friends and sponsoring wine–tastings on Thursdays.

Just as communications technology has allowed small cultures to emerge and come together in cyberspace, so might it aid affinity groups as they seek new ways to inhabit the standard spaces of the megacity.

Sketch plan of an apartment at Spiridonovka 18, built for members of the Supreme Soviet, showing small bedrooms and inflated auxiliary spaces.

Source: cian.ru

The Brezhnev Exceptions In the Brezhnev era, the Soviet housing machine reached its apotheosis. From 1964 until 1982, 1.6 billion square meters of residential space were constructed, granting 161 million people across the USSR new homes. The vast majority of these dwellings were apartments in mass–produced, standardized buildings made of prefabricated components. They were designed according to Khrushchyov’s famous dictate to architects: an emphasis on the necessary, not the beautiful. Standards established that the maximum necessary living space was five square meters per person (later increased to nine). Brezhnev inherited protocols, techniques, and technology developed under Khrushchyov, and implemented them to build Soviet citizens houses at full speed throughout his reign.

ovka,” a typical five–storey apartment building for the masses, a one–bedroom apartment might amount to 30 m², a two–bedroom to 45 m², and a three–bedroom to 55 m². In contrast, a “tsekashki” apartment (from the abbreviation Ts.K., for Central Committee) of two bedrooms might have a net living space of 75 m², 105 m² for three bedrooms, or 130 m² for four bedrooms.

The buildings were surrounded by closed yards, and had multiple elevators, as well as ground floor accommodation for servants and security personnel.

Often, these houses were clustered in desirable locations, sometimes known as “royal villages.” The most outstanding example is the group of six houses on Spiridonovka Street and Granatny Lane, home to generals, Secretaries of the Supreme Soviet, movie stars and the like. Spiridonovka 18 was built for the members of the Supreme Soviet. Apartments featured high ceilings, a balcony, a winter garden, two bathrooms, and extensive glass to brighten the space. a tenth floor apartment, with total floor area of 170 m², was recently on the market for $2.95 million (see illustrations).

Perhaps the most famous apartment was built on the sixth floor of Granatny Lane number 10. The entire floor was designed to be the residence of Leonid Brezhnev, and was given unusually high ceilings. This is evident from the street, where the apartment’s windows are clearly taller than those of other storeys.

Brezhnev claimed he could never live in such a grand apartment, and gave it to his daughter, Galina, instead.

She made good use of the extra head room.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

In this period, however, another class of housing was built—the Brezhnev Exception. Using their governmental budgets, powerful ministries and institutions constructed extraordinary apartment buildings for their respective elites. Like common people, the elites were granted a necessarily small number of square meters for their living space. In order to build privileged spaces, ministries exploited a loophole in the regulations: the difference between “living space,” including bedrooms and living rooms, and “useful living space,” halls, balconies, kitchens, pantries, bathrooms, and closets. The elite, therefore, slept in relatively small bedrooms, but enjoyed luxuriously inflated spaces for their daily life. In a so–called “Khrushchy-

Galina Brezhneva demonstrates the height of elite ceilings. Source: tapirr.livejournal.com

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5. The International Hand POVARSKAYA — BOLSHAYA NIKITSKAYA These narrow, finger–like blocks are packed with embassies, many of which inhabit usadbas.

Their influence is visible in the shops and supermarkets of the area, where shopkeepers maintain international standards of quality and cleanliness. It is a buffer territory between the historic urban fabric to the north and the rift of Novy Arbat to the south. The yards here are tightly controlled; official offices and embassies maintain security perimeters and patrol their fenced borders with guards and cameras. Because of the security measures, one is forced to use public streets rather than navigating the yards in search of shortcuts.

6. The Elite Pastures MALAYA BRONNAYA — SPIRIDONOVKA — MALAYA NIKITSKAYA The most prestigious quarter of the city center is the most pastoral. In the Chamber of Elite Pastures, an ancient relationship between power and land is illustrated: the houses of the Moscow elite are surrounded by gated grounds. The Usadba Chamber type is strikingly evident, with isolated buildings of different centuries coexisting among open space. The blocks are narrow, and in many cases, building lots stretch all the way across them, creating two sides of street access. These blocks reflect the medieval form of the neighborhood: after the fire of 1812, new houses were built but the streets were not reorganized. The Brezhnev Exceptions are prime examples of the ways in which dwellings of the powerful mutated from the tsarist palace to the Soviet apartment block without losing their separated relation to the city. New housing developments and luxury services and amenities suggest that this area will be home to Moscow elites throughout the 21st century, just as it was in the 20th, 19th, 18th. . .

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CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Hybrid child of the Sponge Composition: official art meets surveillance at the headquarters of Art4.ru

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7. The Kremlin’s Belt BOLSHOI KISLOVSKY — GAZETNYY TO THE KREMLIN The Kremlin’s Belt separates Moscow from the Kremlin, but it is the base from which an array of official opinions and ideologies are launched, consequently bringing the city closer to the Kremlin. There are almost no dwellings in this area; rather, it is a band of the city’s most prominent institutions, as well as important governmental offices. The area is composed mostly of Monastic Chambers; they hold faculties of Moscow State University (Africa and Asia, Psychology, Zoology, Journalism), scienctific museums, the State Duma, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the offices of the Moscow Metro, first–class hotels, as well as the Bolshoi Theater, Manege exhibition hall, and TSUM department store. Farther south, mixing with the Aztozhenka region, the Belt swells to meet the Boulevard ring, enclosing the General Staff Building of the Russian Armed Forces, the Ministry of Defense, the Lenin State Library, the Pushkin Museum, and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. An area of official influence, it is a counterpart to the Zone of Occupation, but it’s cultural and academic programs orient it more towards ideas, the public, and the outside world.

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8. The Sponge Composition VOZDVIZHENKA — TVERSKAYA BETWEEN THE BOULEVARD RING AND BOLSHOI KISLOVSKY — GAZETNYY The power of Tverskaya’s identity is juxtaposed by a Chamber with no distinct identity at all.

The Sponge Composition is a weak field of the city center. Surrounded by strong forces on all sides, it gives in to all of them, soaking up their influences wherever it has to. It is the most diverse Chamber: it is composed of a Brezhnev Exception, usadbas, Stalinist blocks, embassies, an Anglican church, theaters, museums and institutions, the Mayor’s office, hotels, and federal offices mixed together. Bolshaya Nikitskaya street runs through the middle of the Chamber, enlivening the short route between the Elite Pastures and the Kremlin’s Belt. The Moscow Conservatory is here, with many of its students housed in dormitories nearby. Historically, it was home to the chosen artists and composers of the USSR; their names on plaques — and projects by Zurab Tsereteli — still make claims that the area is an artist’s quarter. In spite of this, little art emerges from this absorptive territory. In the north–east, the offices of the Moscow Mayor gaze longingly towards Tverskaya Square, across Tverskaya street rushing by.

Compared with the volume of the street, the yards of this Monastic chamber are subdued, populated mostly by workers sweeping and security guards lingering by their booths. Recently, bus–loads of police lived in buses parked outside of the Ukrainian Embassy, playing on their phones and waiting for trouble. This is typical of the area: one invasion, quietly waiting for the next to arrive, to change the character of the sponge once again.

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CONCLUSIONS The Heart of Chambers is a diverse territory concealed behind the fa�ades of famous Moscow streets. It is proof that the city is not what it appears, but rather is layers and regions of mixed influences. For all the strength of its image, behind the scenes the Heart of Chambers is a soft zone, adaptive, flexible, and holding diverse enclaves. There is no hiding from rising prices, but the different Chambers are evidence that Moscow has yet to succumb to luxury homogenization, and they offer the dweller numerous refuges and alternatives. There are comfortable apartments in the Heart that are affordable on the salary of a young professional, and for all of the services forced out of the area, there are signs that demand for quality service and experiences will be met in inventive ways.

Regardless of the moves of the government, the people in the Heart of Chambers — those who are residents and those just passing through — are in most cases hard–working, inventive, and mobile. They circulate through the Heart, bearing ideas and desires, and they mix these notions into their worlds. As they do, they extend the myths and potentials of Moscow’s center, offering a kaleidoscope version of Moscow’s true nature, and enticing others to join them in its creation.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

The government is omnipresent in the federal capital, but within the Chambers, one senses relief from (or at least the indifference of) the state. It is possible that the disorderly may be the site of greatest potential: in the Chamber of Balanced Chaos, the combination of open ground and insanely built–up yards may offer ideal conditions for interventions, either official or implanted surreptitiously. If governmental offices do not leave the center, it is possible that they will continue to swell, forcing out yet more dynamic segments of the city. Alternatively, government's departure (rumored to be in the planning process) would create a vacuum in the center, undoubtedly catalyzing battles for real estate as would–be developers, residents, and retailers warred over new lines of occupation.

View from within: isolated from the crowds, traffic, and façades of the major streets, the Chambers are unique elements in the heterogeneous city center

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OCCUPA ZONE

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ATION The very central part of Moscow, once heavily populated, is now taken over by the presidential administration, various ministries, the FSB, MIA, a military university and, at the same, time by luxury retail, hotels, banks, offices and churches

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Dima Averyanov and Yana Mazol

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OCCUPATION ZONE Building of the Presidential Administration on Bolshoy Cherkassky Pereulok, 500 meters from Red Square, Friday, 5PM

INTRODUCTION

Definition

OCCUPATION ZONE. YOU WILL NEVER FIND THIS ZONE ON ANY OFFICIAL MAP OF MOSCOW

Territory size: 150 hectars Official population: 576 people

ON THE AREA OF 1500 KM THERE ARE ONLY 17 LIVING HOUSES LEFT WITH 576 OFFICIALLY REGISTERED PEOPLE. THAT’S WHERE THE MIRACULOUSLY LOW DENSITY COMES FROM: APPROXIMATELY 4 PEOPLE PER HECTARE, WHILE OFFICIAL MOSCOW DENSITY IS 47 PEOPLE PER HECTARE

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There is no such administrative district; this name is unfamiliar to Muscovites. Yet, it is there, right next to the Kremlin — strangely empty at night, inhabited by invisible dwellers, luxurious, secretive, ever expanding and threatening at the same time. a simple stroll through the area at the heart of Moscow gives an impression of it being the Pantheon where gods live, dwell, drive and shop. The prestige of the territory is well indicated by billboards and shop windows carrying globally–known brand names which sell ideas of wealth and exclusivity. Being located in walking distance of the Kremlin is a privilege that only the elite and successful can afford. That’s why this area collects in itself all the most luxurious hotels and restaurants, banks and ministries, churches and clubs.

Literally, Occupation Zone is an area serving as a platform for only two functions: retail and power, with Red Square as an international Magnet that brings life to the territory throughout the year. Back in historical times, Red Square was used as a market place. Merchants from all over Moscow gathered there to sell their goods and provide services. It was an active and busy district. The area has carried its “retail” spirit down the years and, later, shops in the modern sense appeared. GUM and Okhotny Ryad became places of retail concentration. a generous number of tenement houses, hotels, banks and offices were built in the 19th century up against the old town wall by Staraya Square. Since the Soviets came to power and Moscow regained its status as capital, the situation has changed and a massive occupation began: the private became collective, or state–owned, to be exact. All the inhabitants of the housing in Kitay Gorod were evicted to create a power enclave.

PROGRAMMATIC MAP

Primary governmental

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institutions borders

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AND SPREAD EASTWARDS FROM THE

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KREMLIN LIKE A CARCINOMA. IN DIFFERENT TIMES, THIS CARCINOMA GREW IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS. THE GOVERNMENT WAS ALWAYS A FORCE TO PROVOKE THE CARCINOMA EXPANSION

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Dwelling Hotels Banks and offices Administrative Churches Retail Culture and education

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OCCUPATION ZONE One of the streets that cross Nikolskaya is more of a storeroom in the very center than a nice street for strolling along: chaotically parked cars, constructions and flower beds form a dead end

Since 1919, governmental institutions have literally multiplied and started to spread outwards in all directions from the Kremlin like a carcinoma. Staraya Square became a synonym for top state management. During the Soviet era, the CPSU Central Committee was located on Staraya Square in the same buildings that are currently occupied by the Presidential Administration. What is happening now in the Occupation Zone hasn’t really changed conceptually since the Soviets came to power. Privatization hasn’t really had an impact on the condition of the core of the city center.

The numerous constructions that actually look like dwelling at a first glance are covered with mirror/glass camouflage, only raising questions of what is really happening behind. Who it is that is occupying these premises remains unknown or at least not easy to find out. a few passers by and the ubiquitous black Rolls Royces with the blue flashing cherry on top are the only signs of life in the area.

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CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

This entire old house on Big Lubyanka has been transformed into the security gates leading to one of the buildings of the FSB complex

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OCCUPATION ZONE

Occupied tenement house on Staraya Square with a new wall, in the same place where the old fortified Kitay Gorod wall used to stand.

Now it blocks a governmental parking lot from pedestrian access

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ANTI MAGNETS

Metro station

THERE ARE EIGHT METRO STATIONS

Popular route

IN OCCUPATION ZONE. BY OBSERVING

Unpopular route

PEDESTRIAN ROUTES FROM METRO STATIONS TO LUBYANKA, KITAY GOROD, PLOSCHAD REVOLUTSII AND KUZNETSKIY MOST IT BECOMES OBVIOUS THAT PEOPLE TRY TO AVOID OR MINIMISE CONTACT WITH OCCUPIED AREAS. THE REASON FOR THIS PHENOMENON IS THE ABSENCE OF PLACES OF INTEREST: SERVICES, AFFORDABLE RETAIL, CULTURAL SPACES THAT ARE NOT ORIENTED ONLY FOR TOURISTS. EMPTY WINDOWS ON THE GROUND FLOORS REMIND ABOUT RESTAURANTS AND BARS THAT TRIED TO BRING NEW LIFE STYLE TO THIS AREA. WHOLE BLOCKS IN THE CENTER OF MOSCOW ARE EXCLUDED FROM THE URBAN PEDESTRIAN FLOW. THE CITIZENS ARE NOT WELCOMED THERE DUE TO THE ATMOSPHERE OF CONTROL AND POWER

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

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OCCUPATION ZONE The only cars and drivers who don’t really care about Moscow traffic jams pass their days in boredom in the Occupation Zone . a blue light on the roof is a ubiquitous feature on the roads of Moscow and a hint as to such a car’s final destination

EMPTY WINDOWS ON THE GROUND FLOORS RECALL THE RESTAURANTS AND BARS THAT ONCE TRIED TO BRING A NEW LIFE STYLE TO THIS AREA. WHOLE BLOCKS IN THE CENTER OF MOSCOW ARE EXCLUDED FROM THE URBAN PEDESTRIAN FLOW. THE CITIZENS ARE NOT WELCOME THERE DUE TO THE ATMOSPHERE OF CONTROL AND POWER

THE ESSENCE OF THE OCCUPATION ZONE

Kitay Gorod

Red Square is connected with the original Kitay Gorod by Ilyinka, Varvarka and Nikolskaya streets. Each of these streets has earned a “pedestrian” respect among citizens and visitors. It still remains a quiet and peaceful area for a walk. Varvarka, for example, is renowned as a street with an outstanding collection of ancient Orthodox churches and monasteries. The connector of Red Square and Lubyanka — Nikolskaya Street — was pedestrianized in 2013. This area now escapes the attention of the authorities and remains a busy and crowded street of interest with a collection of luxurious retail, expensive restaurants and presidential level hotels, as well as old churches and cultural landmarks.

The governmental district in Kitay Gorod between Ilyinka and Varvarka streets provides for the concentration of the presidential administration, key ministries and agencies in one place, in order to minimise and reduce the interdepartmental movement in Moscow. This area is under development at the moment.

The amount of fences and other barriers only adds to the mystery and results in almost no pedestrian traffic. a big country needs a big state establishment; more control by the authorities requires more buildings. Governmental institutions take over and paralyze the oldest district of Moscow for their own needs. Active urban life in the Occupation Zone is recognisable only in pedestrian streets that are supported by culture facilities and retail. Deeper into the urban fabric of side streets, a feeling of boredom is in permanent residency.

The presidential administration has occupied the territory between Red and Staraya Squares since the reconstruction of the 14th Kremlin pavilion started in 2011.

In early 2015, the presidential administration is supposed to move back into the Kremlin, but the occupied territory will be transformed into a so–called governmental district.

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OCCUPIED DWELLING

Primary governmental

DURING THE LAST 100 YEARS, GOVERNMENTAL INSTITU-

institutions borders

TIONS HAVE LITERALLY MULTIPLIED AND SPREAD EASTWARDS FROM THE KREMLIN LIKE A CARCINOMA.

Extended governmental institutions borders

Church

MIA Central Bank FSB Lubyanka

19

ay

ar

Kitay Gorod

St

20

S

Hotels and retail

a ua

Sq

S

Sq

ua

re

19

70

re

Re d

Kremlin

0

Zaryadye Military academy

0

100

Scale 1:10,000

500

1000m

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

198

Ministries

S

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OCCUPATION ZONE DINAMO HOUSE AT THE JUNCTION OF BIG AND SMALL

FSB building in camouflage on Lubyanka 1

LUBYANKA, THE HUGE DINAMO BUILDING – INTENDED TO HOUSE SPORTING ORGANISATIONS — IS SITUATED. IT WAS BUILT BY THE ARCHITECTS IVAN FOMIN AND ARKADIY LANGMAN IN 1931.

THE CONSTRUCTION WAS INTENDED FOR THE OFFICES AND APARTMENTS OF USSR STATE POLITICAL ADMINISTRATION EMPLOYEES. THE HOUSE INCLUDED A KINDERGARTEN, CONFERENCE HALL, DINERS AND SHOPS ON THE GROUND FLOOR. IN 1940, ALL THE INHABITANTS AND SHOPS WERE TRANSFERRED TO A NEW SITE AT 1ST TVERSKAYA YAMSKAYA STR. 11; THE BUILDING ITSELF WAS OCCUPIED BY THE KGB. ALL APARTMENTS WERE SYMBOLICALLY ADAPTED INTO KGB AGENT’S OFFICES, AND THE KINDERGARTEN AND DINERS BECAME CLOSED ACCESS AREAS. TODAY THIS BUILDING IS OCCUPIED BY THE RUSSIAN FEDERAL SECURITY SERVICE (FSB) – MODERN HEIR TO THE SOVIET KGB – PUBLIC ACCESS INSIDE IS STILL PROHIBITED.

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FSB/MIA To the north–east of Red Square, a district of governmental defense institutions is located.

This includes the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) and various secret service institutions. All four blocks between Malaya Lubyanka and Rozhdestvenka street are lacking in pedestrian traffic and give the impression of a dead end.

By 1919 all private companies had been eliminated and their property was nationalized. The tenement house at 2 Bolshaya Lubyanka Street, after the eviction of all its residents, was taken over by the first Soviet security service, the NKVD. a building that used to be living house was transformed into a military fortress with internal prison in the center of the Moscow. The building was redesigned and extended in 1945 and 1984 to suit its new functions — more office facilities, a bigger jail and underground tunnels. Tenement house remains in use by the FSB as a part of complex buildings with the same fate, though the FSB headquarters is now located in the gray office building built in 1980 on the opposite side of Bolshaya Lubyanka.

The buildings along Lubyanka are of unknown use at a first glance. There are no signs or markings on the facades. Access inside is usually denied without special papers. The area from Dzerzhinsky Square to the the Boulevard Ring, more precisely between Malaya Lubyanka Street and Rozhdestvenka, is occupied by huge MIA and FSB facilities. Empty windows on the ground floors recall the restaurants and bars that once tried to bring a new life style to this area. Whole blocks in the center of Moscow are excluded from the urban pedestrian flow.

The citizens are not welcome there due to the atmosphere of control and power, which makes this places an anti magnet.

Public message on the wall of FSB office building on Big Lubyanka — A.C.A.B. , i.e. All Cops Are Bastards

Busy Neglinnaya Street, which holds the Bank of the Russian Federation, TSUM, office buildings, shops and hotels, is the last outpost of the Occupation Zone. Rozhdestvenka — a street running parallel to Neglinnaya – has quite a different spirit. The educational and religious institutions, as well as secret FSB objects, make the street sort of a gradient between the Occupation Zone and the rest of the city. These two streets take their beginnings from Teatralny Proyezd and Rozhdestvensky Boulevard and are intersected by Pushechnaya Street and Kuznetsky Most. This makes this area a point of pedestrian attraction that adds some extra life. The only life, in the sense of activity and human traffic in the area. With no exaggeration, tourists are the moving power of this traffic. This makes me think that the core of the Occupation Zone — luxury, retail, religion and power — is represented on these streets. The order on the streets gives the impression of a kind of set decoration that has been built on the stage where the government performs to give an exact impression of the city. Behind the facades of tenement houses — contemporary architectural relics — secret governmental objects are hidden. To the west of Rozhdestvenka, original vibrant urban life begins.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Neglinnaya and Rozhdestvenka

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OCCUPATION ZONE Kuznetsky Most is always crowded with tourists and glamorous life addicts. This is the mission of the street which represents both luxury and retail — two features of the Occupation Zone

Zaryadye as a victim of Soviet gentrification The territory of Zaryadye– the most undefined and huge site of experimentation and constant changes in the city center – is biding its time in the ruins of the demolished Hotel Rossiya. After the fire in 1812, Zaryadye was rebuilt with three–storied stone houses. Shops and warehouses were located on the lower floors while the upper floor were residential. This area was historically inhabited by merchants, craftsmen and market traders. This loud and dirty retail district became popular among the Jewish community. In 1930, all buildings were demolished to make way for the planned construction of the People’s Commissariat House, and then in 1947 – for one of Stalin’s eight skyscrapers. None of these projects were realised. The Hotel Rossiya that was finally built in Zaryadye would itself succumb to the fate of demolition in 2007.

The latest project for the development of Zaryadye has recently been set in motion. It is planned to lay out a park, a public space in the epicentre of political and administrative activities. This controversy raises some questions. Firstly, is the city government becoming more and more open–minded and ready to share such a golden piece of land for the leisure of its citizens, instead of implementing another billion dollar project? Secondly, will this place assimilate naturally into the specific urban fabric of the area in which mass celebrations of the nation turn into the kind of revelry that you might expect on the last day of the planet?

There is a myth that shatters this supposed intention to build a park: large scale architectural projects cannot be built in Zaryadye due to the existence of secret governmental tunnels.

Actually, will this Zaryadye Park even be built at all? Will the logic of the Occupation Zone allow democratic, Western–style development to exist on its territory? Could a new invasion of the invaded zone begin?

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OCCUPIED DWELLING

Legend:

DURING LAST 100 YEARS GOVERNMENTAL

Existing dwelling

INSTITUTIONS LITERALLY MULTIPLIED AND

Occupied dwelling

SPREAD ON THE EAST FROM KREMLIN LIKE A CARCINOMA

100

Scale 1:10,000

500

1000m

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

0

73

OCCUPATION ZONE Ruins of the Hotel Rossiya are waiting to become civic public space above KGB tunnels

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DURING THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN 2012, RUSSIAN PRIME MINISTER VLADIMIR PUTIN OFFERED TO CREATE NEW PARK ON THE RUINS OF HOTEL “RUSSIA”. THE FINAL COST OF THE PROJECT WAS ANNOUNCED BEFORE THE WINNING PROPOSAL. BILLION OF ROUBLES WAS PLANNED TO BE SPENT ON ZARYADYE PARK

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Winning proposal for Zaryadye Park, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The project is based on the principle of wild urbanism and contains many functions, which might bring change to the Occupation Zone landscape, if it is ever built

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OCCUPATION ZONE BRIDGES HOUSES THAT WERE OCCUPIED FOR THE USE OF GOVERNMENTAL APPARATUS WHEN THE SOVIETS CAME TO POWER SOON FORMED WHOLE COMPLEXES OF BUILDINGS, CONSTANTLY BEING RECONSTRUCTED AND CHANGED. IT WAS DECIDED TO CONNECT DIFFERENT CLOSEBY BUILDINGS OF THE SAME DEPARTMENT WITH BRIDGES. CONNECTIONS LIKE THIS MAY BE SEEN ALMOST EVERYWHERE IN THE OCCUPATION ZONE. THIS TRICK WORKS TO IMPRESS UPON THE STAFF OF GOVERNMENTAL DEPARTMENTS A SENSE OF THEIR SECLUSION FROM THE EXTERNAL WORLD AND CONCENTRATION ON THEIR DUTIES.

Military Academy A living house at first sight, behind a decaying fence, is nothing but a students barracks of the Military Academy in the Occupation Zone

Since 1820, the large territory to the south–east of Red Square has been the location of the Russian Military Academy of Missile Forces. Its students live in barracks inside the Academy for the full five years of their education program in downtown Moscow. They are not allowed to leave Academy territory except for rare days off and holidays. All their supplies are delivered to the Academy by a special state service. Students are provided with everything needed and don’t really interact with the environment beyond the Academy’s walls. They are clustered in the very heart of the political city center. The Military Academy shares a block with various ministries, a state hospital and office buildings. Despite these neighbours it’s impossible to meet any living creature in this block, except for a few nearby residents who use it as a shortcut on their way elsewhere.

Red Square As the core of the Occupation Zone, Red Square is an example of the characteristics that extend to the rest of the occupied area. Since the Soviet adoption of the square for pro–state means, it has existed mostly as a public place for parades and celebrations but not for the citizens as it formerly had been. Apart from these purposes, the territory of the Red Square is also used for commercial purposes, as a platform for advertising and is sometimes occupied by the pavilions of world–famous companies–a giant Louis Vuitton suitcase or Dior mirror cube, for example, just 100 meters away from Lenin’s corpse. a square that could potentially have gained more of a civic use and turned into a space for protest since the collapse of the Soviet Union, works now more than ever as a trade space. Red Square being used this way somehow loses its influence as a power magnet. New absurdist meanings arrive on the surface. On the territory that was a graveyard of honour (political leaders and military heroes were buried there) as well as a place to praise socialistic effort and the beauty of the Soviet proletariat, a celebration of capitalism is underway.

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Red Square in November 2013 with the scandalous Louis Vuiton pavilion, which caused public complaint.

Photo by Pavel Golovkin/AP Photo

CONCLUSION

If we imagine that the state leaving the occupied territory, Moscow will change drastically.

Tenement houses and other dwellings that were violently turned into power headquarters will return to their initial function. The hundreds of thousands of square meters of dwelling space found in these architectural relics could potentially bring a flow of gargantuan sums of money into the city budget.

Black mirror shop windows will become transparent again; kindergartens will be attended by kids instead of KGB agents; Zaryadye will be the central park of the central living quarter of Moscow. Only one thing will stay the same: the prestige of living in the city center, which usually means unbearably high dwelling prices that only wealthy and powerful (one and the same in the Russian context) can afford. As a result, office spaces and cabinets will change function and, instead of working close–to–power, people will live their happy lives there.

Might this influence the daily traffic gridlock in the city’s streets? If the very heart of the center of Moscow changes its routines, might the rest of the city benefit from it too?

WHEN I CAME BACK FROM CRIMEA МНЕ ДОМОЙ НЕОБХОДИМО!

I NEEDED TO GET HOME! ГДЕ ВЫСОКИЙ СЕРЫЙ ДОМ?

WHERE IS MY GREY HOUSE? У МЕНЯ ТАМ МАМА В НЕМ!

MY MOM IS THERE! ПОСТОВОЙ ОТВЕТИЛ СЁМЕ: AN OFFICER THEN TOLD SYOMA — ВЫ МЕШАЛИ НА ПУТИ, WHILE YOU WERE GONE ВАС РЕШИЛИ В ВАШЕМ ДОМЕ IT WAS DECIDED THAT YOU IN YOUR HOUSE В ПЕРЕУЛОК ОТВЕЗТИ.

WILL BE MOVED ASIDE AGNIYA BARTO, 1938

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

One hundred and fifty hectares of urban fabric in the city center is sacrificed to the governmental apparatus which is supposed to make the city a better place to live in. Some discussion has taken place about removing pro–power institutions from the city center. Although the idea had logical presuppositions and its realisation would have caused nothing but benefit, it was decided to dismiss the idea. Decision making belongs to the state. Decisions that clash with the state’s intention are rarely taken into account.

ВОЗВРАТИЛСЯ Я ИЗ КРЫМА,

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THE PLATE

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OCCUPATION ZONE

EAU*

The best–preserved historical part of the Moscow city center, where topography defines the mode of existence for the territory

NOUN: 1. AN AREA OF FAIRLY LEVEL HIGH GROUND 2. A STATE OF LITTLE OR NO CHANGE FOLLOWING A PERIOD OF ACTIVITY OR PROGRESS VERB: REACH A STATE OF LITTLE OR NO CHANGE AFTER A PERIOD OF ACTIVITY OR PROGRESS

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Anna Kamyshan and Svetlana Gordienko

*

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THE PLATEAU Territory size: 380 hectars Official population: 27035 people

Beautiful landscapes add value to already high real–estate prices in the area

INTRODUCTION

Searching for meaningful borders

IN THE AREA OF OUR INVESTIGATION THERE ARE 2,039 BUILDINGS, 25% OF WHICH ARE HOUSING. THE CUR– RENT POPULATION DENSITY IS 72 PEOPLE PER HECTARE. ACCORDING TO THE MASTER PLAN OF 1935, THE DENSITY WAS PLANNED TO BE 400 PEOPLE PER HECTARE. NINE HOUSES HAVE ONLY ONE PERSON REGISTERED, 35 HOUSES HAVE 10 OR FEWER PEOPLE

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What we call the Plateau is not an official name of the area — this is an area that we ourselves have defined during our research. This is a zone invisible to administrative divisions, that formed itself through the history and the logic of the city. The Plateau occupies a quarter of the donut inside the Garden Ring, stretching from north to east. It is located at an altitude of 130 to 165 meters above sea level. Topography has played an important role in forming the area, with the Ivanovskaya and Sretensky hills shaping a wide plateau from Sretenka Street to Pokrovka Street. The zone has natural boundaries determined by the buried River Neglinnaya in the west and the River Yauza in the southeast. From Tsvetnoy Boulevard down to the Yauza, the area abuts the Garden Ring on the top right border and the Occupation Zone on the left (Staraya Square). Historically, being cut off by the Kitay Gorod and Zemlyannoy town walls and the river valleys, this part of the city consisted of two districts: Bely Gorod and Zemlyannoy Gorod with a Fortification Wall in between them. After the transformation of the wall into the Boulevard Ring, this avenue became a strong connector between the parts of the city. Thus, since the 17th century, this part of the city started developing as one entity and has established itself as a distinctive area with its own identity within the city center.

MOSCOW’S LEGENDARY SEVEN HILLS A POPULAR LEGEND STATING THAT MOSCOW STANDS ON SEVEN HILLS CAN INDEED BE ARGUED FOR. THE SRETENSKY AND IVANOVSKY HILLS FORM AN AREA OF APPROXIMATELY EQUAL LATITUDE, CREATING THE ZONE OF THE PLATEAU AND DELINEATING THE PRIMARY TOPOGRAPHIC BORDERS OF THE ZONE. THE AREA FORMED A FORMER GREAT POSAD. A POSAD IS A SETTLEMENT WHICH WAS INITIALLY FOUND BEHIND THE KREMLIN FORTIFICATIONS AND CITY WALLS, THE TERRITORY WHERE MARKET TRADERS’ AND CRAFTSMEN’S SLOBODAS WERE LOCATED

Neglinaya and Yauza rivers Plateau The slopes from the Plateau to the river valleys

Historically, the area once formed a Great Posad. a Posad is a settlement which initially was found behind the Kremlin fortifications and town walls, a territory where a market and craftsmen were basedt

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

7 hills of Moscow

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THE PLATEAU THE PLANS FOR MOSCOW RENOVATION INTRODUCED IN 1935 PROPOSED TO MAKE THE STREETS WIDER AND BUILD NEW ONES TO CONNECT THE CENTER AND THE PERIPHERY. THE AVERAGE WIDTH OF THE BOULEVARD RING WOULD HAVE BECOME 60 — 70 METERS ( THE PRESENT WIDTH OF THE GARDEN RING).

ROZHDESTVENSKY BOULEVARD WAS TO HAVE BECOME A WIDE TRAFFIC ARTERY. TRUBNAYA SQUARE WAS SCHEDULED FOR DEMOLITION. MAROSEYKA AND POKROVKA COULD HAVE BECOME 43 METERS WIDE. AN ADDITIONAL ARTERIAL ROAD WOULD HAVE BEEN HACKED THROUGH ON THE FORMER SITE OF BARASHEVSKY LANE. THE TEXT OF THE PLAN IS DOTTED WITH EXPRESSIONS SUCH AS “FLATTENING THE HILLS” AND “STRAIGHTENING THE ROADS”

The structure of the urban fabric here has preserved the dynamics of Moscow’s extensive growth, capturing features of all historical periods, and saving them carefully into its streets.

This is a place to observe the process of a city digesting social and architectural eras. The area is supremely versatile: here you can meet the confusing layout of Moscow’s beloved lanes around Chistiye Prudy, and then find some unexpectedly direct routes around Sretenka or Sakharov Prospect.

The visual identity of the space is defined by a very high proportion of pre–Revolutionary buildings. These include not only churches, monasteries and palaces, but also a lot of 19th century dwellings (former tenement houses). In all of Moscow’s city center, this area has the most preserved historical buildings.

Our hypothesis is that, on this site, a specific combination of various economic, architectural, social and urban factors have formed a force of resilience – a complex characteristic of the place which creates and supports the identity of the area. This is the concept that we have come up with to describe and analyse the zone, and which would allow us to grasp all the features existent in the locality.

The Force of Resilience A set of characteristics of a space, which contribute to its ability to withstand or accept substantial interventions (both architectural and social). Resilience ensures the coherence of the territory and allows for incremental changes to take place in it over time. The space therefore tends to exist in organic balance and to restore it even if interventions take place, to digest the flow of urban history.

We can see the force of resilience at work in its practical outcomes. The growth of the city together with social changes has, layer by layer, added more units into the resilience of the district. Curved lanes, formed due to landscape features, have resisted transformation into direct highways; this has saved historical architecture from demolition, though the idea to transform it still remained on the city’s agenda. After the collapse of the USSR and the privatization of real estate, the structure of the ownership in the area has become diverse, a fact which creates difficulties for investors in assembling big plots of land for commercially viable projects. While the area escapes any massive renovation, the communal infrastructure becomes more and more decrepit and puts off smaller investors from entering the area. All these facts finally contribute to the real estate brokers regarding this area as a “semi–prestigious location”, which affects the commercial value of the space. Thus, everything the Plateau was able to preserve has become yet another layer of the force of resilience.

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COMPONENTS OF THE FORCE OF RESILIENCE THE FORCE OF RESILIENCE IS A COMPLEX CHARACTERISTIC OF THE TERRAIN. IT WOULD NOT FUNCTION EXACTLY AS IT DOES NOW IF ONE OF THESE LAYERS HAD NOT FORMED AT THE SITE, BUT IN COMBINATION THESE ELEMENTS CREATE THE INNER LOGIC OF THE AREA’S EXISTENCE

THE LOCAL COMMUNITY PROTECTS THEIR AREA FROM RECONSTRUCTION.

STRUCTURE OF OWNERSHIP HAS BECOME VERY DIVERSE DURING THE PRIVATIZATION PROCESS

BUILDINGS ARE MOSTLY PROTECTED UNDER HERITAGE LEGISLATION

UTILITIES: AN OLD AND INTERCONNECTED SYSTEM, RECONSTRUCTION OF WHICH WOULD DOUBLE ALL THE EXPENDITURES OF THE DEVELOPER

ROADS, STREETS AND LANES THAT DELINEATE THE TERRAIN LIES AS THE BASIS

THE TERRAIN IS THE ORIGINAL COMPONENT OF THE FORCES PRESERVING THE AREAFORCES PRESERVING THE AREA

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

THE URBAN STRUCTURE OF

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THE PLATEAU

THE PLATEAU ACCORDING TO A LEGEND OF THE 17TH CENTURY, MOSCOW WAS FOUNDED ON SEVEN HILLS, TWO OF THEM LOCATED ON THE SITE. HOWEVER, OUR STUDY HAS SHOWED THAT THERE IS ONLY ONE HILL WHICH FORMS A LARGE PLATEAU. WE ALSO DISCOVERED THAT IT HAS A MAGNETIC FIELD THAT NEUTRALIZES THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF GENTRIFICATION AND RESISTS MASSIVE RENOVATION PROCESSES

1. The Plateau of Resistance 2a. The Slope of Gentrification 2b. The Slope of Mutation 3. The Zone of Limited Resistance Dwelling Contour interval 3 m Roads Mutants

0

84

100

500

1000m

2a.

3.

1.

2b.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

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THE PLATEAU The area is inviting both for people’s daily routines and weekend walks

THE PLATEAU DESCRIPTION

The Zone of Resistance: Plateau

We identified several sub–zones that constitute this area. These sub–zones are predefined according to the concept of the Force of Resilience. The first zone is formed by the plateau itself and the others are two slopes, which we call the Slope of Gentrification and the Slope of Mutation. They differ from each other by geographical location in relation to the topography of the area, by the structure of streets and lanes and by the evident signs of interventions into the urban fabric. There is also a zone we have named the Zone of Limited Resistance, which lies on the Plateau, but differs from it in both structure and functions.

The sub–zones also differ drastically in the atmosphere they create. The Slopes and the Zone of Limited Resistance impose much more predictable schedules upon their daily users, than the Zone of Resistance.

The Plateau is the biggest part of our research zone. This is a place where a huge variety of functions and possibilities can be encountered: from multiple small cafes to the headquarters of national corporations, from a weird “witch’s shop” to the biggest bookshop in Moscow. This is a popular place which people know well and which is visited by both locals and guests of the city.

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INTERVENTIONS OF THE LAST CENTURY THE AMOUNT OF INTRUSIONS INTO THE ZONE OF RESISTANCE IS MUCH LOWER IN COMPARISON WITH OTHER SUB–ZONES

The Zone of Limited Resistance

The Slope of Gentrification

The Plateau of Resistance

Luzhkov and Putin Gorbachev Brezhnev Khrushchev Earlier Soviet time and Stalin period

The Slope of Mutation

The Plateau Zone: the least number of architectural interventions in the last century

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Due to this vivid versatility, the place creates a feeling of a city that has been formed organically, preserving initial urban forms and implementing changes into the existing fabrics, without erasing what was done before. However, the “organics” of the city derive not only from planning and architectural circumstances, but also from the usability of the space, the volume and character of functions. To sustain this versatility, the city has to exist simultaneously according to different rhythms and be able to resist the negative effect of gentrification and massive renovation processes, — to defend its immune system, so to speak.

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THE PLATEAU

DIVIDING AND UNITING POKROVKA

M Before the Clean Ponds (Chistiye Prudy), Pokrovka works as a uniting seam, after — as a dividing logjam

Pedestrian flows escaping Pokrovka and using Lyalin Lane as a shortcut to Kurskaya Metro station

Pokrovka grows in scale. Buildings get higher, and the multiplicity of functions gradually disappears

The Linear Centre Pokrovka Street is a center of the Resistant Plateau. It is capable of sustaining its central function throughout its length, which is why it is not a center in terms of a single magnet of attraction, but a linear center. This street is now split into two different streets—Maroseyka and Pokrovka—but was earlier a united route. During Soviet times, Pokrovka was renamed to become Chernyshevskogo Street, in memory of the writer who inspired Russian revolutionary thought. This road used to be the Tsar’s route to his countryside residences, which is why numerous rich boyars’ houses appeared here. For a long time, Pokrovka existed with the title of “a shortcut to Europe”, due to fact that it led both to the Square of the Three Railway Stations and to a German settlement beyond Baumanskaya.

Pokrovka is located directly on the highest point of the plateau. Although it is a heavily used transportation artery, it keeps the area sewn together. Both the right and left side of the street are active and magnetic for users of the place. The road itself is quite narrow and pedestrians often run across it. This small feature adds to a feeling of a plenipotential city existence, as well as lending flexibility and transience to the urban landscape.

The main footfall exudes from the Kitay–Gorod Metro station and follows Maroseyka and Pokrovka further towards the Garden Ring. The part of Pokrovka approaching the Garden Ring grows in scale — with higher buildings, broader avenues and a change in functions. The beginning of Pokrovka is a fine grain structure of various functions; closer to Sadovaya–Chernogryazskaya it becomes more homogeneous, with mostly massive residential and institutional facilities along it. The beginning of Pokrovka is porous, inviting the stroller to enter the narrow lanes surrounding the street; the end of the street is the reverse, revealing the undesirability of strangers in the yards or even the impossibility of entering locked yards. In the northeast, Pokrovka dissolves into a strange space — a public square which is used as a parking lot — in front of the Moscow House of Entrepreneurs. The individuality of the street changes radically after the intersection with Lyalin Lane. At this point Pokrovka begins its descent from the Plateau and Lyalin Lane marks the border of it, trying to keep the height of the position. Lyalin Lane is also a shortcut to the Kursky Railway Station, distracting passers–by from Pokrovka.

All these characteristics shorten Pokrovka Street and mentally cut it in the spot where Lyalin Lane enters the game. For a lazy urban wanderer the street ends here, for busy commuters – it continues further. Thus, the street stitches the sub–zones together, so to speak, and holds the whole area as one.

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Only 1 in 30 people you meet in the area turns out to be a local resident.

The Plateau is visited daily by approximately 800 thousand people

HENRI LEFEVBRE IN HIS LATEST BOOK “RHYTHMANALYSIS” INTRODUCED A NEW ANALYTICAL APPROACH TO THE CITY. HE SUGGESTED THAT RHYTHMS OF THE CITY ARE THE COORDINATES ACCORDING TO WHICH DWELLERS ORGANISE THEIR ROUTINES AND FORM THEIR EXPERIENCE OF THE CITY. LEFEVBRE SUGGESTED THAT THE EXISTENCE OF THE CITIES IS HIGHLY DEPENDENT ON SPONTANEOUS AND VERSATILE RELATIONSHIPS, THAT CAN BE UNDERSTOOD ONLY THROUGH OBSERVATION AND REFLECTION. HE DERIVES FOUR TYPES OF RHYTHMS, WHICH IN SIMPLE WORDS CAN BE DESCRIBED AS HEALTHY TO UNHEALTHY.

Rhythms The Plateau is a type of urban fabric that builds up a rare mix of all four rhythm types articulated by Henri Lefevbre. This is the case due to the dispersed, small– cell structure of the locality and the heterogeneous users content. One might call it the rhythm of a big city. All the sub–zones we researched have their own rhythms of life.

The slopes, for instance, do indeed live according to appreciably different time modes: The Slope of Gentrification has a regular bourgeois lifestyle beat, with rather indistinct working hours and clearly visible household timetables: this is a regular life pace, the schedule of a respectable middle–class individual.

The central part of the Plateau is a 24–hour unstoppable urban condenser — with a variety of narrow, but never empty transportation arteries, multiple cafes and shops, a combination of expensive dwellings for

It is interesting to look at various life routines in the area. Here, in one building there could be several foodstores with very different timetables. In the same building of Pokrovka 17 there are two grocery shops.

One is a large chain store, working 24/7, and considered to be the only affordable grocery shop in the area.

The other is a tiny basement shop run by a family of migrants. It works from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., but provides the residents of the area with better quality products. Both shops are used by locals.

The other example of diverse speeds of life are the libraries standing on Chistoprudny Boulevard, within 100 meters of each other. The Dostoyevsky library now works from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and is open every day, attracting a huge amount of users from all over the city.

The other library is also municipal, but works mostly for kids. It works from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and is closed on Saturdays and Sundays. These libraries are something you would never dare to classify under the same term. The carriers of rhythms are the local inhabitants, both those that live permanently in the area and those coming here to work. But the rhythms are set and defined by complexity of urban routines and social contracts existent on the territory.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

The Slope of Mutation shows little in the way of life rhythms even during the weekday rush hours — this is a frozen terrain under the enchantment of its own heavy deformations. Yet, the hidden vibe of this sub– zone is created by clubs, located in the basements, alternative cultural events taking place in decrepit parking lots or secret yoga groups. This is a place which, underneath the quietness of delayed development, is impregnated by the sprouting seedlings of underground subculture.

ex–pats and cheap former communal apartments for local media workers. This is quite a bohemian area, where the evening hipster–like chic dilutes by the morning into the appearance of a busy transportation hub.

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THE PLATEAU A TYPICAL DWELLER BLANCHE CAME TO RUSSIA FROM PARIS ABOUT 10 YEARS AGO. EVERY TIME SHE NEEDS TO CHANGE HER APARTMENT, SHE SEARCHES IN THE SAME AREA — HER FAVORITE IN MOSCOW. BLANCHE FINDS THE STRUCTURE OF THE OLD CITY ENCHANTING AND SPENDS A LOT OF TIME IN THE STREETS — EITHER GOING FOR A WALK, OR SHOPPING. NOW SHE LIVES ON KHITROVSKY LANE, IN AN OLD HOUSE WITH SPACIOUS ENTRYWAYS AND HIGH CEILINGS. SHE’S LIVED HERE FOR EIGHT YEARS NOW, AND SOMETIMES THE OWNER OF THE APARTMENT COMES TO MOSCOW TO FIX SOME PROBLEMS AND STAYS TOGETHER WITH BLANCHE, AS HE IS ALWAYS WELCOME HERE. SHE STARTS WORKING FROM EARLY MORNING WHEN SHE IS STILL AT HOME AND THEN GOES TO HER OFFICE – A VIDEO PRODUCTION STUDIO LOCATED AT ARTPLAY ON KURSKAYA. SHE PREFERS GOING TO WORK ON FOOT, IT USUALLY TAKES ABOUT 40 MINUTES AND IS A PLEASANT WALK. THE COMPANY SHE LEADS HAS A LOT OF CONTACTS WITH FRANCE, SO HER TIMETABLE IS OFTEN SHIFTED TO ADJUST TO THE SCHEDULES OF CLIENTS FROM ABROAD. BLANCHE SPEAKS FLUENT RUSSIAN, SHE LOVES MOSCOW AND PLANS TO STAY HERE FOR A LONG TIME.

The distinction between the Plateau and the Slopes is clearly visible

The Slopes: Gentrification and Mutation

The Slope of Gentrification with a huge number of architectural interventions from the Luzhkov era on the North and The Slope of Mutants on the South

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It is interesting to look into how much local topography affects urban development. Delayed development is most observable on the Plateau between the two hills. But the slopes down to the Yauza and the Neglinnaya are more malleable to changes. The area between Rozhdestvensky Boulevard and Sukharevskaya has witnessed a considerable amount of renovations and new construction. This was one of the first districts in Moscow to become a playground for Luzhkov’s implementation of his ideals in architecture. This process has turned many former dwellings into expensive administrative and business premises. Serebryanicheskaya Embankment has also been regarded by investors as an area for redevelopment. Recently, a luxurious Arthouse mixed–use residence was built there, and there are plans for further development of the zone. While the second slope is not undergoing any renovation process, it is mutating on its own, creating contrasting combinations of dwelling, services, institutions and even production sites. a diversity of functions is present here, though the pace of life on the Slope of Mutation is much slower and more torpid.

The Slope of Gentrification: a well– known area of pseudo–historical renovation

The Slope of Mutation: a former church dwelling now transformed into a domestic temple

A REGULAR COMMUTER ALEXEI IS 22. HE WORKS AT HIS FAMILY’S NOODLE PLACE. THE CAFE OPENS AT 11 A.M. AND CLOSES AT 11 P.M. HIS WAY HOME TO SUBURBAN EVERY EVENING HE HAS TO RUSH TO THE KURSKY RAILWAY STATION TO CATCH THE LAST TRAIN. DURING THE WORKING DAY THIS CAFÉ IS RARELY FULLY OCCUPIED, BUT THE EVENINGS ARE BUSY. IN THE MORNING ALEXEI IS USUALLY VERY BORED. MOST OF THE TIME HE TRAINS HIS CALLIGRAPHY SKILLS IN THE CAFE. SOMETIMES HE CLOSES THE PLACE AND GOES FOR A WALK ON POKROVKA. HE LEFT UNIVERSITY A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, AND DECIDED TO JOIN THE ARMY. HE LIKED HIS ORGANIZED LIFE IN THE ARMY, AND NOW HE MISSES IT SOMETIMES.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

MOSCOW TAKES UP TO TWO HOURS, AND

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THE PLATEAU

LOCAL MUTANTS

Municipal Premium– class Tenement House The very first tenement house for the contemporary Russian middle class was built by the Department of Investment Programs in the “Plateau” area of Moscow in 2003.

This was an experimental project aimed at exploring models for civilized rental market development. Another project aimed at building cheap houses for Moscow citizens with low incomes in the periphery. But this example in the city center is of the so–called “business class”. It has 47 one–bedroom apartments (rental prices $2,500 –3,300/month), 19 two–bedroom apartments ($3,200–4,800/month), two three–bedroom apartments (from $4,700–5,700/month) and one seven–room duplex apartment of 300 square meters ($12,000/month).

Tenants also pay for complex maintenance to the amount of $130–150/ month depending on the level and housing area. The project was supposed to recoup its investments in 8 years. This house is the first attempt in Moscow to create a high quality rental facility in a centralised way – however, as the demand for “business class” apartments is somewhat lower than the supply, the tenement house has remained half–empty and the pricing policy needs rethinking. This is also the first attempt to go back to pre–Revolutionary housing models.

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Mythical Hidden Park The Hidden Park is surrounded (and locked in) by the building of the Strategic Research Physical and Chemical Institute. This institute is a part of the Russian Federation defense complex of the and belongs to the Russian Agency for Nuclear Energy. The park is thus only attended by people who work there. The parts of the Institute visible from Vorontsovo Field Street look quite decrepit and abandoned, though the institute has never stopped functioning. This obscure space creates urban myths: local people say that in Soviet times a nuclear reactor was built in this park in order to provide energy for the Institutes’ needs. This is a myth that might turn out to be true: most people interviewed react in a similar way, stating that this was “so long ago”, but are sure that this is just a myth.

A privately–owned publicly–used Zoo and swimming pool in an inner courtyard OOn Makarenko Street the courtyard is occupied by an improvised zoo. An old resident of the house, a former swimming trainer, spent a lot of time organising this “for the kids”. In better times horses, a peacock, geese, partridges, hens and cocks, doves and swans lived here. Now, many birds have died of diseases, and some have been stolen. When the initiative was still fresh, the zoo was a club space for the local kids of the yard, where they were taught to take care of animals and to play with them. Now this territory is the origin of many arguments and fights between the old and the new residents of the yard. People who have recently bought apartments here would prefer to organise a parking lot in the place of the zoo.

Domestic Church The Church of Ilya the Prophet was moved out of its home by the Soviet government and replaced by the Museum of Peoples of the East. The museum started using this old and remarkably beautiful building as a warehouse. Now, the church community is trying to return the main building. The community still owns three buildings, surrounding the former church. Most services are now held in one of the former “church dwellings”, a four–storey brick house that was built to accommodate the clergymen. There are three similar houses, surrounding the temple. The second one is illegally rented for offices by the church community, and the third building, (also the biggest, with 20 apartments in it) is home to the old and lonely gatekeeper of the place.

The Khrushchyovka divided in two by the gentrification process

A typical Khrushchyovka is occupied by the Institute of the Nitrogen Industry. Only four apartments are functioning as dwellings and rest are the offices of the Institute.

An organisation occupies two flats on one floor because the flats are too small for a proper office. The lonely bench for the few residents stays behind the high black metal fence. To enter the territory and the building you need a special pass. This house was built by the Institute during the Soviet period for their employees. Later, most families moved out. The house is not eligible for municipal communal services and is maintained only by the Institute.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Among the old architecture of Bolshoi Sukharevsky and Posledny Lanes there stands one of the ugliest examples of Khrushchyov’s legacy.

Two 11–storey towers that were built as one in the early ‘70s, with dirty seams between their blocks, stand in a yard broken in two because of the change in landscape. One half of the building has been renovated, while the second part stays just as it was built. These are typical one–entrance residential buildings of the II–18–01/12 series. But this low–quality dwelling offers its residents one of the best views over Moscow, out across the dynamically descending lanes of the historical city. Although this area is a place with a weak immunity to changes, the first buildings that were sacrificed to gentrification here were not these modest Khrushchyovkas, but the luxurious old tenement houses.

Khrushchyovka Office Center

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THE PLATEAU

THE PRIVATE EYE IN PECHATNIKOV LANE, THE OLD HOUSING HAS KEPT ITS OLD RESIDENTS, BUT THERE ARE NEWCOMERS AS WELL. AN OLD LADY HAS POSITIONED HERSELF AS CHIEF OF THE HOUSE AND AS AN ASSISTANT TO THE LOCAL POLICEMAN. HER RESPONSIBILITY IS TO KEEP TRACK OF HOUSE NEEDS, OBSERVE DWELLERS AND REPORT ABOUT SUSPICIOUS RESIDENTS TO THE POLICEMAN. SHE LIVES ALONE AND DOESN’T WORK. SHE HAS RECENTLY GOT INTO A FEUD WITH A NEW NEIGHBOUR: DURING HIS ABSENCE A WATER PIPE HAS STARTED TO LEAK AND THE OLD LADY DOES NOT WANT TO CLASSIFY THIS AS AN ACCIDENT AS SHE WANTS TO RECEIVE COMPENSATION. THIS FIGHT IS A MATTER OF HER MAJOR INTEREST, IT DEFINES HER TIMETABLE. THE UNLUCKY NEIGHBOUR IS A JOURNALIST, SPENDING A LOT OF TIME OUT OF MOSCOW. HE IS ACCUSTOMED TO WORKING AT NIGHT, WHEN NOBODY DISTURBS HIM. IN THE DAYTIME HE CHOOSES TO WORK IN THE LOCAL DINER WITH FREE WI–FI AND A SMOKING ZONE. HE SAYS THAT HIS COMMUNITY IS BUILT OUT OF THE WAITERS AND CHIEF COOKS OF THE PLACES HE VISITS. HE FINDS IT IMPORTANT TO BE SURROUNDED BY THE PLACES THAT WORK 24/7. SOMETIMES HE LETS HIS FRIENDS LIVE IN THE APARTMENT WHILE HE IS ABROAD. BUT EVERY TIME HE DOES SO, THE OLD LADY IMMEDIATELY INFORMS THE POLICEMAN THAT THE APARTMENT IS BEING RENTED OUT.

Sakharov Prospect: habitually untrodden

Zones of Limited Resistance: Sakharov Prospect The Zone of Sakharov Prospect was largely reconstructed in the Soviet times and many administrative institutions were transplanted here, transforming the dwellings around them into offices

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Once the “immune system” fails to protect the area and massive reconstruction takes place, this damaged plot starts acting like an infected organ. For example, Sakharov Prospect has almost become a contagious canal, since its construction in 1985. The implementation of the 1935 plan has led to the appearance of new buildings, different in scale and functions from the rest of the Plateau. There was also a plan in the 1970s to extend the street deeper into the center, but this was never realised due to political changes. Sakharov Prospect is the only street in the area that does not change its name after crossing the Garden Ring, while most of the organic, historically formed streets are renamed (i.e. Pokrovka becomes Old Basmannaya Street, and Sretenka becomes Peace Prospect). This fact highlights the artificial, very top–down character of the Prospect. The giant–like Statistics Department of the Russian Federation (Le Corbusier’s only building in Moscow) is now in occupation here. Small–scaled businesses and urban magnets fail to spring up in this vicinity. Even very common chain cafes find it unprofitable to work here — the footfall is low as the prospect is unattractive for random strolling.

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Geography of Moscow Protest 2010–13 New identity for a new prospect: Sakharov Prospect is seen as one of most inadequate places for protesting, yet the municipality tends to put all authorized meetings of dissatisfied citizens here. Can Sakharov Prospect become a new Bolotnaya Square?

50 000 of Sakharov Prospect brought The > construction some interesting features into the geography of Moscow protests. Political protests in Moscow оппозиционные usually occur on four squares: Red Square, Maneсанкционированные zhnaya Square, Pushkinskaya Square, and Triumfalnaya Square. Due toне the autocratic behaviour of оппозиционные the санкционированные current regime, the first two squares are now used only for pro–government demonstrations.

Anyпро-правительственные opposition activity here is usually held without the agreement of the municipality. The other two squares are more accessible in terms of getting legal permission for protests, but even these are rarely granted by the administration.

Prospect has become associated with the protests of the opposition. Conversely, unauthorised protests never happen on the Prospect. When it comes to spontaneous and immediate reaction to political news in the country, people tend to occupy familiar routes of everyday use. These are the squares mentioned above and the boulevards of the Boulevard Ring. In 2012, Chistye Prudy began its own protest history, when the political camp “Occupy Abay” was organised around the monument to the Kazakh writer of that name. The camp was closed down by the police with reference to complaints of local dwellers. Several local residents had complained about the mess on the boulevard and insisted on the camp’s removal.

On December 24th, 2005, 120 thousand people appeared for the first time on Sakharov Prospect to express their distrust of the election results. The avenue has subsequently held numerous meetings and protests expressing anti–government opinions.

While pro–governmental organizations always have access to Red and Manezhnaya Squares, Sakharov

Thus, an additional unit of the district’s force of resilience is the local community, which can act in a variety of ways, including a reaction to protests themselves. The area thus tends to preserve itself from any aggressive erosions: architectural redevelopments are just as uncommon here as any violent expressions of social protest.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Protest zone

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THE PLATEAU

ADMINISTRATIVE DISTRICTS MOSCOW’S RING STRUCTURE IS A RESULT OF GRADUAL CITY GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT WHICH HAS HAPPENED ORGANICALLY THROUGH TIME. THE PLATEAU IS INCLUDED IN THIS LOGIC — IT HAS RIVERS FOR ITS NATURAL BORDERS AND WAS FORMED AS A ZONE BETWEEN TWO CITY WALLS. TODAY’S BUREAUCRATIC DIVISION OF THE CITY DOES NOT INCORPORATE THIS VISION OF MOSCOW’S GROWTH. THE FACT THAT THE PLATEAU IS PERCEIVED BY THE MUNICIPALITY NOT AS A WHOLE BUT AS A COMBINATION OF PIECES OF 4 DIFFERENT DISTRICTS GIVES LITTLE CHANCE OF ANY THOUGHTFUL STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT HERE

Administartive division borders Plateau borders

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The Place of Film Sets The Zone of the Resistant Plateau is a popular resource for shooting movie scenes. It is rarely used as an anonymous “could be anywhere” location, but rather as a more specific, recognisable district, familiar to the spectator and aimed at creating warm feelings of recognition and association. The Resistant Plateau is filmed every time there is a need to show “the old city” or to illustrate the intimacy of human relations within the city space. Yards, lanes, and inner courtyards are usually shot at Ivanovskaya Hill; old and pompous architecture is filmed at Sretensky Boulevard; an urban vibe is exploited at Chistye Prudy. The first shoots took place here at the very beginning of film history in Russia: “The House on Trubnaya” was made here in 1924, and “The Girl with a Box” in the 1930s.

Although a specific genre common to this space cannot be identified, there is a specific type of scene that is most commonly shot here: the chase. a mix of straight and curved lanes, an abundance of panoramic views, and the diverse landscape of the territory make it possible to shoot all kinds of scenes for thrillers. The area can be seen in the chase scenes of such films as “The Rendezvous Cannot Be Changed,” “Petrovka, 38,” and “The Bourne Supremacy.”

Escape scene shot at Podkopaevsky Lane for the movie “Over the Last Feature”, 1991 ‘The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed’, 1979 ‘Moon Rainbow’, 1984

‘Black Triangle’, 1981

‘Khrustalyov, My Car!’, 1999 ‘Moscow Holidays’, 1995

‘Escape, 2005 ‘The Pokrovsky Gate, 1982 ‘The Master and Margarita’, 2002

‘The cold Summer of the fifty–third year’, 1988

‘Life and Fate’, 2012

‘Thaw’ series, 2013 ‘Fun for the oldies’, 1976 ‘Probation period’, 1960

Geography of the Plateau Film History. Spots from this area can be seen in every third film shot in Moscow

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

‘Snake catcher’, 1985

‘Brother –2’, 2000 ‘Antikiller’, 2002

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THE PLATEAU

MULTIFUNCTIONAL PLATEAU THE FIRST ASSUMPTION MADE BEFORE THE START OF THE RESEARCH WAS THAT THIS AREA HAS LOTS OF DWELLINGS. HOWEVER, MAPPING OF THE FUNCTIONS REVEALED THAT THE PROPORTIONS OF BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATIVE USERS AND LOCAL DWELLERS IS IN RADICAL OPPOSITION TO OUR GUESSES. BUT THE IMMANENT PRESENCE OF THOSE WHO DO LIVE HERE STILL INSERTS A FEELING OF DOMESTICITY TO THE AREA

Babtist Babtist Lutheran Lutheran

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Jewish Jewish Orthodox Orthodox Dwelling Temporary dwelling Industry Healthcare Offices and retail Institutions Schools or kindergarten Religion Governmental Industry Universities

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CONCLUSIONS

#1. Forces of the terrain: a new method As we have detected during our research, the topography of space determines and defines the character of an area and the initial rules for its functioning. Together with interposition regarding other parts of the city, topographical typology creates symbolic and cultural relations among the different components of the city landscape. The topography of a place designates borders and shapes the locality as an entity. In our case study, the Plateau has developed a specific “force of resilience” which has determined the visual and functional appearance of the area. This part of the city resisted heavy gentrification processes and saved its organic urban fabric. As the structure of the historical city best fits the post–industrial economy, this zone has now become a popular destination point and a great place for living. It has thereby established the rules of the game and the usage of the Plateau. Questions naturally arise: What kind of identities might be manifested for the city by a valley? a slope? a riverside? a ravine?

This method of describing a city can bring us back to the most fundamental notions of urban theory and defining the natural borders of city terrain. This will allow a rethinking of the conventions of existing administrative divisions. The current city districts reflect bureaucratic understanding of the city with almost no reference to its topography, history or internal logic.

But nature itself broadcasts the character of the space even through the urban environment.

For sure, the urban environment is not solely dependent upon the topography, but the complex urban landscape builds itself upon the specific terrain, which cannot be ignored or underestimated.

#2. Forces of the terrain: preservation for development

This type of territory, involved in complex interconnected relationships between the users (as described in the Mutants pocket article) has more potential for defining a specific Moscow type of sustainability. Typical investor development here faces severe obstacles, but this can lead to activating an underused legislative notion of “redevelopment” in Russian urban planning laws. No construction from scratch is needed here.

This territory invites cooperative development based on the consensus of various users and stakeholders of the spaces. Ideally, a curating agency, a managerial team should organize a discussion on how the area can be maintained while taking into consideration all the seemingly contradictory interests of the owners, dwellers, guests and investors. The result of such work should not lead to large–scale interventions and renovations, but rather to creating a brand for the territory, under which umbrella the versatility will become not random and chaotic but conceptualized.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

The area we explored has shown its unique character as a resilient container for various functions and activities throughout the last century. Although it was at the epicenter of historic changes, it sustained its initial urban structure. This has allowed post–industrial society to occupy older buildings alongside prominent agents of economic development. Here are small and medium scale businesses, various services, and unexpected combinations of dwellings, offices and administrative institutions. The area invites an ingenious co–existence of residents and passers–by, luxury and simplicity, coziness and an urban vibe. The area, with its diversely structured open and built space becomes a refillable, self–programmed receptacle of city life.

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SHADOW

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INTRODUCTION

W ISLAND The story of a place living under the shadows of the past

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Vera Lukyanovich

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SHADOW ISLAND The Stalin’s Highriser — the Superintendent of the area

INTRODUCTION I have been exploring a small triangle in the center, bounded by the River Moscow, River Yauza, and the Garden Ring. This piece of land recalls an island. And it actually is an island, divided from the “mainland” by physical and mental borders.

The physical borders are the natural ones — the rivers, and the Garden ring. The mental frontiers are defined by the image of this territory, by its past and myths. The area is perceived by Muscovites as distant from the city center, though geographically it is very close, it is even found inside the Garden Ring, which is understood by Muscovites as a sort of border between the center and the periphery. In my triangle the Garden Ring acts as a divider, forming the Island.

The Island is part of the Tagansky administrative district, which extends far beyond the Garden Ring. Official administrative divisions do not always correspond with the people’s subjective borders — people have their own districts and borders, their own mental maps.

Territory size: 71,8 hectars Official population: 6394 people

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The area has its own unique features that have defined its evolution and current conditions.

It is centrally located, but it is far less developed in terms of places of interests and tourist attractions than other parts of the center. No big business are present there, and there is very little dwelling space. What is the reason for this? I will try to figure it out below.

MAP OF SHADOW ISLAND THIS MAP SHOWS THE VARIETY OF FUNCTIONS PRESENT IN THE AREA. THE AREA IS VERY DIVERSE, ALTHOUGH IT DOES NOT HAVE A SPECIFIC FUNCTION. THE MOST EXPANDED PURPOSE OF BUILDINGS IS OFFICES AND RETAIL, WHICH MAINLY INCLUDES SMALL LOCAL COMPANIES AND OFFICES OF THE MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES. THE AMOUNT OF DWELLING SPACE IS VERY LOW, AND IS MAINLY REPRESENTED IN THE FORM OF HOUSES FROM THE SOVIET TIME

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SHADOW ISLAND

THE STRUCTURE OF THE AREA

The Zones

I have found out that, despite its small size, the territory of the Island can be subdivided into four Zones with their own very distinct urban characters.The borders are certainly imagined, and there are overlaps between the Zones. At the same time, each has its special different functions and usage.

I have named these Zones the Perimeter, the Old Town, the Hospital, and the Rush Zone.

ONLY 26 HOUSES ARE USED AS DWELLINGS ON A LAND AREA OF 71.8 HECTARES. THIS IS APPROXIMATELY ONE HOUSE PER THREE HECTARES. THE POPULATION DENSITY IS ALSO VERY LOW — 89 PEOPLE PER HECTARE. FOR COMPARISON: THE MICRORAYON BELYAYEVO HAS 375 PEOPLE PER HECTARE, WHICH IS THE TYPICAL DENSITY FOR THE MOSCOW PERIPHERY. THIS DATA SHOWS THAT THE AREA IS NOT ACTUALLY RESIDENTIAL AT ALL. NOTWITHSTANDING THE FACT THAT THIS IS THE CENTRAL PART OF MOSCOW, VERY FEW PEOPLE ACTUALLY DWELL HERE; FURTHERMORE, THE AREA CANNOT BE CONSIDERED AS A TOURISTIC SPOT OR BUSINESS DISTRICT. IT HAS MIXED FUNCTIONS, NOT ONE OF WHICH DOMINATES.

The Perimeter This is the biggest of the four Zones, accounting for nearly all the dwelling in the Island, most of which was built in Stalin’s day, including the most remarkable specimen — the Highriser on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment. The Highriser stands in the corner and sets the tone of everything around, it looks down on the area from its hill. The Zone runs along the perimeter of almost the whole Island, being slightly split in the western border by the Old Town and in the eastern part by the hectic Rush Zone and the quiet Hospital — opposing rhythms extruding into the Perimeter.

The Zone has few attractors save for — Illusion, the cinema in the Highriser which was very popular during the Soviet period; Stalin’s declassified Cold War bunker, now a museum; the legendary shop for numismatists with its crowd of collectors thronging around; and the Soviet Library for Foreign Literature, which is used now by the cultural centres of France, USA, the UK, and the reading hall of the Japanese Embassy.

The Old Town The second biggest Zone is called the Old Town, with its narrow streets and lanes, and small hills.

Former tenement buildings and small manor houses are now used mostly for offices. There are very few shops and cafes, almost no traces of gentrification. Before the construction of the Highriser, the Old Town spread to the natural border of the Island, the river. During the construction of the Highriser, a significant part of the area with more than hundred houses was demolished.

The Zone has its own attractors. The Afon Courtyard of the Church of Nikita the Martyr on Shivaya Hill with its pilgrims is one of the biggest and it strongly corresponds to the mood of the Zone. The two others contradict this to some extent. These are the Visotsky Museum with its small theater, infiltrating through the Rush Zone borders, and a new feature – a bar, club, music label and recordingstudio all in one place, which opened just few months ago and is becoming more and more popular.

The Hospital The Old Town does not have a Soviet spirit, together with the next Zone — the Hospital, which lies to the north of the Old Town. The Hospital is a piece of land entirely used as a medical complex, which originates from the 19th century when the Batashev manor house was transformed into a hospital for labourers.

Nowadays, the area of the medical institution occupies 9.1 hectares. The area is much less built–up than the Old Town; it has objects from the same time period, but with a wholly different mood. This Zone does not have any commonly recognised attractors. It is reminiscent of an island inside of the Island, a dark extension of the Old Town.

The Rush Zone The Rush Zone is notably different from the other Zones. It keeps the spirit of Taganka as it used to be – a noisy, busy, crowded area, a settlement of merchants and craftsmen.

A messy space with people in a hurry, shops and shopping centres, public transport, churches, theaters. Endless vanity. The object of crucial importance, the Theater on Taganka, lies there, again on the border, as in the case of the Perimeter. The Rush Zone has several attractors — the Theater (now split into two parts), the Russian Drama Theater, and the House of the Russian Expatriate Community.

Taganskaya Square by itself is not used as a square, as a public space. It is now more of a cross– roads and a transport hub.

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ZONES OF SHADOW ISLAND DESPITE THE SMALL SIZE OF THE AREA, FOUR ZONES CAN BE DISTINGUISHED THERE. FOUR DIFFERENT ATMOSPHERES, FOUR DIFFERENT URBAN ROUTINES, FOUR DIFFERENT INTENSITIES OF FLOW OF PEOPLE — ON A LAND PLOT LESS THAN 1 KM²

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INTRODUCTION The typical scenery of the Hospital Zone — old buildings, empty streets, nothing is happening

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CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

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SHADOW ISLAND

THE GIANTS During my investigation of the area and the attempt to understand how it has developed, and why it is the way it is now, I realized that there are several objects of crucial importance in the area that have affected it.

I developed the hypothesis that these objects have had such a strong impact on the area that they have prevented it from undergoing balanced development. They created the character of the Island many years ago and have not been replaced since. I call them the Giants. The word Giant refers to the power of the buildings and their position in the territory.

The Giants are the Prison, the High–Rise residential building with its spire (“vysotka”), and the Theater on Taganka.

I supposed that they have somehow been interacting with one another, and even preconditioning each other’s appearance. The Prison was the first.

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APPEARANCE AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The Prison shortly before its demolition, of the early 1950s. The building on the left is the only one remaining today Source: pastvu.com

The Prison Giant (The Bulwark of the System)

Taganskaya Prison was one of the symptoms which every totalitarian regime has: prosecutions, terror exercised by means of exemplary punishments, and political prisoners. Being planned as a typical prison for ordinary criminals, it was later used principally as a prison for political prisoners, and was one of the strictest prisons in the city. It was built on the order of Alexander I in 1804 in what was then suburban Moscow.

During the troubled times of the Revolution, the Prison strengthened its dominance by taking over the premises of a medieval monastery, used first of all as a concentration camp, and later as a prison extension.

In the beginning of the Soviet era, the Prison moved into top gear: it tripled the number of its prisoners in 20 years, and reached its highest population just before being demolished in the period of Krushchev’s Thaw. Just one building was left; in place of the others dwellings appeared. They were built by the prisoners themselves. The first houses on the site of the demolished prison were designated for employees of Ministry of Internal Affairs – mainly for the security guards of the Prison. These are four typical 5–storey buildings and a kindergarten.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

The first Giant is the Taganskaya Transit Prison, which for more than 50 years has been living in the form of a phantom, as it was demolished in 1958. Despite being physically absent it continues its existence in the people’s myths, songs and stories. It brought fame to the area, regardless of how dark and sad this fame was. The prison was located beyond the borders of the Island, outside the Garden Ring, but its spirit transcends through the borders and makes it a part of the Island. The Prison has related to the other Giants in a very strange way. I will talk about this relationship a little later.

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SHADOW ISLAND In order to build the Highriser, six lanes containing about a hundred houses were demolished

Children grew up in the courtyards of these houses, spending their childhoods discovering the unfilled underground passes of the former prison and telling each other stories. They say there was even an underpass from the prison into the Novospassky Monastery, which supposedly was used to take the prisoners up to the monks’ washhouses.

The area around the Prison is keeping its memories: nothing prominent has appeared there since, nothing as strong and intense as the Prison used to be. It continues to be a hallmark of the place, no matter that physically it is no longer there. Two other giants were designed in order to change the image of the area, to force people to forget the story of Taganka.

The Highriser Giant (the Superintendent) The second Giant is located in the northwestern part of the Island. This is the Stalinist Highriser (“Vysotka”) on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment, one of the famous Seven Sisters. It was the self–expression of the Soviet Empire, a demonstration of its immense power.

Construction was finished in 1952. I assume that the building of the Highriser in that particular place might have been to pursue two main goals.

First of all, it was supposed to help change the image of the territory, ensuring its mental rehabilitation. The main deeply–rooted association of Taganka with the Prison needed to be altered. Shifting people’s attention was the most efficient way to do this. It should be borne in mind that this was no ordinary building. Marshal Lavrentiy Beria, a member of Stalin’s entourage and chief of the Soviet security and secret police, chose the place for the construction and also personally oversaw the process. The fact that the Highriser was built as a dwelling in this particular place was also not accidental. There was a hope that making the elite live there would eliminate the infamy, with the house working to revitalize the area. a dwelling, in that sense, would be much more effective than an administrative building.

Many famous people got apartments in the Highriser — one part of the building was reserved for military people and personnel connected with the other authorities, the other one — for famous artistic people. “Insiders live there” — that was how Stalin marked the policy of apartments allocation. Allocations for apartments were assigned personally by Beria.

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The Highriser: the City in the City

all utilities. In the later 90s, when elite housing estates started to be built throughout the city, the demand for “Stalin’s flats” started to fall.

The Highriser was designed as a City in the City.

It was a revolutionary idea in the USSR. The plan to build eight skyscrapers with the last one in Zaryadye never reached completion, and so the closest one to Kremlin ended up being the one on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment. 176 meters high, with 75,000 square meters of floor space, 26 storeys (32 including technical), 23 entrances, around 1,500 inhabitants, more than 20 memorial plaques, about 700 flats (the exact number is still not known, but 700 is the most popular version).

The sense of community has also been lost to a large extent. New residents live separately and are not able to create a community. New neighbours describe themselves as polite but distant. Many of them are excited by the house’s past, the myths and legends behind it, and some of these legends might be the driving force to make people attempt to form a new community: there was a group in the social networks trying to unite all the young residents and to organize some events together. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.

What was before: the apartments were assigned “for outstanding services to the Motherland” without any right to sell or to exchange. The house represented a separate self–contained world of its own. a real strong closed community was quickly formed. Old residents thinking back willingly tell about the common tea–drinking, which took place in the hall of the central building. Served tables and the latest newspapers awaited the residents in the mornings. All the special occasions were celebrated together. The dancing area could be right on the landing of a floor.

Everything was organized in such a way that it was possible not to leave the territory of the building.

Residents could find there all they might need. All the necessary communal services, ready to solve any issue as soon as possible, a high level of security with concierge, all the facilities were there. a grocery store, laundry, dry–cleaning, barber shop and beauty salon, post office, telegraph, library, and café were located in the building. The progressive new cinema, Illusion, was very popular and famous for its first retrospectives of classics of world cinematography like Federico Fellini and Paolo Pasolini.

During my interviews with some new inhabitants they gave some personal observations of the situation and mentioned a few examples of the existing contradictions. These could be minor household issues such as the refusal of the old residents to make small alterations, like changing the entry phone, and it seems to them that the old residents are uncooperative on principle (their house — their rules).

The residents also tell however of such snapshots from the house’s routine as children regularly playing together on the playground, men, older men playing chess on the benches, which is no longer a typical scene for Moscow’s central yards. And the more common sight of old ladies sitting on the benches in front of entrances, and their attempts to get to know new neighbours.

In general, the residents do not have a lot in common anymore, they are very different and just calmly coexist in this giant from the past.

The inhabitants are very different now. Approximately 50 per cent of the flats are rented. In the early ‘90s there was huge demand for flats in the skyscrapers, and buyers were not deterred even by the fact that many flats required serious repair with replacement of

The Highriser soon after its construction, 1950s

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

What is now: the apartments are on the open market, freely on sale. All the communal services are in operation, the house has its manager and any routine problems can be solved within one day. Grocery store, barber shop, post office and cinema are still there, but their status is less prestigious at the present time, and they might not fully satisfy the needs of the inhabitants.

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SHADOW ISLAND The Theater in its heyday, the beginning of the 1970s. Source: pastvu.com

The second intention in placing the Highriser there was also based on the specifics of the territory. There was the desire to combat the lasting perception of the territory as a suburban zone, which prevailed in spite of its proximity to the Kremlin.

This separated area, the Island, needed to be integrated with the center. This could be performed by building connections to the Kremlin. Moscow was developing, and leaving such a locality with such a reputation was wrong. So, mental rehabilitation, territorial development and the control of it were sufficient grounds to place one of the Stalin’s Seven Sisters there.

The Theater Giant (the Offspring) The third Giant is situated in the bottom of the triangle, in its southeastern part. It is the Theater on Taganka — one of the most famous and popular theatres in the whole USSR, the most innovative, contemporary and avant garde. Its story as such started in 1964 when Yuri Lyubimov got the position of the Theater’s art–director. World classics performed in a new interpretation, an active civil position, political ideas — these are the hallmarks of the Theater.

It was the only politically oppositional theater in the USSR. Yury Lyubimov as the eternal head of the Theater, its director and art–director, Vladimir Vysotsky, the rebellious bard, the “voice of the nation”, as the favourite actor, young liberal people – dissidents as they were called at that time – as the regular visitors.

The Theater appeared to be an islet of freedom in the times when the country was completely unfree.

Why did such a theater appear there? Was it accidental or were there specific reasons for it?

I have a theory in this regard. I propose that this phenomenon might be somehow connected to the other two Giants — the Prison and the Highriser.

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After the Highriser was built, two Giants emerged on a small land plot: the phantom of the Prison was still there, and the Highriser was a new landmark. Both Giants had political meaning. However, the mood of this meaning was contradictory. Political prisoners — the former inhabitants of the phantom Prison — were fighters against the system, the inhabitants of the Highriser were patrons of it. The Prison with its prisoners had already ceased to be there, but by the moment when the Theater appeared only six years had passed. That is not enough time to erase the memories for such things.

Two types of extremely strong mindsets, moods, and energies hanging thick in the air created a conflict. That caused a huge demand to balance these opposite energies, and that is how the Theater appeared. This was in 1964.

The Theater emerged to be the expression of this contradiction of energies. This was the time of Khrushchev’s Thaw, and that also came into play.

The Theater was exactly as it should have been – a political dissident theater. If we are permitted to use the metaphor of the Highriser and the Prison being its parents, than the “child” has genes of both “parents” — the Theater expressed tangible protest (this is the “input” of the Prison, as one parent), but only to an extent which was allowed, under unfaltering watch and care (the “input” of the Highriser, as the other parent).

The Highriser Giant and the Theater Giant are situated almost opposite each other, like two poles. During Soviet times they were interacting in many ways – the dwellers of the Highriser, got their apartments from the state for their merits to the Motherland, though they regularly visited the productions of the oppositional Theater. Even Yuri Lyubimov, the head of the Theater, lived in the Highriser.

Coexistence and development of the Giants from Soviet times until the present day The Giants were coexisting quite peacefully, although not for a long time. The dissonance started in the 1980s. It was notable primarily in looking at the Theater as the most dynamic object. The conflicts began. By an unfortunate coincidence, its brightest star, Vladimir Vysotsky, died in the beginning of the unsteady times of Perestroika. Some shows were banned, Yuri Lyubimov’s citizenship was revoked, and his name disappeared from all the showbills. The Theater continues to live, driven by inertia. After five years, in 1989, Yuri Lyubimov was rehabilitated and came back. That created a new splash but it could not last long, and this was not dependent upon the Theater by itself. It was dictated by the new times.

The Theater was a part of a system which had died. So the Theater died with it. It was followed by an immediate and remarkable sign — in 1992, the Theater split into two parts: the Theater on Taganka and the Fraternity of Taganka’s Actors.

The Highriser still overhangs the Island, casting a shadow on the Old Town. It recalls an old– fashioned lady who lives in the past and is neither able to adjust to changes and keep up with the times and young generations, nor can she drag on in the end.

Still, there are not a lot of outsiders living in the house: people who rent and especially who buy a flat at this house now do it for reason. They want to live in this particular house, regardless of it not being as prestigious as it used to be, maybe because it was their childhood dream.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

The old Theater disappeared with the old country and its problems, ideas, heroes and enemies. The new one lost its recognized importance and admirers; for them it became ordinary.

That does not mean that there have not been any more talented productions; of course there have been. What is lacking is the identity. More than 20 years have passed, but the Theater has not managed to find it. No one from either of the two parts of the former Theater has any specific character, ideology, or clear vision. Until it becomes special again in some way, it always will be the less successful follower of its predecessor.

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SHADOW ISLAND The Theater nowadays. The container has remained the same, everything else has changed. Memories of bygone glory

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CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

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SHADOW ISLAND

The house is so massive and important literally and implicitly that it prevents other prominent objects from being built around.

The Prison remains as it has been for years – a ghost, slowly moving away, sinking deeper into the past. However it is still present.

So, all the Giants have lost their status, meaning and connections with each other. What is left are the memories, which have such power that they keep hold of the area.

The static condition in which the area remains arises from the Giants now being reflections of the past. During the Soviet period, the Island was in the focus of Muscovites, their attention was drawn to it, as contrasted to what we have now.

CONCLUSION

Shadows of the Past in Present The history of the area, starting from the Soviet period up to the present moment, shows two key stages: Stage One: strongly emotionally energized objects, with naturally created nebulae of meanings, rumors and myths around them exercised a dynamic and tangible influence on the territory. They brought unique features and formed the character of the area.

Stage Two: memories about such strongly emotionally energized objects, such huge buildings, when the objects had already lost their meaning, cause the conservation of the territory, entailing a static condition with the absence of any individual characteristics.

City as a Designer for Itself Apart from the deliberate creation of a city character, which is possible by the efforts of urbanists, architects, experts in PR and territory branding, the city, being a combination of various factors, can design its urban routines independently.

Architectural objects with intense cultural, social or political meaning — these are what creates a tight urban fabric. Architecture is created by people but we cannot always predict how the magnetic fields of particular building will evolve and interact. The Shadow Island is an example of it. The possible connections which were described might well not have been at all fully evident to the people who played a role in their actual making.

Possible Future Scenario As one of the future scenarios I foresee that the Giants will slowly lose their importance in the area.

Everything will be neglected after some time: the ghost of the former Theater and the ghost of the Prison, only the Highriser could still be playing a role. Its history can probably be stripped off and it can become just an old container for a new life. Certainly something should be changed. This could be a successful change in the function of the building. It can still remain a dwelling, but while trying to respond to current needs to a greater extent. It could, for example, be a new type of tenement house with an additional emphasis on services. a new attitude to space, maximum use of it, refurbishment of the common spaces, a new contemporary meaning to them. a new city in the new city.

Could it be so remarkable that it will allow new life to be brought into the area? I believe so, yes.

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CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Shadow Island in all its diversity, awaiting its next benchmark of development

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HODGE–PO

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INTRODUCTION

ODGE*

* NOUN: 1. A HETEROGENEOUS MIXTURE 2. A MUTTON STEW WITH MIXED VEGETABLES

EXAMPLE: 1. IT’S A HODGEPODGE OF DIFFERENT MUSIC AND CULTURES THAT YOU CAN’T QUITE PUT YOUR FINGER ON

A tasty neighborhood of picturesque heritage with a drop of despotic intruders

LEGISLATIVE PROGRAMME A HODGEPODGE IS AN INSULT TO STEWS

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Steven Broekhof, Iana Kozak and Yana Mazol

2. TO CALL THE SCOTTISH

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INTRODUCTION

DISGUISED MULTITUDE OF FUNCTIONS A SEEMINGLY FRIENDLY AND LIVABLE AREA THAT AT SECOND GLANCE ACCOMMODATES MORE OFFICES THAN EXPECTED

Legend: Dwelling Temporary dwelling Culture Offices Retail Healthcare Institutions Education Religion Governmental Industry Universities Empty / Renovation

0

100

Scale 1:10,000

120

500

1000m

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INTRODUCTION

HODGE–PODGE AT FIRST SIGHT THE AREA RESEMBLES A HODGE–PODGE OF DIFFERENT TYPOLOGIES. AT SECOND SIGHT, AFTER INTENSIVE STROLLING AND MAPPING, THERE ARE ALL SORTS OF ISLANDS WITH STRONG RECOGNIZABLE CHARACTERISTICS AND IDENTITIES. A ‘MICRORAYON’–ISLAND HIDDEN BEHIND A ‘STALIN’S MASK’, NEXT TO A ‘SUITS’–ISLAND

Suits

AND A ‘LABYRINTH’–ISLAND THAT RESEMBLES

Sta

A MORPHOLOGY AND THE LAYOUT OF A SMALL

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TOWN. A MOTLEY COLLECTION OF DIFFERENT

Suits

sk Ma

ATMOSPHERES

church

in’s

Suits

k

Mas

Suits Hipsters

Stal

Factory

Suits

Living paradise

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100

Scale 1:10,000

122

500

1000m

Stalin’s Mask

Factory

its

’s lin

Sta

Suits

a

St

M ’s

lin

sk Ma

as

aic

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s Mo

Labyrinth

Suits

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Mosaic

Mosaic

Suits Labyrinth

Suits

Mosaic

Micro Rayon Suits

Stalin’s

Mask

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Factory

Micro Rayon

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HODGE–PODGE ‘Tsarevitch Dimitriy’, Ilya Glazunov, 1967 This painting was a visual demonstration against the threat of the Russian Empire, but also a reaction to the destruction of the integrity of the historic fabric, in particular that of Zamoskvorechye

INTRODUCTION

Definition

Zamoskvorechye means ‘behind the Moskva river’. The area manifests itself as the backyard of Moscow, hidden behind the Kremlin. The Moskva River encloses it on the north side and the Garden Ring on the south side. Balchug Island reinforces this seclusion, artificially created with the construction of the Vodootvodny Canal, functioning as an extra barrier between the Moskva River and the rest of Zamoskvorechye.

As in the historical Zamoskvorechye area, we also included the Yakimanka District on the west as a part of the defined area. On the south side of the Vodootvodny Canal, the atmosphere of 18th and 19th century Moscow lives on in the low buildings and old courtyards, and is characterized by the many churches. These churches marked the so called ‘slobodas’, the traditional way in which Zamoskvorechye was organized into ‘free settlements.’ Tatar craftsmen and merchants were the first that settled in Zamoskvorechye, still remembered in the name of Tatarskaya Street and the Tatar Mosque.

The typology of the sloboda is formed by houses positioned in the center of their plot. Some of these old slobodas are still visible, now complemented with the spirits of different times.

The area is diversified by the different relations of buildings to streets and to each other.

Because of its clear and strong borders and the disconnection from the Kremlin, it became an interesting scrapbook of failed attempts to conquer it and to include it in the bigger plan of Moscow City Center.

Territory size: 410 hectares Official population: 35,564 people Density: 87 people/ha Housing: 261/m²

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The diversity in the built environment and the human scale is reflected in the diversity of the people. Because the area is disconnected from the rest of the City Center, it has always been less popular, resulting in the housing prices being lower. It is an area where politics has had less top–down influence, creating an atmosphere, where small shops prevail and where bottom–up activities take place. Where families, immigrants, businessmen, craftsmen, entrepreneurs and artists live side by side.

Leonid Pavlov as well as other competitors proposed to demolish Zamoskvorechye and organize a grand approach to the Kremlin.

The competition of the planning and development of Moscow city center. Mosproject–2, Atelier 11, L. Pavlov, 1967

New Moscow Downtown: 7 scenarios to destroy Zamoskvorechye

All this could have become true if the winning plan had been implemented 50 years ago. In 1967, the program of the ‘Competition for the planning and

On the 25th June 1972, a decree was issued by the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU: “On the building of the central part of the city of Moscow.”

Several Academicians — Pyotr Kapitsa, Nobel Prize in Physics, Lev and Boris Rybakov, Soviet archaeologists and historians — wrote a letter with arguments against the clearance of Zamoskvorechye. In 1972, the reconstruction plan of Zamoskvorechye was revised on the order of Leonid Brezhnev.

Zamoskvorechye has not once avoided drastic rearrangements which eventually seems to work in its favor now.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Zamoskvorechye has changed tremendously: no reminiscences of merchants lifestyle, no chaotic street plans, no architectural disorder. Architects and urban planners have breathed new life into the area. a grand approach to the Kremlin, the historic core of the city, was organised from the side of Zamoskvorechye. It has become an open–air museum of the most precious architectural relicts wallowing in greenery. a harmonious stream of cars floats over the Moscow River and park. a view of an exemplary communist city opens up from the Kremlin side.

Purified of outdated structures, Zamoskvorechye works now as a green zone with several monumental megastructures – a new city business center, the Palace of Soviets and the Central House of Artists.

development of the central part of Moscow within Garden Ring’ proposed a radical rethinking of the center with new highways and high–rise landmarks.

Almost all projects presented at the competition were designed to create a large scale modernist ensemble “superimposed” on the city within the Garden Ring. One of the participants — Leonid Pavlov — expressed the most significant ideas of the time in the most explicit form. Zamoskvorechye has been eliminated to its initial condition of the Tsar’s gardens, albeit seen through a Soviet prism.

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HODGE–PODGE

The land of the Resurrection Church in Kadashi: a secluded oasis in the heart of the battlefield for land ownership

Description AVERAGE PRICES: HOUSING RENTAL: 1,500–1,800 RUBLES/ M² SALE: 290,000–364,000 RUBLES/ M² OFFICES RENTAL: 3,300–3,700 RUBLES/ M² SALE: 352,000–440,000 RUBLES/ M²

When walking through Zamoskvorechye you experience a motley collection of identities, styles and atmospheres. This has resulted in a hodge–podge island: a mixture of picturesque heritage that survived alongside the many attempts at restructuring it.

The Pre–Soviet rhythm of the slobodas somehow survived the razor blade of Revolution that strove to cut away all the reminiscences of “the old Russia”; the rhythm has further withstood the attacks of Khrushchyov, Brezhnev and Lushkov.

Pre–Revolutionary bourgeoisie, Stalin’s Soviet authoritarianism, Khrushchev’s radicalism, Brezhnev’s defensism, Luzhkov’s capitalism and the copycats of scattered European housing typologies and business districts are the elements that stand criss cross with one another. Streets that are strongly defined by the buildings along them are mainly situated along the edges of this Hodge–Podge, facing the rest of the city.

Sometimes these streets from the perimeter run into the area, but they quickly crumble down into the true identity of Zamoskvorechye, when buildings start to set back from the street, and where the streets start to be defined by green spaces and fences instead of buildings. a good example of a failed attempt to include Zamoskvorechye in the new general plan of Moscow (1935) is the Boulevard, still recognized by the thin line of Stalinist buildings along Sadovnicheskaya Street which comes to an abrupt halt on the spot of Novokuznetskaya Metro station.

Often behind the legacy of Soviet and post –Soviet era, are hidden jewels of human scale and historical diversity. Beside this rich history, these jewels represent the human interventions that have helped to reinterpret these spaces, full with opportunities. The conflict between the old and the new symbolizes the human struggle, and is one of the main reasons the area propagates a human scale that is unique to Moscow, just a stone’s throw from the city center.

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Alexandr Saltykov, Prior of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kadashy

The Lonely Priest In 1992 when Father Alexander got a “parish” in the Resurrection Church in Kadashi, he had the impression that a war had taken over the place, in which the church had become a trench for narcomaniacs, prostitutes and homeless people. They had built some sort of caves of trash rags right near the altar.

After tumultuous times, the final blow was given by former Mayor Luzhkov in his last attack on architectural heritage: the so–called “Battle of Kadashi” in 2010. This resulted in a huge destruction of the area,

Now in solitude and seclusion, surrounded by offices, this priest is fighting for the survival of his church. Churches used to be a powerful institutions before the Revolution. Now when the population is becoming more and more conscious of religion it seems that the time has come to gain power again.

The city conditions raise the pressure on the existence of the church and its priest.

The story of Father Alexander is a good example of this. Though the situation seems to be desperate, he finds interesting solutions to bring more people to his church. The church creates a different rhythm of life, not only on Sundays, but during the whole week, when the territory is filled with children who come to the Church that has taken over the role of a children’s center which organizes various events.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Back in olden times, the community in Kadashi area had comprised mostly wealthy merchants, and craftsmen. Clergy also settled around the church: deacons, priests, etc. The church was an integral part of the life of a merchant, who got up early in the morning around 4 or 5 o’clock, and started his day by going to church, opening his business afterwards.

purely for commercial purposes. Because of this destruction and the construction of offices, many of them illegal, there are now almost no people living around.

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HODGE–PODGE

IDIOMATIC AMBIGUITIES

The Moskva River and the Vodootvodny Canal with the Balchug Island in between acts as a non space, without any attraction

Close, yet far away Geographical proximity to the historic core contrasts with the way this neighborhood is perceived. The time to walk from the Kremlin or the subway is similar to other parts of the city center, but the Moskva River cuts this area off from the rest of Moscow. Balchug Island enforces this separation, between the river and the Vodootvodny Canal, it creates a non–space containing mostly offices in re–used industrial buildings. It has resulted in a neighborhood that stands out from the rest of Moscow. a place that seems hidden behind the scenes, while positioned on the front row of Moscow’s City Center.

A district with a lot of hidden atmospheres of suburban and provincial lifestyles

Urbanized province An area that at a first glance looks like a city, but is the compilation of many small old houses – sometimes wooden – whose labyrinths of back yards, the rhythm of fences, old–fashioned groceries, abandoned spaces of uncertain use and emptiness during the day, resembles a something from the provinces. Borders play a great role in this illusion. Quiet settlements of conservative and religious merchants in the past left an eternal trace on the neighborhood that has outlasted several attempts at urbanisation. In the composition between built and open space it resembles the air of the provinces on one hand, but the city on the other. Behind the urban Stalinist buildings along the Garden Ring, you can find a ‘Microrayon’–typology which breathes a provincial character with a lot of open and green spaces.

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Sergei Markov, municipal deputy for Zamoskvorechye

Conductor without a Baton The Municipal Deputy of Zamoskvorechye, Sergei Markov, traveled a lot, and worked abroad in the diplomatic service for several years before he settled there. He also changed several apartments in Moscow, preferring the west side of the city. Zamoskvorechye has one particular benefit: it is in the city center but at the same time it is quite far from the major state institutions.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

In the early ‘90s when Russia was in a state of metamorphosis, Sergei Markov left public service and decided to invest in human capital, because he was of the opinion that natural resources like oil and gas are exhaustible while human resources are infinite.

He thus became one of the founders of Russia’s first independent Russian National Orchestra (RNO), the first to attract a number of outstanding soloists and conductors to work in Russia. In 2004, Sergey Markov became the first Russian producer to be awarded a “Grammy”. The RNO was the first Russian orchestra to win this prestigious award. After such success the state decided to take the orchestra under its wing.

An openness and a desire to bring something new to the area led Sergei to the position of municipal deputy. The Municipal Council is supposed to be in charge of local improvements such as pedestrian zones, benches and other urban facilities. It turned out that the local Municipal Council can only communicate the choices that have already been taken somewhere at the top level. So Sergei sometimes finds himself in a strange position: to either get a project implemented to improve the district even if it has several drawbacks, or to get nothing. In this “fake democracy” way of managing things in the city there is no possibility to figure out who is responsible for what, even concerning such minor details as painting originally yellow houses in grey.

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HODGE–PODGE Different building styles and typologies, representing specific ideologies, stand shoulder to shoulder

Consistent inconsistency The diversity of Zamoskvorechye — a huge mix of different building types next to each other — forms the basis of this paradox. a villa next to a stalinist building, a mansion next to a Luzhkov ‘monster’ and a 16th century church enclosed by Brezhnev and Krushchyov experiments. All these types and styles are placed in their own specific way transmitting a specific ideology.

The Stalinist buildings enhance the monumentality of the streets, for example, while the Mansions contain a totally different scale and are set back from the street. Zamoskvorechye stores a condensed history of Russian architecture in one place. The diversity gives a wholesome feeling which recalls the ancient Greek formula of existence wherein Chaos gives birth to Cosmos

The advantage of unfinished projects echoes in a more human scaled environment

Vanguard backlog

The lot of Zamoskvorechye is that of being a backyard to Moscow city center. All the radical city planning attempts are visible today but did not affect the area much. Even the last 25 years of hardcore development have done less harm to Zamoskvorechye compared to the rest of the center. For example, a plan to continue the Boulevard Ring on the territory of Zamoskvorechye hasn’t been completed, what came more as a benefit than a misfortune.

The boulevard dissolves into a new infrastructure characterized by a smaller scale pedestrian zone. It does not make a clear cut through the area but meanders slowly as in a historic city, revealing new spaces. It creates an environment that represents and promotes the human scale: spaces originated for interpretation by their inhabitants.

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DW E L L I N G Novokuznetsk Str. 11: courtesy: www.oldmos.ru

Novokuznetsk Str. 11â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Embassy of Mali: NVO/Moscow Oblast

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

OFFICE

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Lugkov and Putin period

HODGEâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;PODGE

Gorbachev period 1991

DWELLING MAP

Bregnev period till 1982 Khrushchev period till 1964

BUILDINGS INITIALLY CONSTRUCTED AS

Stalin period till 1953

DWELLING SPACE. THE COLOURS SHOW THE

Prerevolutionary period till 1917

PERIODS IN WHICH THEY WERE BUILT

Legend: Luzhkov and Putin Gorbachev Brezhnev Khrushchev Stalin period Pre Revolutionairy

Homestead

Tenant house

Palaty

Mansion

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TRANSFORMATION MAP SINCE THE FALL OF THE SOVIET UNION AND RISE OF CAPITALISM, MANY DWELLINGS HAVE BEEN TRANSFORMED INTO OFFICES

Legend: Dwelling Offices Culture Hotels Power Institutions Schools Public services

Residential complex ‘Imperial house‘

Stalin’s Monumental apartment housing

Khrushchev’s 1–515/5

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Brezhnev’s II–18–01/12

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HODGE–PODGE

Church Reanimation St. Clement’s Church, the second largest church in Moscow, after the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, was in need of an additional space for communal activities. Because the church didn’t have any additional rooms, a technical basement was offered in the adjacent house. The result was a space filled with pipes and clutter: it was a disaster and they didn’t know what to do with it. The church community was not in the possession of the right resources to carry out a reconstruction.

Fillipp, a young architecture student from Moscow got acquainted with this situation and came up with a complex proposal.

Because of the shortage in financial resources, he proposed to invite creative young people who would help in the constructruction in return for being able to use this creative space.

The curate of this church, Father Leonid, was a sculptor and he liked the idea. They needed extra space and could use this space during daytime, while in the evenings it would be used for cultural events. Initially it was a missionary project: the idea was to make people and the church community meet there and work together and through this, communicate with each other. a new creative space was created.

In the beginning it was pure freedom and anarchy. Ten people had their own keys and could invite anyone to rehearse. a guy from the Russian Photography School closed himself up for a week to work on his photographs next to a choir that sang folk songs. Several exhibitions took place, including one by Marat Guelman, a famous Russian gallerist, who made several provocative installations there.

One of the most hated art projects was by Raoef Mamedov: seven scenes from the Bible, where 7 classical renaissance paintings were remade. These recreations were photographs, whose models had Down’s syndrome. These were made not with the aim to insult the Church, but rather as a statement of the importance of talking about disability inside the church community.

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Pussy Riot were another of the so–called artists which used this cultural space as well. They practised here for their notorious performances on Red Square and in the Cathedral of the Christ the Savior for which they were afterwards arrested. There is even an interview with them on the internet which was recorded in this basement. After Pussy Riot was caught, Filipp organized a concert with Christian music to support them.

Because many things looked provocative, the Church became tired of it, with the result that the creative space was abolished. During this creative space’s existence, another one was founded in the Church of St. Nicholas at Barrikadnaya Metro station. Club Arteria was invited by Father Sybil Chaplin, the official public representative of the Orthodox Community in Russia, who had been inspired by the cultural space Filipp had initiated in the church in Zamoskvorechye.

Churches become places with the opportunity for alternative lifestyles: where something unexpected can happen. The territories of the churches are grounds where the general city laws do not apply, and they can therefore play an important role in city diversification.

This territory of freedom in creating one’s own regulations can house functions that are impossible to accommodate elsewhere in the city. Churches could in this way regain their social importance and form creative nodes in an active network of possibilities.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

‘The Last Supper’ by Raoef Mamedov: An art piece exhibited in the creative space of St. Clements Church that caused a big stir in the community

135

HODGE–PODGE

New Head of the Central Planning Institute of Moscow: Karima Nigmatulina, 28–year–old Tatar graduate of Princeton, who has worked with Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold, 2013

Homeless Sugar Daddies Moscow is thought to be a metropolis where a foreign community has little chance to emerge or develop. Compared with other global cities with its ethnic enclaves and the spatial organization as well as its mental/historical background, Moscow creates an environment in which communities are not that visible and exist in a hidden or a silent mode. Tatars were no exception. There are about two million Tatars in Moscow. Recognized by the government and intellectual world, and reasonably well off, they still strive to be appreciated and to create a niche in the city. History speaks for itself.

The first permanent settlement of Tatars appeared in Zamoskvorechye with the main road leading to the Horde (Ordynka). The spread of Tatar culture gave names to several streets: Ordynka, Tolmachi, Cherkizovo, Arbat. The first taverns called “kabak” appeared in Balchug Island and Kitay–Gorod. Since the 15th century, Tatars belonged mainly to the service class in a strictly Orthodox country and so they were not allowed to have a mosque in the city center. Attitudes changed after the Napoleonic Wars due to their brave participation; the first mosque was built.

The first Tatar Cultural Center appeared in 1913, but in Soviet times the building was handed over to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During these years of constant surveillance, mosque attendance paled into insignificance. Back in the old days, the mosque and the market had played the role of public spaces.

136

In the Soviet period, the focus shifted to more secluded ones, and religious ceremonies could be held at home. Due to the circumstances, Tatars founded a tradition of gathering in other places such as, for example, Izmailovo Park.

Nowadays, the mosque doesn’t play an essential role in their lives. This is mainly because of the habit of holding ceremonies at home, but also due to the mass integration into contemporary globalized Russian culture. Ethnic cuisine restaurants now act more as a place to meet and celebrate. The contemporary Tatar Diaspora is trying to sort out the construction of more mosques, but the authorities and citizens are not that positive and perceive it silently as a penetration of foreign culture.

It is hard to obtain land for the construction of mosques, but at the same time, the construction of cultural centers is fully supported by municipal authorities. So it is no secret that places of worship could appear behind their closed doors.

Tatars are spread all over the city, and in Zamoskvorechye they are not particularly well represented. Only some historical buildings are left but this has little impact on the area. Tatars are not a suffering minority now. They are not treated like migrants from other Muslim countries. a Tatar that serves in a shop is more the exception than the rule.

The mosques serve other minorities. Tatars have assimilated in the city and have left their original area, allowing new emerging communities to take over their place in the urban hierarchy.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Akmescit: a Tatar family — 1914

137

HODGE–PODGE

I THINK ZAMOSKVORECHYE IS AN IDEAL PLACE WHERE WE CAN TRY TO INTRODUCE THE FORGOTTEN LIFESTYLE WHICH WAS DESTROYED DURING INDUSTRIALIZATION Philipp Yakubchuk, architect, initiator of “Creative Space” in St. Clement’s Church, the Pope

CONCLUSION

Gardens of delight

If we imagine the future scenario of Zamoskvorechye where the human scale is considered to be the distinguishing and fundamental feature, we will see an unparalleled place with regard to the rest of the city center. The majority of offices have moved to the Moscow City development, freeing previously transformed housing back to its original purpose. Despite the small scale it has resulted in the most densely inhabited neighborhood of Moscow. With the historical example of the positive stubbornness which prevented the extension of the Boulevard, the strong community of inhabitants have decided that the ‘HodgePodge’ is to become an entirely pedestrian zone. Where cars have been occupying the open spaces in Zamoskvorechye, these spaces now are freed from this burden. In the history of Zamoskvorechye, dominated by merchant houses usually surrounded by green spaces, buildings are once again surrounded by beautiful open gardens and productive landscapes.

Zamoskvorechye was formerly characterized by its craftsmen. Now it is again a place for honest trade. People feel liberated and inspired to come together and exchange ideas, create new products and benefit from their collaborations. This has resulted in the dissolving of borders and enhanced communal trust and the benefits of interdependency. The neighborhood now functions as a hyper–efficient network bringing the best together while, first and foremost, ensuring a new and distinctive neighborhood setting.

138

Nikolai P. , art dealer, curator

Bourgeoisie back in the Hood Nikolai P., a prominent art curator, is without any exaggeration a conscious inhabitant of Zamoskvorechye: he settled here as a teenager and still lives here today. He owns an apartment in an old building at the very heart of Pyatnitskaya Street.

Nikolai’s apartment is in constant demand by journalists of architecture and interior design magazine.

The charm lies in the owner’s personality and the gentle attitude towards the design of the space: the absence of maniacal sterile renovation and the habitat of flea market orphans. Piles of books, a fireplace that works, green metal barrels, eye–catching art on the walls and a balcony door that leads nowhere speak for themselves. a perfect place for a balanced and moderate lifestyle.

Zamoskvorechye is a perfect place for such a lifestyle. Narrow streets with 24–hour human traffic, small local businesses, a collection of creative spaces, pedestrian zones surrounded by historical relics make Zamoskvorechye a potential new bourgeoisie district in the future. Nikolai P. is a representative of this new bourgeoisie, as shown in his caring attitude towards the past, desire to live in a nice city and energy to do something that causes no harm but brings new values up to the surface.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

The building inside contains all the typical pre– Revolution dwelling symbols: ball–room wide staircases, carved railings, a checked floor and giant doors. Mirrors, plants and crystal ashtrays give a cosy feeling that not only walls are shared between the inhabitants. Nikolai and his neighbors cooperate to keep the house in good condition and create clean and nice interior to live in. They take care not only of the inside of the house but pool their responsibility and transfer it to the façade, too.

Once demolished balconies have been replaced by beautiful stylistically matching imitations.

This lifestyle (we wouldn’t dare to call it routine) extends beyond the apartment. Nikolai prefers walking to public transport. The Moscow Metro is more of a seasonal necessity that gives little pleasure.

When the weather is good enough, Nikolay chooses silent routes along small streets and lanes with almost no cars and people to get to work.

139

INTRODUCTION

I THINK THAT MANY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PAY 100,000 RUBLES IN TAXES FOR THE YEAR, AND THEN THERE WILL BE AN EXODUS Tatyana Dorogova real estate agent, Real Estate Agency “Olymp”

Last Judgment/Sin City Since urbanization spread its wings above Zamoskvorechye the actual borders which used to protect the area from the devastating corporate locomotive have somehow disappeared. The embankments and river were conquered by urban godzillas and mutants: offices are now set on water and the embankments resemble Push Wagner’s surrealistic nightmare of endless lines of cars and hundred shades of grey. Step by step, real estate development is penetrating the area of Zamoskvorechye. The identity of an area of pickled history and reminiscences of human routines long past is dissolving in the labyrinthine pattern of metamodernist constructions — barbarous recyclings of the past, transformers, in other words. Due to the tremendous tax–increases, the inhabitants have moved from the area, provoking a real exodus of local people. The uniqueness and diversity has been erased by second–hand development.

Business cobras, office amoebas and social scraps make this area messy and vibrant during the day and dark and dangerous at night. The dark matter that appears is completely dehumanized: this is just another part of the city that cannot stop and will burn itself out one day. But there is a lighthouse that diffuses its dim light through the deep: a church. The lonely priest now regains his parish again, giving shelter to those who are lost.

140

REFERENCE LIST Sources

List of experts

OFFLINE:

ARBAT MULTIPLE (ID)ENTITIES

Amin Ash, Thrift Nigel. The Audibilty of The Everyday City. Logos, 3–4, 2002.

Alyona Ermakova, founder of “Stay Hungry” and various restaurants; Yuri Palmin, photographer; Lisa Plavinskaya, artist; Nikita Tokarev, director of MARCH; Kirill Asse, architect at Brodsky Office; Elena Kamay, founder of Oldich and Lambada Market; Yevgeniya Pospelova, coordinator at Strelka; Dina Almukhamedova, PR specialist at “Atak” PR studio; Konstantin Greussman, director at Art Residence; Anna Pozniak, staff member at Strelka; Ilya Sotnik, enterpreneur.

Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities. a Harvest Book, Harcourt Inc. , New York, 1972 Chadovich, A.A. Preservation or Demolition? Compromise! AMIT, (22)2013.

Gyliarovsky, V. Moscow and Moscovites. AST, Moscow, 2010.

Lefevbre, Henri. Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life.

Continuum Press, London, 2004.

Potresov, V. Disappearance of Arbat. Nashe Nasledye, № 67–68, 2003.

Truschenko, Olga. The prestige of the center: reearch of social segregation in Moscow. Socio–Logos Publishing House, 1995.

ONLINE: NEWSru.com: 2000–2014.

www.newsru.com/cinema/05Feb2002/zereteli.html,

Radio Station «Echo of Moscow», blog: www.echo.msk.ru/blog/dervishv/772991–echo/, 1997–2011.

Shymsky Alexander. Blog on transport and Life: http://proboknet. livejournal.com/281843.html Business Newspaper «Izvestiya»: www.izvestia.ru/news/566008 Cityboom: www.cityboom.ru/2013/10/18/wars, 2014 Archi.ru: www.archi.ru Dwelling codex of RF: www.zhilkod.ru, 2006–2014 TSJ «Spglasie»: www.tsj–soglasie.ru, 2014

THE HEART OF CHAMBERS Kirill Asse, architect at Brodsky Office; Evgeney Asse, architect at MARCH; Andrey Nogovitsyn, teacher and photographer; Olga Grinkrug, journalist; Alyona Ermakova, founder of “Stay Hungry” and various restaurants; Alexandra Genrikh, journalist at “Patriarshie” newspaper; Tatyana Konstantinovna Oskolkova, ex–head of the British Council in Moscow; Anna Krasinskaya, director of Publishing and Educational Programs at Strelka Institute; Elena Kamay, founder of Oldich and Lambada Market; Lavrenty Poleshkevich, Ieromonah, Vysokopetrovsky Monastery.

OCCUPATION ZONE Denis Romodin, etnographer, historian; Dmitriy Ustinov, musician; Andrey Nogovitsyn, teacher and photographer; Maxim Avdeev, photographer; Leonid Lipelip, artist; Boris Denisyuk, architect at Buro5.

THE PLATEAU Denis Romodin, etnographer, historian; Alexandr Mozhaev, etnographer; Grigory Revzin, journalist; Yaroslav Kovalchuk, urban planner; Roman Mazurenko, ideologist; Blanche Neumann, producer; Olga Polischuk, project manager at Strelka; Anna Krasilschik, editor at KB Strelka; Alexey Aslanyants, journalist and editor.

TAGANSKAYA

HODGE–PODGE Dasha Paramonova, architect; Alexander Saltykov, prior of the church of Resurection of Christ Kadashy; Nikolay P. , art dealer, curator; Alexander Frolov, member of coordinating council of Archnadzor; Tatyana Dorogova, real estate agent, Olimp; Philipp Yakubchuk, architect; Maria Antonenko, city guide; Sergey Markov, municipal deputy of Zamoskvorechye; Nailya Fakhtehova, Honored Artist of Russia and the Republic of Tatarstan.

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

Nikolay Malinin, architectural critic; Andrey Oleinkov, philosopher; Denis Romodin, etnographer, historian;

141

INTRODUCTION

A NEW CARTOGRAPHY OF THE CENTER MOSCOW AS ENVISIONED BY THE STRELKA DWELLING STUDIO. A COMPOSITION OF FRAGMENTS, POLITICAL FORCES, GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY, AND EVOLUTION TOWARDS NEW INTERPRETATIONS OF DWELLING IN THE CENTER

Central Bank

19

20

S

Hotels and reta

Re d

S

Sq

ua

Kremlin

0

100

Scale 1:10,000

142

500

1000m

re

19

70

Church

MIA

tral nk FSB Lubyanka

19

a

ay

ar ua

Sq

S

re

19

70

198

Ministries

0S Zaryadye

Military academy

Hospital

Old Town

Perimeter

Push zone :) :(

ua

re

Sq

n

Kitay Gorod

St

20

S

Hotels and retail

CONFESSIONS OF THE CENTER

143

VOLUME II

DWELLIN

FROM SUBSISTENC TO EXISTENZMAXI

ING:

CE LIVING XIMUM

Sofia Novikova

DWELLING IN MOSCOW

THE VERY BASIC FACTS

114 257

“ALL CITIZENS HAVE THE RIGHT TO HOUSING”.

TOTAL NUMBER OF BUILDINGS IN MOSCOW

Constitution RF, Article # 40,

Mosgorstat, 2011

111 300

FAMILIES are registered as in need of accommodation at the beginning of 2011.

8 400 000

Mosgorstat, 2011

Rosstat, 2011

54% OF ALL ACCEPTED FOR REGISTRATION (ABOUT 65 THOUSAND FAMILIES) MADE SUCH REGISTRATION MORE THAN 10 YEARS AGO. urbaneconomics.ru

RESIDENTIAL ROOMS IN MOSCOW

Minimum international standards require the presence for each member of the household a separate room along with a common room for co–host of its members (or two rooms — for large households).

Recognized international standard formula for the settlement, in which for each household member there is one room plus a family room on household.

(R = N + 1).

R — household N — number of members

For entrance to the settlement where each resident in the city has an average one room (R = N),

MOSCOW NEEDS AT LEAST 3 141 100 ROOMS To enter an internationally recognized level of settlement in a residential area, described by formula R = N + 1, the number of rooms in housing in Moscow is to be increased by almost 47% (a deficit of 7.4 million rooms).

The rate of 3.9 million private households in Moscow (according to the form 4–housing stock (zhilfond) in 2010). www. zastroev.ru Housing conditions statistics www.bibliotekar.ru

146

TOTAL AREA (SQ.M)

Total area — is the sum of area of all parts of the premises, including ancillary use oor space designed to meet the needs of citizens of the household and other needs associated with living in a residential area (excluding balconies, loggias, verandas and terraces*)

RESIDENTIAL AREA (SQ.M)

Residential area is defined as the sum of the areas of living rooms. СНиП 31–01–2003 Housing Code, RF (since 01.03.2005)

Housing Code, RF (since 01.03.2005)

Typical Typicaltwo tworooms rooms apartment apartmentwith with total totalarea area40.8 40.8sq.m. sq.m.

**

Typical Typicaltwo tworooms rooms apartment apartmentwith with residential residentialarea area32.5 32.5sq.m. sq.m.

32.5 2232.5 40.8 40.8

32.5 2232.5 40.8 40.8

sq.m. sq.m.

sq.m. sq.m.

sq.m. sq.m.

sq.m. sq.m.

215 460 800 132 540 400 TOTAL AREA IN MOSCOW (SQ.M)

RESIDENTIAL AREA IN MOSCOW (SQ.M)

MosgorBTI, 2011

MosgorBTI, 2011

MOSCOW POPULATION (ppl) MosgorBTI, 2011

PER PERON (SQ.M/P)

18.7 11.5

sq.m/p of total area sq.m/p of residental area

WHICH IS 0.5 SQ.M. LESS THAN THE LEGAL NORM

federal standard social norms of total area in Russia = 18 sq.m/p

40 - 50 sq.m/p of total area is the average in most 40 - 50 sq.m/p of total area industrialized countries is the average in most industrialized countries

RUSSIA, MOSCOW RANKED NEXT TO THE LAST PLACE IN TERMS OF LEVEL OF ADMINISTRATIVE BARRIERS IN CONSTRUCTION

180place

according to an annual survey “Doing Business”, held by the World Bank, in terms of “Dealing with Construction Permits” urbaneconomics.ru

MOSCOW EXISTENZMINIMUM 2014 N 541 RF Government Decree of 29.08.2005 MOSCOW EXISTENZMINIMUM 2014

MOSCOW EXISTENZMINIMUM 2014

12.0 12.0 6.0 6.0

sq.m/p MINIMUM of residental area sq.m/p MINIMUM of residental arearules sq.m/p MINIMUM sanitary

8.25 8.25

sq.m/p MINIMUM residental area sq.m/p MINIMUM Provisional rules of Narkomzdrav residental area (1920)

9.0 9.0

sq.m/p MINIMUM residental area sq.m/p MINIMUM Sanitary rules for the construction residental area of residential buildings

of residental area

sq.m/p MINIMUM sanitary rules RFresidental Government of areaDecree of 29.08.2005 N 541 RF Government Decree of 29.08.2005 N 541

Provisional rules of Narkomzdrav (1920)

(1922) rules for the construction Sanitary of residential buildings (1922)

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

11 541 100

AVERAGE AREA IN MOSCOW

147

DWELLING IN MOSCOW

CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL RESIDENTIAL HOUSES

55% 64% 34%

Moscow

45% Moscow Region

Dynamics of the number of families, registered as in need of accommodation (end of year), and number of families received a new apartment and/or improved their living conditions, in Moscow in the period of 2000–2011. , thousands

panel monolith / brick www. rway.ru

Mosgorstat, 2011

families got an ap., thousand

01/03/ 2005 New Housing Code*

60

53.36

50 40

families in a waiting list, thousand

46.76 40.55

250

53.07

200

43.37

150 100

30 20

14.79

17.05 13.55

10 2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

50

15.96 11.05

2008

2009

9.70

5.67

2010

2011

0

*The new edition of the Housing Code was adopted in Russia third and final reading in 2005. This law directed the distribution of powers between the various government agencies and local authorities. The amendments clarify the provision of housing on the social contract tenancy .

Now entitled to free housing provided by local authorities has the category of poor people, established on the basis of the current law and order, which are established by regional laws. Citizens will be provided by housing without waiting time if their apartments are qualified as unfit for habitation, and are not subject to reconstruction and repair. Also, housing is provided to orphans, citizens suering from serious illnesses that prevent them to live together with other family members .

THE STRUCTURE OF HOUSING IN MOSCOW ON LEGAL STATUS OF USERS OF RESIDENTIAL PREMISES

24% 76%

148

London 26%

private property

Average in UK 20%

state-owned

of state-owned property

urbanaudit.org

2000

55 329 000

50 000 000

4529

40 000 000 30 000 000 4 700 000

4000

total area sq.m.

275

5 043 000

33 162 000

6000

51 971 000

8000

6609

7365

10000

51 404 000

9995

number of buildings, thousand

10 875

QUANTITY OF HOUSES OF DIERENT HEIGHTS VS. AREA SQ.M.

20 000 000 10 000 000 0

0 1-4

5

6-9

10-15

16-22

number of storeys

>23

VOLUME OF HOUSING CONSTRUCTION IN MOSCOW

1 786 000

COMPLETE HOUSING UPGRADE IN MOSCOW WILL BE IN

Volume of housing construction in Moscow in 2010, which is 47% less than in 2000 (3 342 000 sq.m) Volume of housing construction in Moscow Total housing construction in Moscow and Moscow region increased from 5.9 million sq.m in 2000 to 9.7 million sq.m in 2010, up 64%.

YEARS

One of the indicators showing the insuficient level of development of the updating housing in Moscow, demolition of dilapidated, obsolete and in need of emergency reconstruction housing, is the physical disposal of premises: in 2010, the physical disposal amounted to 436 000 sq.m — 0.2% of housing in Moscow.

urbaneconomics.ru

In most European countries residential premises annually withdrawn from the housing stock is more than 1%.

Calculated on the basis of 1–forms of housing stock for 2010 urbaneconomics.ru

DISTRIBUTION OF THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF BUILDINGS OF RESIDENTIAL FUND OF MOSCOW BUILT DATA number of buildings

1941-1945 1953 II WW Stalin’s death

1917 Revolution

12000

2008 Economic recession

1990 Perestroika

11697

10000 8000

7597

6000 4000

4355

3721

2000

1047

before 1917

19181929

2124

19291940

2795

2278

1592

276

19411945

19461955

19561965

19661975

19761985

19861995

19962005

20062009

2010

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

500

SQ.M

149

DWELLING IN MOSCOW

DENSITY OF TOTAL AREA PROVISION BY DISTRICT (SQ.M/P) Unlike most of the world’s largest cities, the highest residential provision is characteristic for the central districts of Moscow.

Зеленоградский 20.40 sq.m/p 218 800 ppl.

САО 19.87 s

22 112 000 s

1 112 900 pp

СЗАО 21.46 sq.m/p 17 280 000 sq.m.

805 400 ppl.

ЗАО 19.23 sq.m 21 132 152 sq.m.

1 098 500 ppl.

AMOUNT OF RESIDENTIAL AREA PROVIDED TO THE FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS REGISTERED AS IN NEED OF ACCOMMODATION IN MOSCOW IN THE PERIOD OF 2000–2011. , THOUSANDS SQ.M.

ЮЗА 21.55

Mosgorstat, 2011

thousand sq.m.

2500.0 2000.0

26 800 0

01/03/ 2005 New Housing Code*

1937.8

2114.3

2354.7

1 243 80

2233.4

1690.1

1500.0 1000.0

941.9 501.2

500.0

573.5

632.9

469.9

557.6 326.6

0 2000

150

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

RESIDENTIAL VS. NONRESIDENTIAL NUMBER OF BUILDINGS MosgorBTI, 2011

35% 39 869

buildings

65% 74 609

buildings

nonresidential residential

АО 9.87 sq.m/p

MosgorBTI, 2011

СВАО 18.46 sq.m/p

2 112 000 sq.m.

23 061 600 sq.m.

112 900 ppl.

1 249 400 ppl.

ВАО 17.35

sq.m/p

24 356 000 sq.m.

ЦАО 24.91 sq.m/p

1 403 500 ppl.

17 353 000 sq.m.

m

ЮВАО 16.26 sq.m/p 18 873 500 sq.m.

ЮВАО 16.26 sq.m/p

1 160 700 ppl.

ЮЗАО 21.55 sq.m/p 26 800 000 sq.m.

1 243 800 ppl.

Average apartment area (sq.m./p)

18 873 500 sq.m.

ЮАО 16.53 sq.m/p

1 160 700 ppl.

26 011 800 sq.m.

Total housing area (sq.m.)

District population

1 573 400 ppl.

Density of total area per person 25 sq.m/p

16 sq.m/p Mosgorstat, 2008 Section 8. Communal areas. Total area.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

696 563 ppl.

151

Iana Kozak

THE NEW NORMS FOR OLD MOSCOW

ARCHITECTURE IS NOT SIMPLY ABOUT SPACE AND FORM, BUT ALSO ABOUT EVENT, ACTION, AND WHAT HAPPENS IN SPACE Bernard Tchumi

Norms and regulations of all sorts – social, cultural, juridical and etc. — are an important part of our life. Norms usually reflect the prevailing patterns and values of the society in which they function, and at the same time they shape the way we live, defining even our most mundane routines.

In this research, I looked specifically at the buildings norms and codes of Russia. According to Wikipedia, the main purpose of building codes are to protect public health, safety and general welfare as these relate to the construction and occupancy of buildings and structures.

One might say, therefore, that we inhabit the space of building norms.

Size, placement, usage, entrance and exit rules, insolation, insulation, fenestration, plumbing, energy efficiency and so on, – building codes dictate and define almost all the parameters of our existence. To understand these norms means understanding how people dwelt at different times.

Through the introduction of new building rules and regulations we can ignite significant change and accelerate modernization.

It is interesting that most of the active building norms of today were based on the idea of the so–called “minimal existence”, introduced by CIAM in Germany in the 1920s and adopted in the USSR after WWII under Nikita Khrushchev, in order to provide the minimal living conditions for the masses. After a series of experiments, Soviet architects developed an official system of SNiPs (the building norms and regulations of the USSR and later of the Russian Federation). In the 1960s, the socialist Existenzminimum was born. However, in order to understand the current patterns of dwelling we also should look deeper into history and try to understand how Russian cities have transformed under various rules and laws. This research traces the evolution of codes and regulations over the last five centuries and analyzes how changes in the prevailing paradigm may affect these norms in the future, with particular focus on the fast expanding societal group of the elderly.

Russia’s building norms have passed through several stages of development. In the timeline below I have identified the following “layers”: “Mine–Yours” norms are concerned with regulation of ownership and borders, e.g. the sizes of plots which were granted to residents of the German Sloboda according to rank; “Safety” norms were introduced to protect the city and its buildings from fire and flood.

Also, some of them indulged in a gentrification of the Kitay Gorod and Kremlin area: Stone houses were the only ones whose building was permitted in Kitay Gorod and the Kremlin.

Those unable to afford to build stone houses were forced to sell or exchange land with those who could (Law 2051, 2232, 2036, Volume 4 (1700–1712));

152

insolation 1.5 hours

min 2.4 m

Smin=9m2

“Aesthetic” norms regulated the representative side of a city, starting from the foundation of Saint Petersburg. From 1744 onwards (Law 9510, Volume 12 (1744–1748)), citizens had to submit a report to the police with the plans of the house they intended to build;

The time issue overlays all previous layers and displays a shift from the spatial zoning of a city to time zoning: some functions like dwelling and retail can be provided within the same building, but taking into account the noise prohibition after 11 p.m.

These standards and codes were meant to bring order and safety to the city and structure the process of construction. For instance, fire safety measures were introduced due to the severe fires that had destroyed half of Moscow in the seventeenth century (1648). Norms regulating the aesthetics of buildings came into existence during the construction of the new Russian capital — Saint Petersburg; for the very first time the norms for an exemplary building or an exemplary façade – the important concept of the prototype — appeared in 1761 and were later adopted in other major Russian cities.

The minimum conditions for human existence became an issue for cities long before the CIAM. Moscow’s population, for instance, was growing rapidly (from 61,000 in the 18th century, 400,000 in 1852, to 1,039,000 in 1897). With growth occurring at such breakneck speed, barracks and flophouses came to be the most common dwellings for migrant workers. For example, in one such flophouse near Strominka and Khitrov, market traders slept on benches in absolutely unsanitary conditions. At the end of the 19th century, the building statutes introduced a very important norm “minimal volume of air” – 14.6 m3/person. Later, in 1920, the minimal volume of air was converted into the minimal residential area – 8.25 m²/person.

(Provisional rules of the Narkomzdrav [the People’s Commissariat for Health]).

In contrast to the conventional wisdom that the state has been increasing the Existenzminimum over the last century, according to the Residential Code of the RF the minimal residential area has actually been reduced – 6 m3/person (the same figure was introduced for a street cleaners’ shelter). It is interesting that the propagandized communal way of life, e.g. communal kitchens and saunas, owed its existence more to economic deficiency, shortage of materials and lack of utilities capacity than to any ideological motives (some newly built housing in the 1920s was not equipped with bathrooms, for instance, because the outdated engineering systems were not designed for such an increase in the load).

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

“Existenzminimum” norms are those connected specifically with living conditions, which come partially from aesthetics, such as the minimal dimensions of a window;

We dwell within building norms and regulations.

Photo: Ilya Pitalev / RIA «Novosti»

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THE NEW NORMS FOR OLD MOSCOW

With the introduction of the official SNiPs in the 1960s, a typical apartment for a family of three generations became the basis for all major norms in housing construction. These norms have come to be obsolete in the last few decades with the radical changes that have taken place in the structure of the family and of society itself. However, the average family has changed in comparison with the last century: from a family consisting of 5.6 people in the 1960s to today’s family of 3. Today, families are smaller, more mobile, have fewer children and prefer not to live with their elderly relatives. At the same time society is inevitably aging.

Life in Russian cities has changed dramatically, but have the building norms changed? We live faster, in syncopic rhythms, we are less dependent on the space of our apartment, but are more concerned about having constant access to various networks and services: meanwhile, we continue dwelling in buildings constructed according to 60–year old norms. How in the future might these changes in lifestyle and in life values change our dwelling patterns? How will the building codes respond to these changes? What exactly will we regulate and how? Let us look at one particular and ever growing category of Russian citizens – the elderly.

Moscow tries to look younger than it is in reality: with all its new “hipster” public spaces – parks, creative clusters and pedestrian zones – it positions itself as a city for youth while, in fact, 22 percent of Muscovites are aged over 60.

Dwelling for the elderly has always been understood as a specific building typology, constituted by social housing, nursing homes, mental hospitals, centers of social rehabilitation for the homeless, and private retirement homes, all of which are rather isolated and located mostly on the periphery of or outside the city. It is also worth mentioning that the state aims to provide home assistance services, considering these the most economically efficient. The current situation is reminiscent of an ancient Japanese tradition among the poor peasants of Mount Narayama, who carried the elderly to the mountain top and left them there to die – so as not to burden their families. According to the recent changes in local building codes, the City of Moscow has reduced the number of places in state retirement homes down to a tenth their former provision (SNiP 2.07.01–89* Planning and development of urban and rural settlements; and MGSN 1.01.99 Moscow City norms and regulations for planning and development). This means that only 6 percent of senior citizens will live in the retirement type of dwelling (the real number is in fact 0.1%).

Surprisingly, mental hospitals prevail in the full range of retirement typologies and, moreover, they are the most packed facilities. As one interviewee said: “Loneliness is the best friend of Alzheimer’s.”

There is a great deal of truth to this: it is low levels of activity, both mental and physical, which are the preconditions for dementia.

The daily routine of a 30–year old differs totally from that of a person who is 50 years older.

Today, being active and mobile citizens, we can easily manage the distances from our apartments to the Metro station, parks, and well bear the absence of elevators, and high noise levels. But when we are 75, the world shrinks: people move and react slower, – and time goes faster. Aging does not consist of equal periods, not 5 years after retirement. It consists of different stages based on levels of activity and independence.

156

% 40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5 0 1959

Transformation of family composition source: http://elementy.ru/lib/430651

1979

1989

20th century

2002

2010

21th century

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

< 19th century

1970

157

Population aged 60+ years, both sexes (%)

THE NEW NORMS FOR OLD MOSCOW

45

40

Japan

35

South Korea Spain Itally Poland Germany G Czech Republic France F ance Brazil azil Ukraine Russia Mexico China Australia UK United States Arge rgentina rge Turkey k Israel Egypt

30

25

20

15

10

South Africa Nigeria

5

Kenya

0

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

2020

2030

2040

2050

Guest house ‘Uchinsky dvorik’ Pension ‘Nikolsky Park’

Pension ‘Bun’kovo’ Pension ‘Zolotaya osen’’ Pension ‘Ulitkino’ Retirement house ‘Yaroslavsky’

Pension ‘Domashny ochag’ ‘Monino Park-hotel’

Retirement house ‘Rublevsky’

Senior hotel ‘Znamenskoye’

Mini-pension ‘Zamoskvorechye’

Pension ‘Lapino’ Pension ‘Dubky’ Pension ‘Akulovo’ Pension ‘Chistoer serdtse’ Pension ‘Ostrovtsy’ Retirement house ‘Shishkin les’ Pension ‘Ulitkino’

Retirement house ‘Troitsky’

Types of retirement homes nursing homes within monastries

Retirement house ‘Shishkin les’ Network of Pensions ‘Dobrota’

social housing

Network of Pensions ‘Dobrota’

nursing homes

Network of Pensions ‘Dobrota’

hospitals mental hospitals private retirement homes

Network of Pensions ‘Dobrota’ Retirement house ‘Vorontsovo’

State nursing homes are situated mainly on the periphery of Moscow while private retirement homes sprawl around Moscow region

158

159

store

hairdresser

partial

24hours help

24hours phone line

full

1036

20

Private pensions 34

1-6 months 5 days/week Permanent

1-6 months 5 days/week Permanent

1-6 months Permanent

Permanent

laboratory

physiotherapy dentist

cardiologist

medical procedures

1month contract

Indefinite Own apartments

phone calls halls

24-hour visits

phone calls

mental department

disabled

cinema hall prayer room

concerts/events

art

include: food shelter fee: contract of lifelong rent premium to pension +21300 include: communal expencies funerals (cremation) fee: 1170-2600 rur/day include: medical treatment food cosmetics funerals (cremation)

include: medical treatment funerals (cremation) fee: 105-608 rur/day

fee: 75% of pension include: medical treatment food cosmetics funerals (cremation) fee: 75% of pension

apartment excange premium to pension include: communal expencies funerals (cremation)

Suitability for people with Financial scheme special needs

Nursing homes and social housing are supposed to provide services, without which the elderly cannot survive in isolated conditions. At the same time, private retirement homes provide basic services but are disconnected from the city

sport activities

library

parks & greenery

Integration Medical Communicatiion Activities with the city treatment

scheduled visits

therapist

Terms of stay Accomodation Assistance Services

According to needs

nursing

140 000

1

Home assistance 127

canteen/restaurant

350

350

1 Centers of social reabilitation

alarm button

30

30

1

Hospitals

7490

400

9

Mental hospitals

487

3356

9

Nursing homes

140

400

4

Social housing

Number Average Capacity Capacity

THE NEW NORMS FOR OLD MOSCOW Social Houses are partially integerated into to the periphery city structure but at the same time duplicate public services

Nursing homes were developed in 1960th–1970th parallel with the construction of hospitals, borrowed structure from them: closed, custodial — cut from the city

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There is a shorage of Mental Hospitals in Moscow which indicates on a decline of mental health of elderly as a result of low physical and social activities

In Center of Social Adaptation “Filimonki” homeless elderly citizens and people with disabilities reside until the decision on their future living arrangement

Home assistance includes different levels of services: alarm button, hot dinners, patronage etc.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

Hospitals

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THE NEW NORMS FOR OLD MOSCOW

Private Pensions: castleâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;like houses are mainly isolated from city life, relatives and public services

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Geropolis is a German Average city in 2030

Older Europe copes with the issue of Aging in different ways. However, they all aim to improve both the architectural and social environment. The project “Geropolis” by Matthias Hollwich and HWKN explores the average German city in 2030. Geropolis is inhabited by 890,000 citizens: 34.4% of the population are over 60 years old and 7.3% are over 80. The project examines how traditional values in the approach to aging have become firmly established in urban culture, city–planning, architectural concepts and spatial arrangements. Seven different design concepts outline the beginning of the debate about mobility, level of independence, and the pension system. Another example is given by the alternative model of cohabitation in France. The project called “Ensemble of two generations” gives an opportunity for young Albanian women to live together with the elderly.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

What do the State, the Moscow City Government, or the Department of Social Security think about the growing elderly population? Firstly, the pension age is rising to 60 for women on the 1st January 2015. There is another option that has been discussed by the Governor of Yaroslavl Region, Sergei Vakhrukov, and the Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, to build special eco–towns for the elderly in the countryside. Vladimir Petrosyan, Head of the Moscow City Department of Social Security has said that: “The idea is interesting, and it is popular abroad, where so–called ‘eco–towns’ are being built for older people who want to move closer to nature. These are comfortable villages with medical, cultural and sports institutions”. Mental health problems will require the building of more mental hospitals. If nothing changes, in 10 years time, Moscow will transform substantially and will be surrounded by elderly settlements.

Ensemble of two generations reveals potential of elderly: new mode of cohabitation

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THE NEW NORMS FOR OLD MOSCOW

60-74

75-79

80-89

90+

active aged

old aged

elderly

long-liver

74 years

75,8 years

88 years ?

independent interdependent dependent patronized p atronized independent independent interdependent interdependent dependent dependent patronized patronized patronized

Life expectancy growth, which means that people live in third age

My proposal is about a renewal of Norms helping us to move towards the Age–Friendly City.

We have almost reached the critical mass of elderly population. Here, it is worth focusing on a differentiation of older people into categories according to their degree of activity rather than by age. Age is losing its importance: people are living longer. The average life expectancy in Moscow has grown by two years since 2010 and is now 75.8 years, compared with a projected 2–year rise by 2025. Probably, people will increasingly live to 88 by 2025. The increasing proportion of elderly in society, up to thirty percent in 2050, needs another built environment, different services and goods, fashions, food and architecture.

It is difficult to imagine yourself and your lifestyle at 75. Today, what I value most of all is freedom. Life has become a kind of lifelong trip. But what will happen to me when I am older? Does it mean the end of the journey?

At 75, I would prefer to work till the end, periodically taking breaks: teaching (children or students), and meeting up with my children once a month. Physical activity should help me to stay more or less self–sufficient. Of course, I will not be able to avoid health problems such as diabetes and joint issues. I’m willing to keep pace: to run marathons even as a granny, to share my experience, teaching children about art. But from time to time I will need some space to escape from the world, to recover and find peace.

Taking into consideration the similar opinions of a number of respondents, does this mean that there will be no pensioners in the near future, just older adults? As was mentioned before, aging does not involve equal periods. It consists of different stages: the independent, interdependent, and carer–dependent life. Each stage is characterized by its own particular needs: The independent become increasingly dependent on others for practical chores (meal preparation, cleaning, shopping and transportation) or need carers.

Orientation on age aims to make life livable rather than provide mere survival conditions, and needs to be applied on different scales: the city, the block and housing.

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DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

Facing my aging

165

THE NEW NORMS FOR OLD MOSCOW

PHYSICAL AND HUMAN ACTIVITY HELPS SLOW DOWN TIME

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City Scale The city scale is connected mainly to the issue of access because the elderly have different speeds and endurance limits for walking distances. This distance limit is about 400 meters, which automatically has implications for the locations of Metro stations, green zones, sporting facilities, and grocery stores within this radius. The radius of access could be enlarged by provision of alternative low–speed means of transportation, e.g. scooters, electro–cars, etc. It is interesting how such a small change can cause a great chain reaction in street organization.

The street is divided into more diverse speed lanes and sidewalk extensions, gradually slowing the overall pace. Parking zones for transport would also change.

30 k m greenery sport

0.4

km

10 km

parking lots

h m/

5k 2.0

m

1.0

m

1.5

m

2.5

k 30

km 10

/h

12 0 0

0 15

0

19 0 0

30

00

h m/

m

Diversification of means of transport creates a street zoned for different speeds of movement: pedestrian, cyclists, small vehicles and cars

Parking lots for various types of low–speed vehicles should be provided.

They should easily adapt to existing lots for disabled people

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

Walkable distance is defined by average pace: 1.0–1.2 m/s and a 6 min walk defines the walkable distance — 400 m.

Longer distances must be covered by other means of transport: scooter, electro–car, etc.

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THE NEW NORMS FOR OLD MOSCOW

Block scale The aim of the New Norms is an integration of dwelling for the elderly within the urban fabric.

Each residential block has to consist of this typology. The percentage of dwelling depends on the demographic situation of the block: up to 25 percent. Therefore, reprogramming of housing could be decided on the local level. It is remarkable how slight changes are capable of decreasing migration. Another benefit of inclusion lies in the reduction of duplicated services that retirement dwelling has to provide according to the norms.

Dwelling for the elderly should be integrated within the urban structure.

Housing Scale Housing for the elderly refers to a temporality of dwelling because it depends on the level of activity. Reasonably independent people need dwellings on the ground floor with easy access to the street. Others who are more dependent could live in units serviced by one nurse per 15–30 people.

The housing scale also touches on norms about accessibly and new types of facilities e.g. delivery systems, noise protection, bigger and lower windows, and to utilities.

Dwellings for eldely should be designed on the ground floor with direct access outside (preferably to the terrace)

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Easily attached/detached kangaroo type space

Living cells for the elderly needing assistance should be clustered (groups of 15–30 people) around common spaces, serviced by one nurse

Buildings of 2 and more floors should be provided with an elevator or by a stairlift access to an elevator. The access should be provided from the entrance level (if not possible, with an additional ramp)

The sizes of the stairs should be following: width 300mm, height 120mm. All staircases should be provided with handrails installed on both sides

Enlarged windows should be designed at eye level of a sitting person, maintaining insolation parameters corresponding to current regulations

Noise should be reduced to 30 dBA. Dwellings should be supplied with technical ventilation. An alarm button should be installed in each dwelling

CONCLUSIONS So, the city works for the elderly, but what is the benefit for society? Various other categories could take advantage of a changing cityscape: mothers with baby carriages, cyclists and others. On the social level, the issue of elderly inclusion in the economy is nowadays becoming an urgent one. The more elderly, the more they depend on the state and the population (for social security, pensions, infrastructure etc.). The state could leave this unattended or else try to integrate this substantial category into the economy. The elderly have invaluable life experience plus a professional attitude to work, even as leisure or a hobby. Could you imagine grannies becoming a new creative class for the country? Possibly — just imagine Gorky Park 2050, full of older youths. . .

Finally, I would like to return to the evolution of regulations. The last layer that has appeared just recently is, in time, followed by another – that concerning access and space. These mark a change in paradigm: from “a city of containers” to the “spatial–temporal consistency.”

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

Goods should be delivered directly to dwellings

Extra spaces for rest should be provided on the staircases

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Bibliography: Volume #29: The Urban Conspiracy, London, AA, 2011; “Moscow dwelling of the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th centuries,” Moscow, Architecture–C, 2004 “Moscow housing from bygone times to our days “, G. M. Pospelova, L. Y. Lemontov, Moscow, Gryphon, 2009 Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire http://www.nlr.ru/e–res/ law_r/search.php; “The family is shrinking and changing its face”, Olga Sobolevskaya, Research of Higher School of Economics http://opec.ru/text/1633074.html; Aging in Motion http://www.helpage.org/resources/ageing–data/ageing–in–motion/; On the results of the population census in 2010. Rosstat report; “Housing Code of the Russian Federation” of 29.12.2004 N 188–FZ (as amended on 28.12.2013);

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List of experts Natalia Bukhtoyarova, CEO of SUE “Mossocgaranty”; Victor Vakhshtayn, Ph.D. in Sociology, Chair of Theoretical Sociology and Epistemology RANHiGS under the President of the Russian Federation, Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences MSSES; Denis Romodin, Russian architectural ethnographer.

David Erixon, co–founder of Hyper Island, member of the Megafon Board of Directors; Matthias Hollwich, architect co–founder of HOLLWICHKUSHERN LLC. HWKN, New York City, founder of Architizer; Alexey Muratov, Editor–in–Chief, Project Russia Magazine; Ilya Oskolkov–Tsentsiper, social designer, media manager and entrepreneur, inventor, founder of Afisha magazine and the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design; Aleksey Shchukin, journalist; Sergey Sitar, architect, critic, chief editor of “Project International.”

Future development of building Norms and Regulations

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Anna Kamyshan

SLOBODA AS A PROJECT

THE CITY IS SIMULATED IN MALLS AND ‘EVENT CITIES’ AS A SEPARATION OF SPACE AND PLACE, REFLECTING A GLOBAL–HYPER CULTURE, WHICH IS BEING PRESENTED IN THESE CENTRES AS PART OF PERFORMANCE. […] THOSE CITY CELLS WITH THEIR GENE MUTATION [. . .] REMAINS THAT THEY REFLECT IRREVERSIBLE SOCIAL PROCESS AND DEVELOPMENTS THAT ARE RELATED TO NEW FORMS OF WORKING AND HABITUAL LIFE PATTERNS, I.E. LIFESTYLES Introduction. a new definition of the European city. Ernst Hubeli, Harald Saiko, Kai Vöckler

INTRODUCING SOME NEW CITY PATTERNS OF HABITAT The world today is experiencing a time of a radical transformation of its traditional structures.

New heretofore unprecedented forces have taken the stage of the city space. We are witnessing the rise of mobility speed, the dissolution of all types of boundaries, from the national to the physical, the expansion of social empowerment, and diversification of the city space.

In this respect, Russian cities follow the global trends. Through intermittent development, missing some natural stages, they have come upon the phase of high urban mobility and digital inclusion of their inhabitants. Life here, the same as in many cities around the world, is in many senses formed by portable technologies, the Internet, and the possibilities that these create. Through them, the city’s inhabitants have obtained an exclusive chance to customize their routine and activities. It is easier to meet people from the same interest group and lifestyle than ever before. This simple means of communication and interaction is thus shaping traditional bonds and increasingly shifting its base onto affinity rather than kinship relations.

These processes have given birth to many services and enterprises focusing especially on small affinity groups, respecting but also formatting their existence in a new pattern of habitat. Together with such services, we can see an evolution of urban infrastructures that fulfill new demands and values of the city inhabitants. In this way, Moscow’s banks, medical clinics, sport clubs, leisure institutions and food services are now satisfying the people’s demands for mobility, creating customized networks with access at any time and any place. And, contrary to the globalization process, city dwellers themselves localize, diversify and entrepreneurialize the city space, creating networks of their own personal usage, according to their individual interests and needs.

Thus, through the choice of individual lifestyles, something similar to a ‘personalization’ of city space occurs, which is based on affinity and leads to the development of personal networks in the city space. Today, mobility, connectivity and access to networks are the forces that shape urban life. This is something that definitely manifests itself in the new style of social collaboration and human existence in general, something that introduces an endless number of possibilities, opens up maximum opportunities, involves us in the networks of the global as well as the local world; something that definitely has to be taken into account when one works with urban space.

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THE RUSSIAN WAY Lately, some Russian activists and urbanists, following the Western discourse, have been talking a great deal about ‘community design’ as a potential tool for city development. However, this idea is perhaps not really applicable in most Eastern European, including Russian, cities.

The reason for this may be a historical precondition, which has formed the manner in which people collaborate and interact. Thus, if we want to talk about the organization of the Russian cities, we need to look at the very origins of local urban development. To explain this historical background I will use the example of Moscow’s development, which constitutes quite a typical model for the evaluation of Russian and Eastern European cities.

Cities in Russia tended to grow in quite a unique manner. This was defined by a particular kind of settlement called a ‘sloboda’1. The Sloboda, was a living ‘cell’ of Moscow city growth2. It played a strong role in an extensive type of city development. With the expansion of the city borders, many slobodas that had sprung up all around the city fortress now found themselves inside the new city walls, and thus a city gradually grew by filling up the gaps between the slobodas. The name is derived from an ancient Slavic word for “freedom” and may be translated as “free settlement,” based on freedom from state duties and taxes.

The spatial sloboda structure was formed by the dominant of a church at its heart. The Sloboda had visible borders, yet was penetrated by the rest of the city

2. According to Russian archaeologist and historian, specialist in the history of the city of Moscow, Ivan Zabelin

The foreign sloboda in the 17th century. At this time there were five different types of sloboda: Black slobodas, which were the least privileged and had to pay state taxes for all the other slobodas, while being the least dependent on the state and having the right to free trade; Military slobodas had to protect the city from attacks and played the role of a city police, they were therefore well paid and had

many privileges in comparison with other slobodas; State–owned slobodas served the royal court, producing its food and goods; and Monastic slobodas, which lived on the territory of a monastery and served its needs. These enjoyed tax–free trade and craft production up to the year 1591. Foreugn slobodas usaully were more closed and had many privileges from the state.

Spatial development of Moscow. Sloboda as a ‘cell’ of city growth.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

1. Sloboda was a kind of settlement from the 12th to the end of the 18th century in Russia Belarus and Ukraine.

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SLOBODA AS A PROJECT

174

The map of sloboda locations in the 17th century. With the expansion of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s borders, many slobodas that had sprung up all around the city fortress, now found themselves inside the new city walls, and thus a city gradually grew, filling the gaps between the slobodas

church

As a social object, a craft sloboda was a sum of uniform cells of production — yards, organized around specific industries or trade. The settlement had its own internal network of service agencies

water well

manufacturing courtyards

administrative hut

court of law prison

The early sloboda, to use a contemporary term, was a free economic zone, very beneficial for both its inhabitants and for the state3. However, unlike the medieval European guilds4, it hardly ever possessed any economical or a political power in the city, and was strongly dependent on the authoritarian rule of the Tsar. The right to self–governance, in fact, has come to nothing more than the self–organization of communal services and production, leading to a high degree of autonomy of the settlements.

Although historically the definition and the role of sloboda changed over time, its core characteristics remained the same. First of all, the sloboda always held on to its autonomy. Each sloboda had its own internal network of serving institutions and although the autonomy was not complete, the main provisions were available and most of a resident’s activities took place within the bounds of the sloboda. Secondly, the sloboda was a temporal formation: permission to live there was granted only for a limited number of years, although movement from one sloboda to another was allowed, which led to a constant reciprocal migration of inhabitants and a kind of competition between slobodas. Thus, even though people were connected with the territory on a temporary base, they were united by common occupation, religion and nationality. As a result, although the sloboda’s inhabitants exercised a high degree of autonomy, they were strongly integrated into city processes and heavily dependent upon the state.

A. A. Shennikov, “Settlements of the Seventeenth Century”, 1979

3. The establishment of a sloboda settlement occurred under a secular or ecclesiastical feudal landlord on the unused territories beside a fortified city, open to any free people: peasants or craftsman. To stimulate the influx of new settlers onto a sloboda, a list of special exemptions was proclaimed. Those privileges included one–off initial cash payments, self–governance and freedom from the usual state taxes and duties, including military service. The initiators of a sloboda were interested in promoting the rapid growth of commercial activity on the territory or in making the settlement into a land protection against enemy attacks.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

In the middle of the 16th century, sloboda inhabitants became duty–bound to the royal court by employment or obligatory service to the city. This was the heyday of the sloboda, when six different types of its organizational–settlement appeared, differing in terms of their respective duties and rights. Thus, eventually, the territorial definition of the term ‘sloboda’ was replaced by an organizational one5. The Sloboda become an organizational framework of a Moscow in which all its inhabitants had different rights and duties depending upon their occupation, religion or nationality.

IN GENERAL, THE GOVERNMENT AIMED TO GROUP THE INHABITANTS OF AN URBAN TERRITORY STRICTLY BY CLASS, AND EVEN BY MINOR DIVISIONS WITHIN CLASSES, GRANTING TERRITORIAL ALLOTMENTS OF DIFFERENT SIZE TO DIFFERENT GROUPS ACCORDING TO THE ESTABLISHED NORMS

175

SLOBODA AS A PROJECT

A new phenomenon in the life of Moscow was constituted by the first industrial enterprises — the state manufactories. These were located in the immediate vicinity of Moscow, and thus the capital’s space invisibly expanded

4. Guilds are sometimes said to be the precursors of modern trade unions, and also in some aspects those of the modern corporation. Guilds, however, were groups of self–employed skilled craftsmen with ownership and control over the materials and tools they needed to produce their goods. Guilds were, in other words, small business associations and thus had very little in common with trade unions. Guilds were, in fact, more like cartels than trade unions (Olson, 1982) They often depended on grants of letters patent by a monarch or some other authority to enforce the flow of trade to their self–employed members, and to retain ownership of tools and the supply of materials.

5. Brockhaus and Efron’s Encyclopaedic Dictionary 6. Brockhaus and Efron’s Encyclopaedic Dictionary 7. Russian scientist and public figure, Doctor of Arts, Professor of the Moscow Architectural Institute, a member of the Public Chamber, as well architectural heritage researcher, critic, translator, and essayist.

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A SLOBODA DENOTES SOMETHING TEMPORARY, SOMETHING THAT CAN BE DEMOLISHED AND REPLACED AT ANY MOMENT, SETTLED FOR A DAY OR TWO, TO ABIDE THERE, SOMETHING, WHICH IS FUNDAMENTALLY ALIEN, TAKING ROOT V. Glazychev

At the end of the 18th century, due to the cancellation of its privileges and abolishment of its functional role, the original sloboda settlement disappeared. However, slobodas continued to exist in cities in the form of city blocks, inhabited by the same west european foreigners or craftspeople from the traditional order. However, the definition of the term ‘sloboda’ continued its mutation and by the end of the 19th century it had come to mean a big village where the peasants had only a minor involvement in agriculture6.

Starting from the beginning of the 20th century, industrialization was soon underway in Russian cities. Together with this, new settlements for workers were required. For this demand, many new settlements in Moscow were planned and built during the Soviet period: autonomous, with great privileges such as special living conditions, with exclusive access to public services, inaccessible to many others, created to serve the needs of the state and to promote the communistic ideology. The famous Russian urbanist V. Glazychev7 noted their similarity with the old sloboda settlements and christened these urban formations the ‘Factory Sloboda’: “Russian industry has refrained from penetrating the city by establishing the Factory Slobodas, continuing a long and deeply rooted tradition that can be referred to as ‘Total Slobodization’.” In that way, the historic notion of a sloboda continued mutating even after its official disappearance.

SOVIET TIME “SLOBODA” At the Soviet times many new ‘villages’ and ‘towns’ were built in the tradition of the historical sloboda. New settlements were planned and built mostly by the state and, of course, had neither economical nor political power. Again, these demonstrated a further similarity to the sloboda in their functional differentiation; there were different types based on different privileges and duties, and their autonomy was built on the internal developed infrastructure of the settlement.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

The allocation scheme of housing construction from 1946 to 1957 shows that the new settlements in Moscow still played an extensive role in city development

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SLOBODA AS A PROJECT TERRITORY: NEW TERRITORIES OUTSIDE MOSCOW FUNCTION: LAND AND CITY DEVELOPMENT INHABITANTS: INTELLECTUALS PRIVILEGES: RIGHT OF OWNERSHIP, UNUSUALLY HIGH LIVING CONDITIONS, ACCESS TO HIGH QUALITY PUBLIC SERVICES PRINCIPLE OF ORGANIZATION: COMMON INTEREST

178

The village of Sokol was Moscow’s first co–operative residential settlement. It was built in 1923 on the private initiative and investment of Soviet intellectuals: artists, writers and engineers. Lenin, by a special permission, allowed people with high material wealth to build a new settlement. The residents of the Artists’ Village — as it was called among the people, basically had the right to own their houses, which was an absolutely unprecedented thing in the Soviet Union. Besides the right to built and own their houses, they were allowed to develop their own public services: thus, at the time when most Muscovites lived in wooden barracks, Sokol’s inhabitants were creating their own small world with a library, shops, public square, garages, cafeteria, kindergarten and cultural center.

MOSCOW FUNCTION: SERVICE OF THE WATER TREATMENT PLANT INHABITANTS: WORKERS OF THE PLANT AND

The village of Severny is a classical example of a workers’ village. It was established in 1947 to house the workers of the Water Treatment Plant. It was designed according to a Finnish plan and built by German prisoners of war, which naturally had an effect on its high quality design and execution. In such a way, the biggest privilege of Severny inhabitants was their unusually high living conditions: a private house with a garden and a terrace, which could be cause for envy for most Moscow residents of that time. However, the right to live in this elite house was temporary, similar to the privileges of the historical sloboda. As soon a worker left his/her job, a new worker with a family would take over his place.

THEIR FAMILIES PRIVILEGES: UNUSUALLY HIGH LIVING CONDITIONS, ACCESS TO HIGH QUALITY FOOD AND PRODUCTS, ACCESS TO HIGH QUALITY SERVICES PRINCIPLE OF ORGANIZATION: COMMON OCCUPATION

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

TERRITORY: NEW TERRITORIES OUTSIDE

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SLOBODA AS A PROJECT

Zvezdny Town was built in 1960 to accommodate scientists and military people serving the First Cosmonaut Training Center. Initially, it was a closed city, therefore the state had to provide complete autonomy for the settlement. Similar to Severny, a whole living infrastructure was present: from a polyclinic, school and kindergarten, to a cultural center, shops, cafes, a club, barbershop and fire station. This infrastructure served the population with high quality services and products. In Soviet times when most shops’ counters were empty, those of the military town were always replete.

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MOSCOW FUNCTION: SERVICE OF COSMONAUTICS CENTER, STATE DEFENSE INHABITANTS: SPACE ENGINEERS AND MILITARY PEOPLE WITH THEIR FAMILIES PRIVILEGES: ACCESS TO HIGH QUALITY FOOD AND PRODUCTS, ACCESS TO HIGH QUALITY SERVICES, UNUSUALLY HIGH LIVING CONDITIONS, AN ECOLOGICALLY CLEAN ENVIRONMENT PRINCIPLE OF ORGANIZATION: COMMON OCCUPATION

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

TERRITORY: NEW TERRITORIES OUTSIDE OF

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SLOBODA AS A PROJECT

Sloboda was a kind of settlement under a secular or ecclesiastical feudal landlord on the new territories by a city fortress for any free people: peasants or craftsman. They were common in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Sloboda inhabitants were free from the usual stete taxes and duties (actually, "Sloboda" = "freedom").

In the middle of X court by employm time of the slobod da-settlement app

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Monastic slobodas lived on the territory of a monastery and served its function. They had free-tax trade and craft up to 1591 year.

For pro alco Eur peo

Military slobodas had to protect the city from attacks and played the role of city police, therefore they were well paid and had many privileges in comparison to other slobodas.

From 1156 Kremlin was a wooden fortified complex on Borovitsky Hill and military-adminis- From 12 century in Posad trative center. There are were civil courts, Gostiny were no slobodas.

Dvor, market, merchants' shops, Posad administration, tax court, brewery court (vodka and wine).

Here was only one sloboda - patriarchal Pevchaya.

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State-owned slobodas were se producing food and goods for money and food.

1536-1538 Kitay-Gorod walls were built. Here was only one patriarchal Pevcheskaya sloboda.

1586-1593 -third defensive wall erected wich bordered Kitay-gorod and Bely Gorod. Here was a big amount of slobodas.

In Go wa slo di pa no er hi th in liv

ddle of XVI sloboda people became duty-bonded to the royal In early XVIII century sloboda privileges employment or obligatory serving the city. This was the prime revoked, and slobodas became villages and urban-type settlement. he sloboda, when 5 different types of organizational sloboment appear; differ by duties and rights

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After the Time of Troubles (1598-1613) many of White slobodas appeared, their inhabitants settled territories of so-called White lands, lands owned by secular and ecclesiastical feudal lords, which were state duties and tax-free

Mutation of sloboda notion continued in ‘factory’ sloboda. At the Soviet time many new ‘villages’ and ‘towns’ were built in tradition of the historical sloboda.

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1713 – 1714 гг. Peter the First established amount of large commercial and industrial enterprises. Decline of values of trade and craftsmanship slobodas.

Development of private manufactories also encouraged by Peter the First played a role in the decline of slobodas value in society.

1616 Zemsky Sobor made a decision to collect tax called “Fifth Denga” from tradespeople, and 120 roubles from each plow in uyezds.

1648 «Salt Riot», mass protest of lower and middle social stratas of townsman inhabitants, craftsmen, archers and house-serfs, after which White slobodas were abolished in1649 by Zemsky Sobor, and their inhabitants were assigned to posad.

1920-1930 many ‘working villages’ were built in Moscow Villages for artists, writers and intellectuals.

1950-1980 military towns around Moscow

s were serving the royal court, Black slobodas, were the less privileged and had to oods for it. They were paid in pay state taxes for all the rest slobodas, yet they were the less dependent on state and had right on free trade.

Slobodas development continues outside Zemlyanoy Gorod. In 1730-1740 Kamer-Kollezhsky Val (earth wall) was erected.

1770– 1772 bubonic plague, caused a death toll of 60 thousands in In XVII century in Moscow In1593 Zemlyanoy d Moscow. Abandoned was Gorod appeared. Here were 150 slobodas and sloboda lands gone to was biggest amount of sotnias. Established nobility and Moscow Yamskaya, Meshanskaya, slobodas. They were sloboda division has Nemetskaya slobodas. divided by roads and practically disappeared, passages. Owned by and in the beginning of nobles, clergy, foreignXIX century completely d ers, writ man, cancelled. Homestead high-range merchants taxation system began, those of Moscow then replaced with g inhabitants who haven’t capitation, town councils live in slobodas. were established.

In the end of 18 century walls of Bely gorod were demolished and replaced with boulevards.

In 1909 Moscow Train In 1861 after the Ring Road. abolition of serfdom in Russia Moscow population growth accelerated.

In 1960 Moscow Ring Road was built.

In 1963 Zelenograd became part of Moscow.

In 1984 Solncevo, Mitino, Butovo and parts of Novopodrezkovo and Luberetz became part of Moscow.

2012 New Moscow.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

1682гг. Streltsy Uprising. В 1713 – 1714 гг. Tsar’s court moving to Petersburg.

Court and State-owned slobodas dwindled and converted to merchant and craftsmanship slobodas.

Foreign slobodas had many privileges: tax-free craft production and trade. Were alowed to produce In 1705 establishment of regular conscription. So alcohol and drugs as none of other slobodas. West there was no more need in military and Archer Europeans, Greek, Polish, Belarusian and Tatar slobodas, which were converted to townships or people inhabited foreign slobodas. villages.

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A GROUP OF PEOPLE WITH A COMMON INTEREST

INVOLVED IN LOCAL AND GLOBAL NETWORKS

MATURE COMMUNITIES OF THE SLOBODA TYPE Tracing the mutation patterns of the notion of the sloboda, from its establishment, through its heyday and into Soviet times, we can see how tenaciously this social formation hung on to life. If we look at today’s Moscow, trying to recognize the sloboda in a new mutation, we won’t find it in the form it existed before. New social formations are not dependent on the state: they hardly have any official privileges or functions and do not exist in a permanent form of a settlement, as it was before. They are still connected by common occupation, religion and nationality, but those uniting factors are no longer primary: their affinity and lifestyle is the main aspect of their connectivity.

Thanks to the possibilities of the new technologies and city mobility, city dwellers can elaborate their own personal network in the city space, simply by choosing a clubto attend, a shop, swimming pool or a museum. This is the personal network of a consumer. The consumer uses existing infrastructure in the city space, creating demand in multiplicity, yet does not develop his own network of services and places, which is one of the main distinctive features of a sloboda organisation.

The new social formations, which I am interested in, are driven by the personal, yet embedded in the common interest. Therefore, to fulfill their common needs they develop their own networks of services and places for the common usage. Their structural organization is based on the transitory relations of its participants and operates through the distribution of their roles in a non–hierarchical manner. Thus, since they are formed on a personal–initiative basis, the networks they create in a city space state their self–sufficiency and embody the identity of their common interest.

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ACTING ON A TEMPORAL BASIS

TIED TO CERTAIN TERRITORIES

BY A PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE OF SERVICES AND PLACES.

They rarely appear as settlements, but rather as frequent splashes of activities on a temporal basis. Although they are still tied to certain territories, they spread across the city in a much more casual manner. Thus, today, they exist not only in space but also in time, and strongly dependent upon their network.Contrary to the previous times, when the state was the initiator of a sloboda settlement and used the sloboda organization for its own benefits, to control the population and use it to serve the city, contemporary communities are representatives of bottom–up initiatives. Hence, the manner of community structural organization is completely independent and formed by new urban mobility.

Similar to the historical slobodas, contemporary communities of the sloboda kind have their own infrastructure. It is in a form of a network, distributed in city space and plays the role of a functional provision. However, unlike the historical sloboda it is not top–down conditioned, but self–developed and implemented by common interest. Thus, we can say that the new type of community, a sloboda type, embodies the main attributes of a sloboda infrastructure, as a means of self–sufficiency, in its style of horizontal organisational structure and its ties to a certain territory.

THE ROUTINE OF THE NEW COMMUNITIES OF THE SLOBODA TYPE IS A COLLECTIVE EXPRESSION OF PERSONAL WILL, WHICH IS MUTUALLY AGREED AND DEVELOPED. THE SLOBODA DEFINES ITS IDENTITY THROUGH THE ROUTINE, CONSTANTLY REPETITIVE, YET EACH TIME RE–THOUGHT AND RE–BORN, APPROVING THE PROCESS OF ITS DEVELOPMENT AND PROGRESS.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

Those new formations can be described as a new type of community, whose development reached a certain mature point when they started to develop their own networks in the city.

Yet, as long as the sloboda has been a community in Russian cities, its organizational structure and routine will still influence the way people communicate and arrange their behaviour today. Therefore we can call them a community of sloboda kind.

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A small France in Moscow In the 18th century a large French community lived on Milyutinsky Lane . In 1791, the Catholic church of St. Louis of the French was built on the site, in which there were two high schools – the St. Philip Neri men’s gymnasium and the St. Catherine women’s gymnasium .

Over the last decade, a new French community has started emerging around the reestablished French Lyceum of A. Dumas. Most of them arrived in Moscow on business but some of them stayed after their contract ended. They started their own businesses here: restaurant, a bakery, a French magazine or a company. Many of them educate their kids here, and so three kindergartens and two high schools were recently opened. The French Embassy and cultural center play a big institutional role, yet many French people are establishing new informal ways of communication, creating their own clubs and community meetings for French–speakers. Most of them live at expat premium position: a high economic viability save them trouble.

To cover their severe requirements in the city they have managed to develop their own wide infrastructure like a small France in Moscow, with its own taxi, media, cultural and educational institutions, leisure and food services. They keep their strong national identity and even use it as a great benefit. Thus, French community not simply follows the historical traces, but creates new infrastructure in the city space.

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This is building of former St. Philip Neri men’s gymnasium and the St. Catherine women’s gymnasium, where reestablished French Lyceum of A. Dumas is located now

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Cecile and Jean met each other in Moscow. Both of them run their own business here. On the weekends they often go to Gorky Park — their friend Blanche has opened a cafe there.

The french teenagers to Moscow with their parents. They study at the French Lyceum of Alexandre Dumas at Milutinsky lane.

After the classes they walk around the city loudly speaking french and laughing.

Inna has many french They often meet and Many their frend hav a shop. Thus, they cre work of french–speak where they meet and It is their city.

Inna works with Jean at Le Courrier de Russie. Her son attends French Lyceum and is a friend of many french kids in Moscow.

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Fre ma

The “Art of Living in French” school was founded by Cecile. Each week, gather many people here to have a nice evening in a French atmosphere.

Le Courrier de Russie is a very popular magazine among French–speaking people in Moscow.

y french friend in Moscow. eet and walk around the city. end have a cafe, a club or they create the dense neth–speaking people, places eet and businesses they run. .

French Lyceum of Alexandre Dumas at Milutinsky lane.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

Milutinsky Lane has historically been a place of life and collect the french community in Moscow. Each Sunday the French–speaking parishioners come here to the Church of St. Louis.

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New Muscovites: networked generation of newcomers

Isolated by national, cultural, religious, social, or racial characteristics, many newcomers from Central Asia stay in the limited world of those familiar to them. They are often illegal immigrants or illegal workers. Separated from social amenities, these closed groups have no access to medical services, affordable housing or dwelling place, child-care, or credit. The network they create in a city is the product of economic discrimination as well as cultural and national alienation, but in fact this network is incredibly beneficial for them and for the city. They support many businesses that have low prices and strong ethnic identities in order to collaborate with, communicate with, and take care of each other in the aggressive environment of Moscow.

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A school stadium located not far from the Kantemirovskaya metro station became a meeting point for a group of Central Asian men. They play vollayball and have their rest time after the working week

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For the celebration of Eid al– Fitr feast many people come to mosques in Moscow, with a plenty of workers coming from Central–Asia. Muslim fests — are those few days when Adilet and his friends goes to a mosque, commonly they prefer to pray at home. As a rule they go to Kel–Kel cafe situated nearby after praying.

Moscow migrants made a m for migrants. 24–minute pi a City of Hope” is spread o at some cinemas, one of th Aeroport district. There are a “full–length” movie: spon casting has began.

Kel–Kel club and restaurant is owned by Tynchtykbek. He has being living in Moscow for the last 13 years and created a place for his friends and countrymen, however, russian muscovites enjoy coming there to try eastern cuisine.

Uslan’s daughters attend the kindergarten, where Shallo works. Thus, he learnt Shallo’s story and offered her to became one of the actors of the movie, which they make.

Shailoo worked for several years as a janitor and cleaner. Now she is a kindergartener at Kyrgyzstan pavilion at VDNKH. On weekends she often goes with her boyfriend to Kel–Kel club and restaurant to relax and hang out with friends.

Adilet arrived to Moscow 5 years ago. He works at the gas station and earns enough money to live for his pleasure and send some money to his relatives.

At the day–off he plays volleyball with other workers. It is not only sport as money issue: the cash prize for winning is a good contribution to their salary.

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made a movie about immigrants and inute pilot movie project “Moscow is pread out on the internet and shown ne of them is Baku cinema at the There are already some plans to make vie: sponsors are already found and

Uslan is a dentist, he works at his stomatology, which he founded a couple years ago. His usual clients are workers from Central Asia. They appreciate little prices and good quality work: satisfied customers bring their friends and co– workers, so Uslan is always busy. Russians rarely comes there — they don’t trust a non–slavic person’s medicine.

Kyrgyzstan pavilion at VDNKH is a cultural center and a big trade place of Kyrgyzstan people. Recently, it also became a service center: here you can find a dentist, kindergarten, cinema, lawyer, psychologist, russian language course for really little prices.

Every Sunday a group of Central Asian men gather to play volleyball in a school stadium located not far from the Kantemirovskaya metro station. the weekly competition offers its participants a welcome respite from the usual rigors faced by labor migrants in the Russian capital.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

At his free time Uslan helps his best friend with a movie, that they make together. In the movie they show migrant–workers living Moscow. Authors believe their stories will melt many Russian hearts.

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Sources:

Thanks to the experts:

+ Big Atlas of Moscow, Feoria, 2013

+ Svyatoslav Murunov, urbanist, an expert in the field of branding

+ What migrants play, Moscow News, 17.09.2013

+ Dmitry Oparin, journalist

+ Migrant workers nightlife, ria.ru, 27.11.2013

+ Victor Vakhshtayn, sociologist

+ Moscow looks for cultural workers, firstnews.ru, 26.05.2014

+ Konstantin Goranin, manager of cultural projects

+ Shennikov A.A. Settlements XVII Century, 1979

+ Anna Zhelnina, sociologist

+ Averianova K.A. “History of Moscow districts”, Astrel, 2005

+ Blanche Neumann, producer

+ Snegiryov V. Moscow suburb, Moscow Worker, 1956 + Glazychev, Slobodizatsiya of the country Gordariki, 1995 + 100% Stadt, Der Abschied vom nicht-startischen, 2013 + www.retromap.ru

THE CITY CAN RATHER BE UNDERSTOOD AS AN ORGANISATIONAL FIELD WHERE ISLANDS OF DIFFERENT COMMUNITIES AND LIFESTYLE IDEAS ARE FORMED, OFTEN ONLY OF A TEMPORARY NATURE, JUST AS THE CONNECTIONS TO A PLACE ARE INCREASINGLY OF SHORT–TERM NATURE. IT MEANS THAT THERE IS LITTLE CONTEXTUAL RELATIONSHIP AND NO STABLE FRAMEWORK. THE DYNAMICS OF USE CANNOT JUST BE ANSWERED WITH THE IDEA OF THE ‘CONTAINER’ (REM KOOLHAAS) BECAUSE IT IS NOT CONFINED TO THE INDIVIDUAL BUILDING BUT MANIFESTS IN THE SPACE AT LARGE. IN THIS SENSE, ONE CAN SPEAK ABOUT A PERMANENT CITY CONVERSION, WHICH PARTICULARLY RELATES TO THE SURROUNDING COUNTRYSIDE. THE URBANISATION PROCESSES ARE NOT JUST POST–INDUSTRIAL BUT HAVE ALSO BECOME POST–FUNCTIONAL Introduction. a new definition of the European city. Ernst Hubeli, Harald Saiko, Kai Vöckler

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CONCLUSION So, what can we learn from this original style of city development, from its role in the times of feudal order and the Soviet era, driven by ideology? How can the sloboda organization help to make explicit today’s newly formed patterns of social collaboration and interconnection?

I conducted only short–term research into this topic, which of course cannot completely answer these questions, but my findings nevertheless point to the fact that this form of community in Russian cities – the sloboda, its organizational structure and infrastructure, are still influencing the way people communicate and arrange their appearance today. In any case, before talking about development of community–oriented society in Russian we should objectively acknowledge the urban structures of the past and be able to identify the remnants of this past logic in today’s city. For this, I see two possible parameters that might influence the development strategy – the cultural and most often also the historical. First of all, we should systematically verify the past to identify local peculiarities in popular collaboration.

Secondly, we need to realize the value of new communities of the sloboda type in the city, together with future social bonds, supported by new media and new means of communication.

And in the end, make the sloboda into a tool for recognition of those mature communities for the sake of city development.

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Sveta Gordienko

CITY DWELLER XXI: TOWARDS ANOTHER BUREACRACY . . .CITY IS A PLACE WHERE NON–FREEDOM TRANSFERS INTO FREEDOM MAX WEBER, “THE CITY”, 1966

The idea of a citizen fully attached to the territory he inhabits is implied in the very etymology of the Russian word for “city” — gorod. The word gorod refers to a boundary, a wall around a settlement, built to protect it from enemies and wild animals

The topic of my research is the status and definition of the city dweller in modern Russia. To narrow down the possible interpretations, I have limited the discussion to the descriptions of the city’s residents in the language of legislative acts and norms. Who do we think is the urban dweller of today? How does the state define a city dweller?

Peter the Great was the first Russian Tsar to consider total passportisation. He was eager to fight highway robbery and tax evasion by means of personal documents

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The Russian word for “citizen” – grazhdanin — if analysed in terms of its etymology from the Slavonic root gorod, is tightly connected to the notion of a “city” as a fenced off and protected territory. It implies the necessity of existing within a specific fortress, having a house inside its walls or being on duty in this city. While the ancient Greek polis was based upon the self– governing community of citizens as its main constitutive element, the situation in the Russian lands in olden times was that citizens were first and foremost considered to be those dwelling on a given plot of land. The issue of political involvement was of secondary importance. The continuous colonisation of adjacent territories by the Russian Empire and their unification into a solid state did not lead to freedom of movement within the country. The word “citizen” (grazhdanin in Russian is a derivative of grad, whereas gorod is etymologically connected to gorozhanin – a city dweller) thus remained more applicable within the domain of the “city” and semantically was not transferred to cover the wider territories of the Empire.

Temporary passports for ordinary urban dwellers were common until the October Revolution. The diversified structure of the passport system was a consequence of the official system of social classes. a social class was prescribed to the dweller in accordance with his origins, occupation or profession

Infographics based upon the census of 1895. Social classes in the Russian Empire. Peasants, urban dwellers, foreigners, cossacks, aristocrats, clergymen, honoured citizens and others. The first four groups received mostly temporary passports

This has become the predominant official position, that citizens should preferably stay within their home region, and that migration needs to be controlled and limited.

Passports first appeared as a means of identification for travellers. They were later recognised as a means of controlling tax collection and, to simplify this process, a city dweller was supposed to stay in the same place throughout his life.

Serfdom immobilised the majority of the Russian population for hundreds of years. Officially accepted from 1649 onwards, serfdom became the foundation of the agricultural economy.

Urban dwellers existed in more civilised conditions, however those who did not belong to the aristocracy could not travel freely within or without the country. By the end of the 19th century, passports for urban dwellers (“meshchane”) were still only valid for a certain period of time, while aristocrats held a travel document for life.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

By the end of the 19th century, different passports existed for different social categories. a nobleman could receive a passport for life.

However, he was also obliged to register in all the places he chanced to visit

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People standing in queues to change their passports for employment books. After the Revolution and the Decree on Abolition of Social Classes a new identification document was introduced – the employment history book. Interestingly, those documents were at first handed to jobless people from the former bourgeoisie to ensure their participation in public works

Employment history books were printed under the moto “he who does not work — does not eat.”

They were in circulation as the main personal identity document in the USSR from 1922 up until to the introduction of the unified passport system in 1932

1974 — a new reform of passport system is launched. Finally, everybody receives their documents, and yet the power of “propiska” is still very much present — you cannot stay in “regime objects” without propiska, and obtaining it has not become any easier

“Read and be feel jealous. I am — a Soviet citizen.”

After 1932, the “propiska” determined one’s right to live in the city. During the rest of Soviet history, numerous ways of obtaining “propiska” would appear. One can either inherit it from family, or receive a right to occupy an apartment from an employer. Lots of people have moved into cities using so–called “family channels” or marriage.

When there was no real estate market, seeking out a living space in a desirable city became a real lifetime adventure

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The term “propiska” appears for the first time in employment history books. It would be transferred into the new Soviet passport

During the early Soviet period, when all residential facilities were nationalised and redistriduted among the citizens by the government, the “propiska” became the equivalent of ownership.

Once you got it into your passport — almost nobody could argue with your right to live here. The neighbours in your apartment were an inevitable effect of the “propiska,” regulated by the state

The inhabitants on Soviet collective farms, which appeared on the sites of former villages, were not allowed to leave the “Kolkhoz” without the permission of the local administration. To leave a kolkhoz you had to either enter an educational institution or marry a city dweller

In the USSR, soon after a brief period of post–revolutionary democratic initiatives (1922– 1928), a new era of attachment to the land began and a new type of document – the so called ‘Propiska” — was introduced. The “Propiska” was a stamp in the passport, stating exactly where somebody lived. For city dwellers who were able to prove their right to live in so called “regime objects” (a list of high security facilities, which included all the big cities, newly built plants and factories and the settlements surrounding them, as well as territories adjacent to international borders), the propiska guaranteed the right to actually be in the city. For those wishing to move from one city to another the path was strewn with obstacles — to get a new propiska you had to have a place to live, which was no easy thing to find within the nationalised real–estate system. The right to live in a city was literally granted to the most reliable, professional or highly positioned political workers. People living in former villages, now transformed into collective farms, did not receive passports and, therefore, could not enter “regime objects” without a specific set of documents, including the collective farm administration’s permission to leave.

And so, the propiska has helped shape the idea of a citizen – a supposedly qualified and loyal person with permission to live in the city. This authorisation was expressed by means of a stamp in a passport, identifying one’s place of residence. a city dweller was to be a model of the ideal Soviet citizen — with no bourgeois origins, preferably a representative of the proletariat, extremely loyal and ideologically active. People not fitting into this model during the first years of passportisation were deported from the cities. Afterwards, the noble status of native Muscovite (or that of any other city dweller) could be proven by one’s propiska.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

In 1932, the first deportations began of unpassportised population from the cities. In four months, more than 250 thousand dwellers were deported from Leningrad and around 400 thousand people from Moscow. Trying not to lose their informal incomes, people started settling around the cities, along railroads in dugouts, shanties and barracks

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When the Russian Federation was established, “propiska” was abolished as an illegal infringement of human rights.

“Registration” has substituted “propiska.” However, the form and the procedure have not changed. No registration is guaranteed to those who are able to buy apartments, and those using temporary dwelling facilities still face difficulties in the city. Deportations are no longer happening, but have been replaced by more sophisticated forms of discrimination

The Constitution of the Russian Federation states that a citizen cannot be discriminated against according to his place of living. Federal Law # 5242–1 “On freedom of movement” states that registration is designed to ensure the fulfillment of civil rights. However, the latest edition of the law has introduced criminal liability for false registration (without intention to live in the apartment) which can lead to three years in jail. Nowadays, lots of people register in places, where they have no intention to live, and have little chance to register where they actually live

Soon after Perestroika, with the collapse of the USSR, the new Constitution promised freedom of movement to the Russian population and canceled the system of propiska. Although the big cities mounted some resistance to this, being anxious to protect their exclusive right to control and limit migration flows, the constitutional court recognised all such attempts as illegal. Moscow has now lost the opportunity to manipulate migration or to extract specific benefits from the privileged position of capital city — for several years previously, the Moscow city government had been “selling” registration for enormous sums of money. For example, after purchasing an apartment, you would have had to pay 2.5 million roubles (this figure is recalculated for today’s prices) to get the propiska for this flat.

Soon afterwards, in order to monitor the fluctuations in urban population, a new institution was introduced — the registration of city dwellers.

Registration is again, a stamp in the passport or official document identifying the living address of a dweller. Registration exists everywhere and in various forms. Most democratic countries have made registration voluntary and easy to obtain, but in Russia the process of registration is a precise copy of the old propiska procedure. Today, however, the fact of registration in an apartment does not provide you with certain rights regarding the use of that apartment, as it once did in the USSR.

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Tatyana Kotlyar is an Obninsk town councillor. She has intentionally registered around 500 migrants in her apartment. That is how she protests against the disfunctional laws on registration. In the beginning of 2014, a criminal case was initiated against her by Obninsk prosecutors.

This was the first instance of applying the new version of Law 5242–1

The difference between permanent and the temporary registration when it comes to puting your child into a municipal kindergarten. The municipality has two different waiting lists for kindergarten places – the first is for those with permanent registration, the second — for those with temporary. People without registration cannot even apply for this state service.

Children from the second queue cannot get a place in the kindergarten, unless there are no children in the “first grade queue.” It usually takes up to three years to get a place. This is a problem for several thousands of families permanently resident in Moscow

Today’s system of registration no longer influences the state of ownership, as more than 95% of all dwelling facilities have already been privatised. However, it is still a matter of huge concern — having tenants register in their apartment is a major fear for many real estate owners.

The problem has shifted — the process of registration has now become a burden due to the notorious bureaucratic procedure, and the newly emerging hazard of having to pay taxes on rental incomes.

Registration is supposed to be a means of fulfilling citizens’ rights and obligations, as is stated in the law. All citizens of the Russian Federation are guaranteed free preschool and school education, free medical care, the right to elect and be elected. The most prominent obligations are the payment of taxes, taking care of children and elderly parents, and, for men, undergoing military service training.

2013 amendments to the “Freedom of movement” law have been criticised by civil activists and numerous experts. New iterations will facilitate the use of the law as a means of applying pressure with no specified procedures for check and control

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

In Soviet times, the propiska was powerful because it implied the possibility of using an apartment — once you had a propiska for a specific address, you received the opportunity to use the prescribed dwelling facility as you wished. During the privatisation of housing, residents with a propiska were allowed to privatise their apartment. This meant becoming the owner of a highly precious asset without the necessity of buying it out.

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Although registration is a free service, there are multiple ways to buy registration. Common “legal services” companies typically offer temporary registration made in 1 day for around $100. The process of registering officially takes up to 6 days until final receipt of an attachment to your passport. This has brought into existence a highly developed network of producing fake registrations with Federal Migration Service stamps.

Registration is a corruption gateway

MOSCOW CITY DWELLER LEGAL MODEL

LIVING ABROAD

LIVING IN MOSCOW

RUSSIAN CITIZEN

PERMANENT

LEGAL STATUS

REGISTRATION

FOREIGN CITIZEN

TEMPORARY

EXPAT

LABOUR MIGRANT

Invited foreign specialist

self–motivated foreign worker, working usually on a short–

with yearly salary not less

term conditions ande dependant on the aouunt of agreed

then 2 mln rubles

by Russian goverment working places for migrants

However, registration has today become a means of pure discrimination.

In fact, a city dweller with full rights is perceived by the government as somebody who fits in a rigid structure — this person should have a certain status of citizenship and a registration.

Whenever registration is missing or temporary — the person will face numerous limitations to his rights.

Usually, this problem concerns those moving from remote Russian regions into Moscow or some other big city. With little chance to buy an apartment in the new place, most people rent flats from locals. a significant amount of these contracts are semi–legal, as they are usually signed for the period of 11 months, and can thus remain unregistered and unseen by the tax police. In hiding from taxes, owners usually hesitate to register their guests, as they are afraid of getting caught. And this is far from the only reason to avoid registration.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

There is a specific article in the Constitution stating that a citizen cannot be discriminated against according to his place of residence, and the “Law on Freedom of Movement” (Federal Law 5242–1) underlines that a person can live without registration, if he cannot obtain one.

A city dweller is seen by the government through two simple lenses: citizenship status and registration.

If obtaining the first is more or less easy, the second is also easy to get if your position in the city is pretty secure: if you have enough money, enough relatives, enough connections. For the so–called migrants — registration becomes a huge obstacle — it is easier to buy a false document then to actually inform the state about your address

203

CITY DWELLER XXI: TOWARDS ANOTHER BUREACRACY

DISTRIBUTION OF SOCIAL SERVICES AMONG CITY DWELLERS REGISTRATION + SOCIAL CATEGORY

PERMANENT REG., > 5 YEARS

PERMANENT REGISTRATION

TEMPORARY REGISTRATION

NO REGISTRATION

MEDICAL CARE polyclinics* doctor visit traumatic department* birth assistance* emergency* EDUCATION preschool education* school out–of–school activities professional education, college high school PhD ELECTIONS municipal elections* city mayor elections* regional elections* federal elections* HOUSING municipal housing subsidy for young families MOSCOW SOCIAL CARD free public transport communal subsidies social assistance OTHER mortgage bank loan * rights, guaranteed by the Constitution exclusive access to social services unrestricted access to social services limited access to social services no access to social services

There 855 registration salespoints in Moscow. As there are vast possibilities for bribery, a whole infrastructure has appeared based on the registration process. It’s a stable market with its own lobby in government

Permanent registration gives access to certain state services and freedoms, such as medical care, education, right to vote in elections, etc. People with temporary or no registration are limited in terms of access to state services. Temporary registration creates obstacles for getting a pre–school education and participating in elections. No registration makes a city dweller invisible and ineligible for most urban social services

Registration is a complicated and time–consuming procedure. It takes up to 5–6 hours to fill in all the documents and then a further 6 days to receive the paper. For many people it is an unaffordable luxury to spend such a considerable period of time on this, especially if there are no methods or set instructions for the police on how to deal with those who don’t have registration. And the market for bribes and false registration is big as well. So, apartment owners do not really feel obliged to register anyone if this involves a waste of time and the problem can be solved by the newcomer in a different way.

The legacy of propiska and the current state of the registration process is a continuous exploitation of the “native muscovites” and “migrants” myths and the tensions arising between these two imaginary categories of city dweller. This tension results in such urban incidents as that which happened in Biryulevo recently, as well as in almost senseless extension of Metro lines. More and more kilometres of subway, running beyond the borders of the city show that there is enough work for all arrivals, while the official rhetoric, expressed in the mass media, convinces people that Moscow “is not made of rubber.” The registration procedure shows the urban status quo as it is — you are welcome here as a deprived worker, but you are not welcome to build up your identity as a Muscovite or to find social security and assistance here.

204

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

The population of Moscow has always been a matter of figurative speculation. Some state agencies tend to minimise the figures, while migration and business experts tend to make them higher. Whatever they say, the number of registered, “official”, city dwellers is always lower than the estimates offered. This means that there are always people excluded from the system of social guarantees

205

CITY DWELLER XXI: TOWARDS ANOTHER BUREACRACY

A typical Russian family that has moved to Moscow, can face the following difficulties: – high rental costs – landlords refusing to register the family If these problems are fixed, another layer of discrimination appears – the Moscow city government has set the rules in accordance with which kids with temporary registration can only be enrolled into a municipal kindergarten after those with permanent registration.

This means that the family will most likely need to hire a babysitter or pay for a private kindergarten, which doubles the amount of corresponding taxes they pay into the city budget.

In the end — they pay twice, and do not receive a service guaranteed by the Constitution Many non–Russian citizens dwell in Moscow. Most of them can only apply for a job after they have obtained a registration. It is quite a common practice that the owner of a rented apartment asks for money every time he is asked to extend the registration.

Although taxes for non–Russian citizens are even higher then for Russians, foreigners are significantly more vulnerable and unprotected by the state.

However, the Russian Constitution states that all foreigners, legally resident on the territory of the Russian Federation should be provided with all the rights of a Russian citizen

Due to ethnic tensions present in Moscow, many Russian citizens are often unable to receive registration from their landlords.

The ethnic component, combined with a lack of legal facilitation, cuts people off from the city system and leads to an identity crisis – despite spending most of their life in Moscow, many Caucasians cannot establish a Muscovite identity

206

To resolve this vicious circle of bureaucratic procedures leading to evasion of registration, I propose to change some basic assumptions about the city dweller. This is a simple trick, which can deconstruct the current city dweller paradigm. If we depart from the “status–registration” model towards one of “activity–address,” we can significantly broaden the spectrum of documents, which a person can use to demonstrate the performance of his obligations and defend his civil rights. If it were no longer necessary to ask the owner of the apartment to register you, and the only document required to inform the state of your address were the rental contract — the size of the problem would be markedly reduced. If the activity status document (Student ID or a tax declaration) is supposed to show the performance of one’s civil obligations to society, then an address (demonstrated by letters from friends and relatives, work contracts, hotel bills etc.) should link the newly arrived dweller into the system of constitutional rights. This in turn would make registration a useful process, for which the rhetoric of “Big Brother“ would no longer apply. In the same time, liberalising registration procedure will lead to legalisation of the rental market. In the city, where a substantial amount of people dwell in rented accommodation, there is no need for any other documentation from the side of the owner, other than the rental contract, as a permission to live in the apartment.

If everybody used a rental contract as a document for registration, this would accumulate all the “grey data” about the market and might allow for an increase in the city budget via taxes.

I believe that loosening bureaucratic control will put social relationships on a healthier footing and provide the city with better structured and verifiable data.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

I suggest taking a look at the city dweller through a different lens, applying parameters of activity status and address vs citizenship status and registration. The new model promises to widen the spectrum of applicable documents, promotes the intention to inform the state of your actual dwelling address, and allows newcomers to quickly integrate by means of legal acknowledgement. To apply this in real life, digital bureacracy is needed. Online platforms for gathering and processing personal documents do already exist, but they usually require following the same bureacratic procedure twice — online and then offline in the same Federal Migration System office.

If the online stage is reprogrammed to process all the data without the need for personal visits, the motivation for informing the government of your address will grow rapidly

207

DIMA AVERYANOV

SERVICE MAXIM HEALTH CARE

ENTERTAIN UTILITIES

DOMESTIC COMMUNICATION

PROFFESIONAL CULTURE

DOMESTIC SERVICE CONSUMPTION AS A WAY TO EXISTENZ MAXIMUM For every need that arises there will be a certain service provider to satisfy it if there is a profit for both sides. Service consumption is an essential part of our daily life which defines our lifestyle and quality of life. My research is aimed at understanding how the services provided, and domestic services in particular, affect dwelling space and process, our everyday routines and lifestyle.

To comprehend in which conditions and environments we need and use domestic services, and who provides them. There are many definitions of service, but none of them are comprehensive

208

IMUM

TRANSPORTATION

TAINMENT FOOD SERVICES

C SERVICES

NAL SERVICES BEAUTY CARE

enough. So I came up with my own simple but conclusive definition: service is a provided solution or action to satisfy consumer needs. There are many types of service offered in society, catering to all manner of arising needs. I focus mostly on domestic services. This type of service is meant to to cover all our requests concerning household maintenance, which are changing constantly depending on our lifestyle, the amount of square meters and resources at our disposal.

Domestic services nowadays involve an array of solutions to meet a variety of basic needs for comfortable dwelling. This service sector is going through revolutionary change, and interacts with other service types which dramatically affect the way in which we live and work. New services are continually being launched to satisfy our existing needs and to meet needs that we did not even know we had. a broad spectrum of new services are provided to customers by the state sector, various organizations and companies, and by individual providers.

The domestic service sector as a system of interactions with other services

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

SECURITY

209

SERVICE MAXIMUM

SERVICES APPEARANCE TIMELINE

1929

PROSTITUTION PRO

Prostitution is closely li

of capitalist forms of ec

which makes it unwelco

1906

1861

1931

ABOLITION OF SERFDOM

FIRST SERVANTS LABOR UNION

PRIVATE TRADE

Farmers exempted from landlords and from the

Workers demanded the establishment of a lim-

the complete proh

ground, were unable to support themselves in

ited working hours and solid salary. Later this

trade in the USSR

the countryside and moved to the city, most of

union played a big role in the Revolution.

them became servants.

70

1960

RUSSIAN EMPIRE 80

CIVIL WAR

1900

90

10

NEP

20

INDUSTRIALISAT

30

1865

1897

FIRST GAS

LIMITED WORKING TIME LAW

MASS ELECTRIFICATION

Operation of gas facilities in Moscow was

Maximum limit of the working day

State Plan for the Mass Elec-

started, gas filled street underground pipelines

is not more than 11.5 hours on ordi-

trification of Soviet Russia was

for public street lightening and private use.

nary days, and 10 hours on Saturday

approved.

1920

and holidays.

1892

1917

MOSCOW CANALISATION

PUBLIC UTILITY ESTABLISHMENT

Russian Ministry of Railways project was ap-

First attemp to create central governmental

proved first Moscow sewers.

commity to control public utilities, but in 1919 it was reformed in communal system.

1931

CENTRAL COMM

UTILITIES ESTAB

Public utility beca

public utilities acc

assets in the coun

210

1970

ON PROHIBITION

DOMESTIC SERVICE BOOM

closely linked with the basics

State government provided central

rms of economy and wage labor

domestic services provision.

t unwelcomed by Communists.

1965

1990

E TRADE PROHIBITION

MINISTRY OF DOMESTIC SERVICES

ARRIVAL OF THE INTERNET

plete prohibition of private

For the improvement of organization and

First public Internet provider appeared in

management of public services in the Union

Moscow

he USSR.

republics special ministry of domestic services was formed.

USSR TRIALISATION

WWII

40

POSTWAR

1950

RUSSIA SNOWBREAK

60

STAGNATION

70

80

CAPITALISM

PUTIN’S ERA

2000

90

10

1991

FIRST DOMESTIC FRIDGE

FREE MARKET ECONOMY

Moscow factory “Gazoapparat” made the

Eltsin signs documents that state shift to free

first serial domestic absorption refrigerator

market economy, which leads to service pro-

“Gazoapparat”.

vision boom from private companies.

al

.

AL COMMISSARIAT OF PUBLIC

1959 US EXPO IN MOSCOW American companies presented household appliances, equipment for city and municipal services, and vehicles in Moscow. Exposition gained more than 1 000 000 visitors.

1995 RISE OF INCOME GAP Russia’s richest 10% of population had 15 times higher annual income than poorest 10%, which leaded to conditions for environment where masters and servants became a topic again.

2010 UTILITIES PROVISION REFORMATION

ES ESTABLISHMENT

Reform implies a total modernization of housing

ility became central again, the share of

and communal utilities, because of total wearout

ilities accounted for 30% of the fixed

the country.

and inefficient resource usage.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

1950

PERESTROIKA

211

SERVICE MAXIMUM

The team of servants to cover Master’s basic needs.

MAID

Cleaning, dressing,

NANNY

Babysitting

COOK

Cooking and baking

WAITER

Serving table

DRIVER (CHAUFFEUR) Transportation

GOVERNESS

Hired tutor for the elder kids 10 000

PIECES SOLD

9000

In Russia, the very first domestic service providers were unfree servants, who, as a social and professional group, have been present from ancient times in all cultures and under any political regime. a domestic worker is a person who performs a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to cleaning and household maintenance. The set of responsibilities usually also covers cooking, doing the laundry, food shopping and other domestic chores.

The services provided to masters depended solely on the imagination of the master. Sometimes landlords who owned lots of serfs even had harems, orchestras, theaters and art workshops. Some domestic workers lived in the household where they worked.

With the abolition of serfdom in 1861, all these servants became free citizens and had to do something with the freedom they had finally obtained. With no land and a basic education, former servants who now had to do something for a living started to move to the city. Domestic work for those families who could provide them with a minimum wage was the solution for most of them.

A new team of servants appeared due to the new urban life requirements, covering the new basic needs of wealthy families: a driver, a cook, a maid, a governess or a nanny.

212

8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 1940

1950

In apartments designed for Party leaders, a small room for a domestic servant was envisaged 1. Leningrad Soviet House, 1934 2. CPSU CC Politburo House, 1974

The Soviet state has always declared the equality of all members of society and banned “exploitation of man by man.” The word “servant” was never used. Even though the Central Committee rejected the idea of the presence of domestic workers in Soviet cities, they did exist. In fact, almost everyone in Moscow with a stable income had a housekeeper up until the 1960s. State–owned enterprises, cooperatives and individuals could hire them on a legal basis.

Despite the “bloody Stalinist regime” a private service sector thrived — including tutors, dentists, tailors, jewelers, artists and other bohemian occupations. Prostitution as a service was not welcome in the life of a Soviet person, however. The reason for this is that prostitution was closely linked with the basics of capitalist forms of economy and wage labor. In 1930s it was equated to a violation of communist morality, which came to be regarded as a political offense. Prostitution was simply no longer a topic in the USSR. In 1959, an American National Exhibition of household appliances was held in Moscow. More than 1,000,000 Soviet visitors saw for the first time a domestic environment with personal washing machines, dishwashers, fridges, color televisions, lawnmowers, hi–fi sets, cake mixes and TV dinners. The American Exhibition showed that domestic life itself had become the target and the source of national pride. It spawned envy among Russian society — by that time only 4% of Soviet population had fridges in their houses.

1960

1970

1980

A domestic appliances boom led to a demand for the provision of a repair service

1990

TV Radio Music players Washing mashines Fridges Vacuum cleaners Photo cameras

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

950

In 1918, Moscow became — once again — the capital of Russia and its population grew to 2,000,000.

By 1920 it had shrunk by half down to 1,000,000 because of the Civil War, emigration, hunger and the relocation of the bourgeoisie to more prosperous places. The workers appeared to be in a difficult situation: they had once again won their freedom but there was nobody to work for. In a country devastated after the Civil War, the only chance to survive was to move to the fast growing cities and Moscow in particular. By the early ‘30s all sorts of service providers in the capital counted a million and a half people.

213

SERVICE MAXIMUM

As a result, starting from the ‘60s, Soviet factories began the mass production of domestic appliances. These products made dwelling more comfortable and household maintenance much easier.

Domestic goods became very popular among the population, despite their doubtful quality. Mass production of poor quality appliances led to a need for a mass maintenance and repair service. So, in 1965, for the improvement of organization and management of public services in the Union republics, a special Ministry of domestic services was formed. This Ministry was intended to create the conditions for public paid services use, in particular, appliance, clothing, and footwear repair, laundry and dry–cleaning, hairdressing services, and the rental of cultural and household goods.

To solve this task, central public domestic service facilities appeared.

The House of Domestic Services — a massive public building for numerous enterprises, combining the collection points for various types of service and production workshops. It was assumed that people could solve all their household problems in the same building, located in the immediate proximity of residential areas housing. Central domestic services facilities played an important role in everyday life. Due to the changes in living conditions, developed utilities, the introduction of kindergartens, and household maintenance supplies production, servants became obsolete in the USSR, with the exception of the very uppermost elite.

131,700 PUBLIC DOMESTIC SERVICE FACILITIES HAD BEEN BUILT IN THE RUSSIAN SFSR BY 1986

Except for the basic services of repair and production, the practice was also introduced of domestic enterprises providing service deliveries to offices and factories. It became possible to make orders from home with further shipping — companies provided multiple services such as house moving, dwelling renovation, building supplies delivery, house cleaning and others. Even the hiring of clowns, dancers and “Ded Moroz” [the Russian Santa Claus] for celebrations was available. All these service providing “firms” were just as state–owned in nature as any Soviet shop or factory.

In one building all kinds of domestic needs could be satisfied

214

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

215

SERVICE MAXIMUM

After the introduction of central domestic service provision by the state, which enjoyed immense popularity among the population, domestic workers no longer existed. In families, the babushka [grandmother] took over the part of housekeeper in the family, as both a consumer, and domestic service provider.

In the late eighties, when the Soviet system itself started to fall apart, personal service providers emerged to meet new social needs. Trade coupons and terrible shortages of goods caused huge queues. And so there popped up the service of queue holder, who kept a place in line and saved his customer much time and effort for for a decent fee. With the growth of crime there appeared private security services to protect the personal safety of the client and his interests.

One of the new services that emerged at this wild and highly criminal time in Russia was that of the “Krysha” (literal translation – ‘a roof’). The Krysha was a complicated scheme of business protection between the mafia, businessmen and state officials for a fee on a permanent basis. Sometimes a Krysha was necessary and even obligatory to keep the business and businessman alive.

The Krysha was the precursor for the current security services that are now so high in demand for every private or state organization.

During the reforms enacted after the breakdown of the USSR, the state social service infrastructure was cut back due to a collapse in funding. Companies and individuals replaced the State in service provision. a shift back from collective to personal service consumption was made. The market economy made the income gap grow rapidly which led to the conditions for an environment in which masters and servants once again became a topic. After the changes to the political and economic system and the legalization and spread of entrepreneurship, a new archetype appeared to indicate representatives of that Russian social class who had made large fortunes in the 1990s — the New Russian. a physically strong, uneducated, arrogant, devoid of moral prohibitions, financially wealthy type. These started to buy collections of cars for themselves along with teams of drivers and security guards, building huge houses with lots of facilities, and a resultant need for domestic workers. The new wealthy social class required personal service provision on a qualitatively new level to support their new aristocratic way of life.

Russia’s richest 10% of the population have 12.6 times the annual income of the poorest 10%.

Source: Russian Govermental Statistic Agency

20

X TIMES

15

13.5

13.9

15.2

10

5

4.4

0 1990

216

1995

2000

2005

AMONG ALL DIFFERENT SERVICES PROVIDED TO ANIMALS, EXISTS A SERVICE OF PET PSYCHIATRIST WHICH CAN PROVIDE CARE FOR A PET’S MENTAL HEALTH

12.6

BANYA ON WHEELS MADE ON THE BASE OF AN OLD RUSSIAN KAMAZ TRUCK, WHICH CAN GAIN A TEMPERATURE OF UP TO 120OC, OPERATING SINCE 2009 IN MOSCOW

2010

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

16.1

217

SERVICE MAXIMUM

Today, domestic workers are not a luxury. Nannies and domestic servants are hired not only by millionaires, but also by the so–called “middle class.” They simply have to do this in order to be able to work normally. Today in Russia, there are hundreds of thousands of housekeepers and nannies, but the market for these services is really wild. There are risks for both those who are hired to work, and those who hire. Despite this, around 1,950 new vacancies for domestic servants open up every day in Moscow.

The more society gets, the more it wants. Service consumption indicates one’s lifestyle and quality of life. In a highly competitive environment, service providers meet public needs taking into account the differences in interests, tastes, status and preferences of their customers. Provided services become ever more complex and personalised.

The biggest achievement in any Muscovite’s life is buying an apartment, with the average price per square meter in Moscow being around $20,000. In absolutely every apartment, some of this area is allocated to a personal washing machine, vacuum cleaner, and other domestic appliances which could easily be shared. Despite the price, personal service access within the dwelling appears to be crucial. This access leads to the existence maximum, when services, which meet a variety of needs for comfortable dwelling, are being provided to the customer without his participation.

NAKED BARBER SHOP WITH MASSAGE STUDIO HAS BEEN OPERATING IN MOSCOW SINCE 2012. PRICE FOR A HAIRCUT DEPENDS ON THE AMOUNT OF CLOTHES ON HAIRDRESSER AND CUSTOMER, WITH OFFICIALLY NO SEX ALLOWED

CURRENTLY, PRIVATE AND PUBLIC DOMESTIC SERVICES IN MOSCOW ARE OFFICIALLY PROVIDED BY 11,000 ENTERPRISES, EMPLOYING 75,000 PEOPLE

218

ORTHODOX TAXI SERVICE “MOSCOW TROIKA” OPENED IN THE CAPITAL IN MARCH 2010. WHILE DRIVING, THE CLIENT CAN LISTEN TO PRIESTS’ SERMONS OR ORTHODOX MUSIC ON THE RADIO, ALL CARS ARE SANCTIFIED WITH SMALL ICONS INSIDE. PART OF THE PROFIT WILL BE DONATED TO THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

Experts:

Sources:

Olga Bystrova / UX/UI Designer at Reason Evgeniya Kuyda / Former Afisha chief–editor Roman Mazurenko / a founder of Stampsy Ilya Oskolkov–Tsentsiper / a founder of Strelka Denis Romodin / Historian Sergey Kozlenko / Analitic at ivi.ru Tatiana Davidovich / Founder of a tourist agency

“Underground Millionnaires of the USSR” by Mikhail Kozyrev, 2012 “The Policy Of New Domestic Services in the USSR“ by Julia Guseva, 2012 “Domestic Services in Moscow” research, 2013 USSR Statistics Report, 1987 “Domestic servants as objects of historical studies of English historiography of the second half of the 20th century” by Andrey Klotz, 2011 “Best Moscow services“, Time Out Moscow, 2010 “The Domestic Services Market in Moscow“, TheRunet, 2012 “Enclosed by Images: Architecture in the Post–Sputnik Age” by Beatriz Colomina, 2011 “Purely Russian Servility” by Svetlana Kuznetsova, 2006 Consumer Services in the USSR, state report, 1967 “No Capitalism in Russia” by Mikhail Antonov “Future Service Economy” by Timo Geron, 2013 Movie “The Prostitute,” USSR, 1926 Movie “The Light Way,” directed by , USSR, 1940 Movie “1999 A.D.” directed by the Philco–Ford Corporation, USA, 1967 Movie “Moscow Doesn't Believe Tears,” directed by Vladimir Menshov, USSR, 1979 Movie “Interdevochka,” directed by Pyotr Todorovsky, USSR, 1988

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

SOBER DRIVER CAN GIVE A RIDE TO DRUNK CUSTOMERS IN THEIR OWN VEHICLES

219

TEMPORARY DWELLING IN MOSCOW

Anel Moldakhmetova and Vera Lukyanovich

TEMPORARY DWELLING IN MOSCOW Moscow is one of the largest megacities in the northern hemisphere, and has experienced dramatic change during the last twenty years. It is now one of the most expensive cities in the world and one of the fastest growing in the region.

Moscow was always a state within a state, but it was attractive mostly for people from the same region, not for foreigners from far away, as has lately come to be the case. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the borders of the country were opened up — and its capital became a magnet for international companies, tourists and culture. Today, Moscow is a place where all kinds of people come in search of money, experience and new opportunities. People from Russia, from the former USSR, employees of international corporations operating in Moscow, other expats. . . They come to live, work and study, and for many city visitors, Moscow is a hub, a temporary transit point.

As more and more people come to Moscow, the need for temporary accommodation in the city is rapidly increasing, both for short and long–term visitors. The fast tempo of life in modern Moscow dictates new criteria for temporary dwellings.

Options for tourists and short–stay visitors are multiplying: new hotels are being built and, in the last 6 years, a lot of hostels appeared and became a suitable option for many tourists. For a short term stay, one can also opt for an apartment or Airbnb.

In terms of a longer stay, rental apartments seem to be the only option available to the majority of people. Living in hotels and Airbnb for an extended period of time is much more expensive. Before the Revolution of 1917, this niche was filled by tenement houses, which no longer exist.

The tenement house is one of the oldest types of multi–apartment house, designed for making a profit by leasing its apartments out for rent. Unlike a hotel, the tenement house is for longer–term accommodation.

By the end of the 19th century, before the Revolution, the tenement houses market was very diverse and catered to various different social classes, from low–income to wealthy tenants.

As an example, the hero of Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and the Punishment,” Raskolnikov, lived in a cheap shabby room in a tenement house, while Professor Preobrazhensky from Bulgakov’s novel “The Heart of a Dog” lived in a tenement house, too.

220

W HOW MANY PEOPLE DO CURRENTLY LIVE IN MOSCOW?

20 MILLION ACCORDING TO FOOD SUPPLY DATA

ABOUT 8 MILLION Officially, Moscow’s population is 12 mln people. According to food supply data this number is much bigger — 20 mln people. Who are these unaccounted for 8 mln people? Unregistered citizens, people commuting from the suburbs, illegal migrants, transit passengers? Where and how do they live?

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

12 MILLION

221

TEMPORARY DWELLING IN MOSCOW

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF TEMPORARY DWELLING DEVELOPMENT IN RUSSIA AND IN MOSCOW. THE TIMELINE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT TEMPORARY DWELLING TYPOLOGIES THAT EXISTED IN RUSSIA, BEGINNING FROM THE 12TH CENTURY, WHEN THE FIRST PROTOTYPE OF THE HOTEL – THE GUESTHOUSE — WAS CREATED FOR MERCHANTS VISITING FROM VELIKY NOVGOROD.

222

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

223

TEMPORARY DWELLING IN MOSCOW

WHAT IS THE OFFER?

INSIDE THE GARDEN RING, AVAREGE PRICE

The current situation in Moscow with temporary accommodation for short and longer stay periods — available options, average prices.

Moscow, 2014

Apartment rental in Moscow has its own specifics and disadvantages.

If somebody wants to rent an apartment for 2–3 months, he/she has to pay a commission to an agent and sign a contract, typically for a 12–month period. Additionally, in half of the cases, offers have very strict time limit.

To summarize the existing situation, we made the following conclusions: THE MOSCOW RENTAL MARKET IS INFLEXIBLE IN TERMS OF: RENTAL TIME COST CORRELATION BETWEEN QUALITY VS. PRICE SERVICES LANDLORDS’ REQUIREMENTS FOR TENANTS RENTAL PROCEDURE CHOICE OF TYPES. The next step of our project was to interview people and ask them what they want. We interviewed dozens of people who are currently living or planning to live in the center, and asked them what criteria a desirable temporary dwelling should have.

224

RESTRICTIONS ON LONG–TERM LEASES WITHOUT FURNITURE FAMILY COUPLES ALLOWED

The diagram shows the restrictions which Moscow landlords set for tenants. They are often discriminating and make the offers inflexible.

According to CIAN.RU

WITHOUT ANIMALS WITHOUT KIDS SLAVIC PEOPLE ONLY

HERE IS OUR MISSION STATEMENT: 1. MAXIMUM TIME AND PAYMENT FLEXIBILITY 2. MAXIMUM CHOICE OF ROOM TYPOLOGIES 3. MAXIMUM CONVENIENCE BASED ON SERVICES AND FACILITIES 4. MAXIMUM USE OF SPACE The main feature of this new dwelling is choice. Choice leads to flexibility of conditions and interactions.

A choice of different payment options offered in one place makes it convenient for people with varying lengths of stay and life circumstances.

The only limit in terms of time of stay is one year of continuous residence. This is a transitional dwelling and it needs motion, new people, new relations and cooperations. a constant flow of people should therefore be maintained.

The Residence allows for fragmented stay — this is the dream of people who have to spend many months each year in other cities due to their job. They do not need to pay rent while they are absent, or to find a new place to live every 6 months. They can come back to the Residence whenever they are in Moscow, if there are rooms available.

TIME AND PAYMENT FLEXIBILITY Possible payment options — daily, weekly, monthly payments. a pass for a specific number of nights during certain period of time (e.g. 30 nights within three months) CHOICE OF BASIC TYPES OF PAYMENT TIME UNITS: monthly payment weekly payment daily payment allows fragmented stay* pass no deposit * booking in advance *

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

We collected all the opinions, hints and ideas, and created a concept based on this of a model for temporary dwelling in Moscow, a new typology that would be a quintessence of all these criteria. We called it Residence Maximum.

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CHOICE OF ROOM TYPOLOGIES alternatives for people with different preferences and financial situations

Choice of room typologies People can choose the level of privacy: individual and communal types of stay are available, the range varies from individual studios to big communal apartment blocks with shared facilities.

Maximum choice is also presented in the design of rooms and flexibility of their use. There are standard rooms, rooms with minimalistic design, rooms with special design. Room of each type can be rented without furniture, any additional furniture may be added, if needed.

Services and facilities There are several different modes of services provision.

1) Basic services and facilities, such as common zones, a gym, media library, etc. , are on offer in the Residence and available to dwellers free of charge or for additional payments.

2) There is an option for a customized service experience. The new resident receives the menu of services which are not part of the basic package, but can be provided on demand.

This could involve any type of delivery, request for any type of personnel, all the beauty and care services on request, and so on. The process is organized rapidly and smoothly by the Residence through partnership arrangements with service providers.

3) Another option created by the Residence is that its dwellers can provide services inside the Residence by themselves. They need to be able to do this professionally, having the time and desire for it. In exchange, they will get credits which they can spend in the Residence. They would also enjoy an advantage over companies operating outside the Residence network.

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THE RESIDENCE OFFERS DIVERSITY. Extra attention is given to services.

As well as the basic and extended services and facilities provided to residents, there is also the system of dwellers’ interaction with the services provision chain, allowing them to earn credits — internal money

SUBLET. EXAMPLE OF ROOM AVAILABILITY This is an example of room availability, showing what can happen when the tenant is not present. This repeats from day to day and the premises could be sublet for at least a few hours per day.

This will enable a resident to pay less rent

USE ONLY WHEN YOU NEED IT, REDUCING YOUR RENT

This is the scheme for sublet functioning. The whole process is organized by the Residence, the individual does not need to do or worry about anything. He can just accept the offer. The Residence will provide the personnel and ensure safety

4) In addition to all the described services intended for its residents there are services for non–residents too. This might be convenient for people who live in the suburbs, but spend long hours in the city center. There is no need to go home and then to come back. a person can just come to the Residence, change into another set of clothes, which are kept in a locker, take a shower, have some food, do some work in the co–working space, and then leave.

There are different membership packages available, including the Premium Package that offers unlimited access, complex payment and single payments.

Efficient use of space All the spaces, common and individual, can have multiple functions.

The Residence actively promotes subletting. Any space can be sublet. However, there are some spaces which are specially designed for this. Some rooms are very easily transformable, having a versatile design, some sort of mixture of bedroom, living room and workspace. Some specially designed rooms can be rented for photo shoots and filming.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

FUNCTIONAL SCHEME FOR RESIDENCE SUBLET

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TEMPORARY DWELLING IN MOSCOW

SCHEME OF INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE RESIDENCE AND ITS DWELLERS: SERVICE ORDERING/PROVISION, SUBLET, CREDITS. THIS SCHEME SHOWS HOW THE WHOLE SCENARIO CAN PERFORM AND HOW PEOPLE CAN INTERACT INSIDE THE RESIDENCE, WITH IT, AND WITH EACH OTHER. THE RESIDENCE MANAGES ALL THE PROCESSES AND TRACKS THE CREDIT HISTORY OF EACH PARTICIPANT. THE PARTICIPANTS CAN USE CREDITS TO GET DISCOUNTS ON RENT PAYMENTS, TO BOOK A SPACE, TO EXTEND THEIR GYM OR CO–WORKING MEMBERSHIP, OR TO ORDER ANY OTHER SERVICE. THEY HAVE INDIVIDUAL PROFILES, WHERE ALL DATA IS STORED. EVEN IF A PERSON DOES NOT EARN OR SPEND CREDITS, HE/SHE CAN STILL BE A PART OF THE RESIDENCE’S DIGITAL SYSTEM AND HAVE A PROFILE WITH SERVICE PREFERENCES AND ALL THEIR DETAILS, WHICH WILL HELP THE RESIDENCE TO MAKE THEIR STAY AS COMFORTABLE AS POSSIBLE.

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TEMPORARY DWELLING IN MOSCOW

OPERATION OF THE RESIDENCE BY EXAMPLE DWELLERS.

A girl actively uses the opportunities provided by the Residence: being short of money she regularly cleans individual spaces and occasionally cooks upon request. In exchange, she receives credits which she spends on rent payment and renting common spaces to organize her own events. Lives communally.

A man uses a customized service experience in addition to the common services and facilities presented in the Residence. He makes both regular and occasional orders.

Part of his orders are delivered by other dwellers at the Residence.

Lives individually.

a man participates in the service– order–delivery cycle in the Residence: he provides some services from time to time, orders other services. Lives fragmentally — leaves and comes back to the Residence two–three times per year. year.

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A man uses different types of stay — rent of an individual room, pass for 30 days in three months, membership package for unlimited use of services without residence. He has also been making use of a sublet while renting an individual room.

What do we need to realize the concept?

PROPERLY ORGANIZED DIGITAL PROFILES SYSTEM SPECIALLY TRAINED PERSONNEL (A SERVICE ADMINISTRATOR, SUBLETTING COORDINATOR, ADDITIONAL SECURITY) PARTNERSHIP ARRANGEMENTS WITH SERVICE PROVIDERS

The building was not chosen randomly: recently the Moscow Mayor’s Office planned to turn it into a hotel for the upcoming 2018 World Football Championship, but we wanted to use this opportunity to propose an alternative and show a different typology of temporary dwelling that might prove of use to Moscow.

Summary HOW IS OUR TYPOLOGY IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHER DWELLING TYPES? First of all, our model is a hybrid of various typologies of temporary dwelling, such as the hotel, hostel, tenement house, and rental apartment. It has borrowed the most efficient and interesting features from all of these typologies and even some of their traditions, giving them a new interpretation in the light of the modern demands and trends.

However, there are some important features that none of these typologies have.

Time aspect. The time issue is crucial for a temporary dwelling. Today, the niche between short–term and long–term accommodation is not sufficiently developed.

In our Residence, a person can live as long as he or she wants, starting from a single day up to a whole year. a customized approach and efficient use of space make a fragmented stay possible.

It usually takes immense time and effort to find an appropriate place to live. When life circumstances change, a person might need to find something urgently, which can become a truly stressful experience. The Residence is as easy to book as a hotel, and no real–estate agents are involved. So, there are no agency payments, and no booking fees are included either.

Various dwelling routines such as doing the laundry, walking the dog, cooking, and cleaning the apartment are very time consuming. The Residence helps to save time by means of its unique service delivery system.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

If our concept is regarded as software, it needs a container, and this concept can work with several different types of container. In our proposal, we took a so–called book house on New Arbat as an example.

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On the other hand, dwellers who have less money and more time can benefit from this, if they can provide professional services. This can be realized through a System of Credits – where the time that the dweller devotes to provision of Services becomes a new Currency.

One of the challenges of moving from place to place is the issue of keeping important belongings. This could be solved by Storage in the Residence — a service which can also be used by non–residents.

EPILOGUE

(Our Project in Studio Framework) Our project on temporary dwelling grew naturally from the previous stage of the studio — the work on the “Confessions of the Center”, in which we spotted some interesting processes emerging in temporary dwelling in Moscow’s city center.

We discovered the phenomenon of semi–legal hostels, whereby people found a way to live in the city center, closer to their place of work or study, at a cheap price but in most cases with a major compromise in comfort. Our research and the interviews that followed revealed the current priorities and demands of people who need temporary accommodation in the city center.

One of the goals of our studio was to analyse the current paradigm of the dwelling, and, based on this analysis, to try to define the current existenzminimum. With the help of our model, we explored what criteria need to be changed. We thus created a new formula, defining existenzmaximum as a new existenzminimum. Our model shows how this formula can work for temporary dwelling and we believe that at least some of the aspects of our proposal will be realized in Moscow in the near future.

EXPERTS:

SOURCES:

1. Mikhail Alekseevsky, anthropologist, KB Strelka

1. “Book– houses on Arbat are to be reconstructed and turned into hotels,” 26.04.2014 — Moscow 24

2. Victor Vakhshtain, sociologist

2. Moscow population grew up to 20 mln people.

3. Pavel Stepantsov, sociologist

Rosbalt, 10/03/2011

4. Roman Sabirzhanov, businessman, owner of Hostel Fabrika

3. Moscow Architectural Institute ( State Academy)

5. Konstantin Osintsev, businessman, owner of Hostel Dom, co–owner of thelocals.ru 6. Ilya Oskolkov–Tsentsiper, businessman 7. David Erixon, Strelka programming director, businessman 8. Katya Girshina, consultant, KB Strelka

I.S. Cheredin, Moscow, architecture–S, 2004 4. Retrospective analysis of the development of the hotel industry in Moscow region, Ageyeva Y. A., assistant at the Department of “Management in Tourism and Hospitality Enterprises,” at the Institute of Hospitality and Tourism (Moscow), 30th November 2009 5. Hotel infrastructure of the modern Moscow http://www.memoid.ru/node/Gostinichnaya_infrastruktura_sovremennoj_Moskvy 6. “ Age–old traditions of Moscow hospitality,” Moscow tourism platform, short review, 3rd April 2013, http://www.travel2moscow.com/what/articles_about_Moscow/recreation_and_entertainment/text6758.html%20

A

7. Hospital Moscow: today and tomorrow (3 volumes), Volume 1, Joseph N. Ordzhonikidze, JSC “GAO Moscow,” 2004 8. CIAN — www.cian.ru — Database of rentals and sale of living, commercia and rural real–estate.

9. Moscow landmarks and places of interest — http://www.openmoscow.ru/ 10. “Are tenement houses profitable?” Alla Nechayeva, Free press, 13th February 2014 — http:// svpressa.ru/realty/article/82181/?aam=1 11. www.booking.com 12. All tenement houses of Moscow with photos. Addresses and map of the tenement houses in Moscow, “Bolshoi gorod,” http://bg.ru/atlas/rubrics/38/ 13. www.hostelworld.com 14. Hostel–boom: how do you open your own hostel in Moscow? Svetlana Romanova, 31.01.2012

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S IN

MUSCULAR GUY WORKING OUT IN THE GYM

WOMAN BAKING CUPCAKES FOR THE NEIGHBOURS

LADY HAVING HER HAIR DONE

GIRL PRACTICPRACTIC ING BALLET IN THE DANCE STUDIO

WOMAN PLAYING THE PIANO IN THE EVENINGS

MAN AND WOMAN SLEEPING TOGETHER

BOY DELIVERING PIZZA

A YOUNG WOMAN DRINKING COFFEE WITH PARENTS

STUDENT WASHING CLOTHES IN THE LAUNDRY ROOM

BOY WASHING THE FLOOR

KIDS PRACTICING CALLIGRACALLIGRA PHY

MAN TAKING A SHOWER IN THE MORNING

OLD LADY COOKING MEALS FOR A FAMILY

POSTMAN DELIVERING POST TO THE RECEPTION

WOMAN DOING MANICURE

GIRL MEETING WITH FRIENDS IN THE CAFE

FREELANCER USING COWORKING AS A MINI-OFFICE

AN OLD MAN READING A NEWSPAPER ON THE COUCH

TWO MEN SHAKING HANDS

MAN VACUUMING THE FLOOR

SPORTSMAN CHATTING WITH NEIGHBOURS

ADMINISTRATOR HANDING CLEAN CLOTHES TO A MAN

GIRL KNITKNIT TING A SWEATER

ARTIST GROWING A MINI-GARDEN

WAITRESS EATING DINNER WITH A COLLEAGUE

MAN AND WOMAN GETTING READY FOR MARRIAGE

TEENAGER PAINTING

STUDENT STUDYING IN THE MEDIATHEQUE

MAN AND WOMAN DOING YOGA

MEN AND WOMEN LISTENING TO A LECTURE

GIRL PLAYPLAY ING WITH HER DOG

MAN AND A WOMAN HAVING A ROMANTIC DINNER IN A CAFE

PHOTOGRAPHER PHOTOSHOOTING A MODEL

MUSICIANS HAVING A REHEARSAL

KIDS PLAYING WITH TOYS

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

TEENAGER WATCHING MOVIES WITH FRIENDS

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INTRODUCTION

MOBILITY

STORAGE

NATURE

SHELTER/ESCAPE

PLENTY OF FOOD

KNOWLEDGE

SLEEPING SERVICES

Vlado Danailov and Steven Broekhof

Deconstructed Heaven on Earth

by V. Danailov & S. Broekhof, 2014

CITY WITHOUT HOUSES Access rather than possession “City without Houses” offers a critical view on the city, explained with the example of Moscow city center as a place to dwell. We think of dwelling as an action consisting of continuous repetitions of our daily routines. We do not attain to dwelling merely by means of building; it is an action that goes beyond our houses, into the city, its facilities, its secluded and public spaces.

While reading, writing, or talking about the city, the first things that are usually mentioned are the people, the public places: squares and streets, landmarks, museums and galleries, shops and cafes. The act of dwelling has always so far been seen separately, with the house or the apartment as a central, basic point from where all the activities start and end. This is quite legitimate, yet as the world and our routines are changing on a daily basis, we see an urgent need to rethink the house.

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The Land of Cockaigne (Luilekkerland)

by P. Brueghel, 1567

Heaven on earth In 1567, Pieter Brueghel showed the way people in medieval times envisioned “Heaven on Earth” in times of famine and hardships. His painting “The land of Cockaigne” shows an attractive dreamland where roast geese flew through the air and pancakes grew on trees. Today, it is Hans Rosling, a Swedish statistician who shows the transition from an underdeveloped, poor and unhealthy towards an advanced, rich and healthy world, with only a few countries left behind. He foresees this growth continuing. It is proven that the world we are living in today has plenty of everything. We dare to state that we have reached the idea of “Heaven on Earth” like in Brueghel’s painting; only not everybody has access to it yet. Today it is less important how many possessions one owns — what is crucial now is the access to goods, facilities and services.

Interdependency

Collective effort for producing Nutella

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

The enormous growth in our wealth was made possible because of interdependency; a condition of mutual reliance on each other — person to person, family to family, society to society.

This can even be illustrated with a jar of Nutella, which only exists because countries all around the world are involved in its creation. And despite the strengthening of borders that Russia is promoting today, we see a clear global network of interdependency, trade and benefits. We would like to make use of this notion of interdependency and rethink and question the physical substance and the archetypical shape of the house as we know it up until today.

Nutella jar as an example for interdependency

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CITY WITHOUT HOUSES

Russia & interdependency Looking at the history of Russia, we find occasional examples of dwellings based on the idea of collectivity, signs of applying interdependency by distributing and sharing facilities even before the Revolution in 1917. Although the idea of gaining mutual benefits by sharing was widely explored, in the built environment there were no significant changes applied to improve people’s living conditions. Barracks were the most common form of communal housing, not built out of any ideology, but as a response to the problems of housing shortage at that time.

As an answer to the housing crisis, Khrushchev created the largest housing stock in the history of Russia, based on the 1920s paradigm of the Existenzminimum. The periphery of Moscow is characterized by these mass–produced types of housing blocks on huge territories with limited amounts of shared facilities. In contrast to this, the city center occupies a very small territory offering a huge amount of facilities, goods and services. The floor area occupied by these facilities is five times bigger than the floor area occupied by houses. If we make a comparison, the density in the periphery is two times larger than the density of the center.

NIRNZEE HOUSE, E. R. Karłowicz, 1912

HOUSE–KOMMUNE, M. Bartcsh & V. Vladimirov, 1929

HOUSE FOR a NEW WAY OF LIFE, N. Osterman, 1969

The Evolution of the Built Reality, from Stalin till Putin (1920’s till today)

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DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

Moscow’s city center is dominated by facilities: they make up almost 30% of its total floor area. Dwelling space occupies less then 10%. 45% is unbuilt surface: the spaces between streets, the river and buildings. What is the hidden opportunity in these numbers?

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CITY WITHOUT HOUSES

From existenzminium. . .

Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the beginning of the privatization process, a large amount of houses in the city center have been transformed into offices and lucrative businesses, more than 40% in the area of Zamoskvorechye, for instance. Real estate prices have grown 78 times since 1991, so very few people can afford to rent or buy a house or an apartment in the center. In addition, there is a lack of alternative types of dwelling that would be able to grasp the changes in contemporary living. It seems the future development scenarios of Moscow will follow the model present today, along with the Existenzminimum paradigm.

This will result in the continuous building of private apartment blocks on the periphery, while the city center still remains the most desirable, yet unreachable place for dwelling.

OUR POSITION IS THAT THE FRACTION BETWEEN THE SPACE OF LIVING ( THE APARTMENT ) AND THE SPACE OF WORKING DOESN’T MAKE SENSE ANYMORE

Martino Tattara, architect

interview 2014, by V. Danailov & S. Broekhof

The periphery houses almost twice as many people per hectare as the city center

Amsterdam’s city center houses more than twice as many people per hectare than Moscow’s city center

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Periphery

Center

116 people / ha

62 people / ha

Moscow center

Amsterdam center

62 people / ha

134 people/ha

Existenzminimum propagates a minimum space per person. a system based on possession, which still requires a large territory for everyone’s permanent accommodation

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

Existenzmaximum relies on the amount of facilities and, moreover, their capacity. a system based on temporary accessibility for everyone

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CITY WITHOUT HOUSES

. . .To existenzmaximum It is exactly in this desire that we see the chance of shift towards a new paradigm, the Existenzmaximum. According to this, dwelling no longer depends on the amount of things that one possesses, but on the temporary accessibility of the facilities needed for fulfilling our contemporary quotidian needs. That is the type of dwelling that “City without Houses” offers.

Using a hypothesis based on the power of exclusion enforces the way we think about the existing city. If just one component of the urban routine were taken away, the house, a variety of possibilities would open up for investigation. We would like to stretch the notion of how to approach the city by redefining the house.

WHAT IS MY DOMAIN? WHAT IS MY HOME? PRIVATE AND PUBLIC, THERE IS NOT ANYMORE A LINE BETWEEN THEM. YOU CAN BE PUBLIC IN A PRIVATE SPACE, YOU CAN BE PRIVATE IN A PUBLIC SPACE. THESE CONDITIONS ARE RELATIVELY NEW CONDITIONS. I BELIEVE THAT SINCE MAYBE A COUPLE OF HUNDRED YEARS, DOMAINS LIKE THAT START TO BE NORMAL FOR PEOPLE

Wiel Arets, architect interview 2014

by S. Broekhof & V. Danailov

The story: city without houses In the format of a comic book, we experience the “City without Houses” through the eyes of three fictional protagonists and their daily routines. These characters represent very different needs and lifestyles. Following the way they work, eat, meet, love, rest and how they move between one another, we extrapolate the meaning of the city as a house. Although the protagonists live in the same area of Moscow, yet in parallel worlds, the access to facilities allows for the creation of various networks where interactions might happen. These parallel worlds raise the opportunity of making a denser city center by introducing a new way of using the existing urban fabric.

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FROM DWELLING IN A HOUSE TO DWELLING IN A CITY

A bourgeois example of an 18th century Merchant House and its auxiliary facilities

Do we still need a House?

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

Distributed facilities. From a Room in a House to an Action in the City

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CITY WITHOUT HOUSES

O H T U O H T I W Y CIT

S E S U

Three protagonists dwelling in a city without houses Alexander, a 28–year old photojournalist. Born and raised in Izmailovo, a microrayon outside the city center, where he spent his childhood. He moved to the city center with his fellow students and friends when he was 18, to start his studies at the Faculty of Journalism. During his studies he fell in love with Lena, an interior design student. They got married when they were 22, even before finishing their studies. Unfortunately, their marriage didn’t work out. While Alexander was working as a local journalist, his ambitions were actually greater. He decided to divorce and focus on his passion: photography. He turned out to be very talented and soon became a much sought–after photojournalist, traveling all around the world. Whenever he is not abroad, he hangs out with his friends in his hometown of Moscow. If there is one thing that he cannot live without, it is his personal assistant who takes care of almost everything work–related when he is abroad. Alexander represents the new generation of young adventurous Muscovites, who are not afraid to look for luck beyond the established borders.

Polina, a 42–year old devoted housewife with two children. Born and raised in Magnitogorsk.

She works in a post–office and does a lot of charity work connected with the Orthodox Church community.

On the right: Impressions Comicbook

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Muzaf,a 24–year young migrant worker, originally from Karakalpakstan. Working as a cashier in a supermarket and as a construction worker.

Alex is back from reportage in Siberia. He sleeps in the airplane.

3 PM

Yoga hour for relaxation after the intense meeting with his P.A.

7 AM

A refreshing dive in the wellness club at the airport.

For members only.

8 PM

Dinner with his mistress in a restaurant.

10 AM

Car becomes a “room–on–wheels” for the duration of his stay in Moscow.

4 AM

Thirsty after a night of clubbing. At the 24–hour supermarket before going back to the suite.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

4 AM

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CITY WITHOUT HOUSES

I THINK THE ROUTINE OF ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE DEPLETES THE KNOWLEDGE ITSELF; IT MOVES IT BACK TO THE LEVEL OF INFORMATION. THERE IS OFTEN ABSENCE OF KNOWLEDGE, BUT ABUNDANCE OF INFORMATION. WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE, YOU CAN’T CREATE THE CRITICAL VIEW OF THIS INFORMATION AT ALL, EVEN THOUGH THE INFORMATION IS ACCESSIBLE Petar Zaklanovic, architect / urbanist interview 2014 by S. Broekhof & V. Danailov

What if

How many meditation places do we need when we meditate two times 20 minutes a day?

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What if we rethink the substance of the house in its extreme? How far can we go? What if we allowed access for all inhabitants of Moscow to its city center? An incredibly dense and efficient timetable would make it possible to create temporary access for everyone. Existenzmaximum for a certain amount of time. This raises questions and thoughts as to what extent we can reexamine the way we live in cities. It is exciting indeed to think about 11.9 million people, according to official statistics. If they are about to inhabit the center, they need places to sleep, to eat, to store their belongings and to take care of personal hygiene. The result is 3,967,000 sleeping cells, 66,112 showers, and 330,556 places for meditation… And (un)surprisingly enough, there is a way to make this happen. If only one imagines.

FICTION OR REALITY? WE FOLLOW ALEXANDER’S ROUTINE IN THE AREA OF ZAMOSKVORECHYE

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

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CITY WITHOUT HOUSES

WHAT DO WE NEED IF ALL THE INHABITANTS OF MOSCOW, 11,9 MILLION REGISTERED PEOPLE, ARE TO DWELL IN THE CITY CENTER?

EATING 909.028 units

LEISURE 1.487.500 units

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MEDI– TATION 330.556 units

WORKING 2.975.000 units

SHOWER 413.195 units

SLEEPING 3.967.000 units

SERVICE 743.750 units

MOBILITY 578.473 units

EEPING 67.000 ts

STORAGE 11.900.000 units

KNOWLEDGE 495.834 units

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CITY WITHOUT HOUSES A postcard from Pablo Picasso to Salvador Dali, 1930s

Epilogue In the 1930s Picasso sent a postcard to Dali. a landscape picture from an African village, where the inhabitants were captured in their daily routine, sitting in front of their shelter.

If the postcard is turned 90 degrees clockwise, a new image appears. a phantom face, an association of Picasso’s cubist portrait. And this possibility of seeing something that you are determined to see and to expose, is the basis of Dali’s paranoid critical method. a method which questions the validity of reality. This way of shifting the lenses while looking at the city allows us to see things differently, to discover the dual image, the hidden opportunities behind the immediately obvious.

Shifting Perspectives

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Bearing in mind that what was described is a hypothetical, critical project for Moscow city center, one should clearly understand the need of taking a different approach while designing, building or reprogramming a city. Interactions between people are the result of separate personal routines, overlaid with the urban routines shaped by the city’s space–time continuum. Instead of forcing people to live in a particular way, “City without Houses” exposes a strategy for revaluing the city center. It reveals possibilities for a reinterpretation of the existing city. By examining the micro–scale and the urban routines, we discover an opportunity to formulate solutions and improvements, almost as if writing over a palimpsest. Instead of approaching matters as traditional architects, we act as curators. By curating the existing city we place interventions in a wider context, and the city becomes a network of choices, supplies and atmospheres.

Bibliography & inspiration

Thanks to our experts:

+ Collectivism, Kibbutz, 1909

+ Wiel Arets, architect

+ The House of The Dead, F. Dostoyevsky, 1861

+ Martino Tattara, architect

+ Port Artur, Proto–Communal Housing, V.P. Kondrat’ev, 1905

+ Petar Zaklanovic, architect

+ The Russian Point of View, V. Woolf, 1919

+ Anna Bronovitskaya, architectural historian

+ On New City and Town Building, D. Savin, 1923

+ Martha Coe-Galeotti, sociologist

+ Nervous People and Other Satires, M. Zoshchenko, 1924

+ Anastassia Smirnova, writer and researcher

+ The City of To–morrow and Its Planning, Le Corbusier, 1929

+ David Erixon, commercial and marketing leader

+ The Minimum Dwelling, K. Teige, 1932 + Dwelling, M. Ginsburg, 1932 + Moscow Diary, W. Benjamin, 1927 + Competition for the socialist city Magnitogorsk, I. Leonidov, 1930 + a Home is not a House, R. Banham, 1965 + TEAM 10 — in search of Utopia in the present, 1953–81 + Pro Domo, Y. Friedman, 1958

+ Varvara Melnikova, art historian, CEO Strelka + Max Avdeev, photographer + Ilya Tsentsiper, theatre historian, media manager and entrepreneur, inventor + Georgy Aygunyan, architect + Eugenia Pospelova, executive producer Strelka Institute

+ The Architecture of The City, A. Rossi, 1966 + Monastery Sainte Marie de La Tourette, Le Corbusier, 1960 + Domesticated Superstructures, P. Blom, 1973 + Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment, H. Lefebvre, 1973 + Architecture and Utopia, M. Tafuri, 1973 + Dwelling, Place & Environment: Towards a Phenomenology of Person and World, D. Seamon & R. Mugerauer, 1985

+ Moriyama House, SANAA, 2005 + Dwelling as a Figure of Thought, H. Corne lissen, 2005 + Visualizing The Invisible, Towards an Urban Space, S. Read & C. Pinilla, 2006 + Housing and Dwelling, Perspectives on Modern Domestic Architecture, B. M. Lane, 2007 + Asterios Polyp, D. Mazzucchelli, 2009 + Common Places: Mythologies of Everyday life in Russia, S. Boym, 1994 + The Un–Private House, T. Riley, 1999 + Dwelling as a Figure of Thought, H. Cornelissen, 2005 + Co–Residence, B. Ramo, 2013 + Less is Enough, P. V. Aureli, 2013 + ‘The need for a Utopia’ (De noodzaak van een utopie), Rutger Bregman in the Future Affairs- program: Backlight (Tegenlicht), www.rutgerbregman.nl + Hans Rosling, www.gapminder.org

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

+ Dwelling House for Winnie the Pooh, A. Brodsky, 1989

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Yana Mazol

THE NEW RITUAL OR FEED THEÂ BUM

Orel, April 2012

Zelenogorsk, March 2012

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Moscow, May 23, 2010

Tell me where you sleep last night: Playgrounds and benches work well during the summer; while staircases of houses with poor security systems, cellars, attics, ATM rooms are the solution for cold part of the year.

Homeless people fight for most comfortable spaces, and the old and disabled usually lose these fights. Hot water pipes outside then have to do for them during the severe Moscow winter. Those lucky ones who manage to get into the Metro could have a sleep in a metro wagon.

In the context of the Dwelling Studio, where we’re trying to establish a new concept of dwelling and a new paradigm of the existence maximum, I find it interesting to see how their daily routines work.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

In this uncertain time in history, when new ideas and phenomena are emerging at the speed of light, the rhythm of our daily routine is changing drastically. We are becoming less and less tied to a certain space. The whole idea of a home, a dwelling, is now perceived as something more than a physical space, rather as a process, a lifestyle. Airnbnb makes it possible to live without an actual house. We can fall asleep in Hong–Kong, have breakfast in New York and attend a meeting in Moscow, all in a single day. We care more about access, borders, and experience. Contemporary cities are reflecting our desire for the maximum. We can charge our phones from the tiny solar–stations dotted around the city, or do our groceries virtually while traveling on the subway. There are other people, however, whose routine overlaps with ours and yet we barely notice them. They accidentally or intentionally live on the streets and don’t have a home in the regular sense at all. We prefer not to pay attention, or sometimes share a little change with them. I’m talking here about homeless people.

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Moscow, 2013 One Day in the Life of a Bum. The day of a bum starts very early in the morning, especially if the night was spent on the staircase of the house: a bum has to wake up before the inhabitants show up and find their mats missing. One more reason to start the day early is to get to the garbage bins before the garbage truck to scavenge for some food. Sometimes, to get access to the waste a bum fights with another bum or with the yard cleaner. Hunger sometimes leads the homeless to the Moscow State Center of Disinfection. After an intensive shower and other hygiene procedures, a breakfast is served as a bonus. The rest of the day is dedicated to wandering the streets in the search for money to get some alcohol or cheap junk food that needs no cooking.

Begging and public storytelling sometimes helps to get some extra cash.

Moscow March 2014

Who are the homeless? What are their routines in the city? How do they interact with the city and its inhabitants?

I seems that their past routines are already a big inspiration for us progressive city dwellers.

As an example, the roots of the cute and contemporary street–food culture go back to the times when street–food was the lot of the poor and homeless. They had no place to prepare food and had very little money to go to canteens or dining places. So might it perhaps also work vice–versa? Could the homeless and poor benefit from our contemporary routines? Is there a chance for them to attain the existence maximum that we are so rushing toward?

The lifestyle of the homeless people and their look horrifies locals. This is an attitude that was constructed during Soviet times (homelessness was illegal, a homeless person was considered a parasite because all Soviet people were supposed to have a place to live and place to work for the needs of the USSR) and is still in the air and in the state policy towards the homeless, bums, tramps or bomzh.

The Department of Social Security now defines a homeless person as a city dweller with no home, a person who has no opportunity to live in an actual dwelling or who is not registered in the place of living or temporary stay.

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The state definition is vague and is made to support a certain policy. That brings me to a feeling of being a potential homeless. Being a Strelka student and not a Muscovite, I’m registered here at the Institute’s Red October site. Immediately after the course my registration expires.

And so I too can then be considered homeless and apply for state help unless I find another solution.

I came up with a definition that draws the portrait of a bum as a much more creative individual than he/she is considered by the state. Living close to the almost historical place of daily homeless reunions — Chistiye Prudy — I may say that the homeless person is somebody that hacks the city — most of the time successfully – in order to dwell where it’s hard to even imagine a living space.

The routine of homeless people usually gravitates around the places we all know in the center of the city: railway stations, parks, boulevards, Metro stations with their long tunnels. These are their living rooms during the day and sleeping quarters during the night. Only on big holidays does the street atmosphere sometimes change, when the police does its city surface cleaning to hide the reality in the time of collective euphoria.

The homeless know the city better than the ordinary inhabitants. People who live on the streets have no other choice than to use neglected city spaces with no security that may protect them from inclement weather. So there is a whole world of the homeless, hidden behind the scenes.

The reason why the homeless choose the city center for their routines lies not only in the shelter potential but in the human traffic and the density of food services. People may toss a little change to the homeless. Leftovers — the main food source for the homeless — may be found close to the cafes, kiosks and markets.

Food constitutes the daily routine of the homeless. Even the hierarchy that they have in their small collectives is formed around the ability to find food and drink.

Some homeless live in couples or small teams — doubling the chances to find and share money and food. Benches work as a dining tables. Closer to the evening there is a chance to get some hot food from the charity feeding truck. The queue for this hot food is the only order in the life of a homeless person. Hot food is a treasure. The homeless eat with hurriedly and hide their food, especially if they’ve got some extra. The rest of the day is dedicated to begging to again buy some drinks to warm up before sleep. When the night comes a bum has to return to his secret sleeping space or to find a new one.

Moscow State Center of Disinfection

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

The daily menu of a bum may consist of leftovers, cheap junk food and low quality alcohol.

There are days when the homeless fail to eat at all. The Ministry of Health Care says that humans need to eat three times a day plus three small snacks, in order to obtain a wide range of vitamins and minerals. To do this, the diet should be as diverse as possible. Grains, fruit and vegetables form the base of the healthy eating pyramid made by the Harvard School of Public Health.

Moscow, December 2013

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Moscow, November 2013

Moscow, March 2013

The food that is likely to be found by the homeless has nothing to do with these recommendations and is high in salt, fat and cholesterol. The bad quality alcohol that also forms part of their daily routine causes further damage to their health. All this contributes to a high incidence of internal organ problems and results in many dietary deficits: the B vitamins, vitamin C, zinc, calcium, folic acid, magnesium, and iron — all are commonly found to be deficient in this demographic.

To change this, the homeless need to get permanent access to healthy nutritious food made with whole grains, fruit and vegetables. Changing the daily ration of the homeless will improve their routine as a whole, as this is closely connected with the feeling of hunger.

The feeling of hunger as a physical sensation of desiring food is universal. According to World Food Programme statistics, 842 million people in the world do not have enough to eat. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization claims that there is no precise data on how many people suffer from malnutrition in Russia today. Only the World Life Expectancy initiative provides any data on the death rate due to malnutrition, and indicates that it is low.

Moscow, April 2014

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Two Centuries of struggle with Hunger: World and Russia Free Bread Association

SPb association of people’s countries Russian Red Cross

1800

1845

Benjamin Thompson establishes the idea of soup kitchens

The Great Famine

Soup kitchen in England & Scotland: 60 000 people were fed daily in London alone

The Church’s participation in charity is forbidden

First trustee in Moscow “Hunger loan” Nicolay forbid charity participation

Lenin’s Campaign against the Church

37 000 Homeless homeless were took exiled out of Moscow Food before the tokens Olympics

1901 Soup Kitchen in Realm, the US

Khruschev act/law on parasitism

1961 The Great Depression

“Breadline” Fleischmann model Viennese Bakery (distribution of unsold bakery among the hungry

2000 Food not Bombs

Feed the Hungry Fast Food Bank in Emerson Europe Good The US: Samaritian St. Mary’s Donation Foodbank Action Act Alliance Against Hunger Timeline of two centuries of struggle with famine in Russia and the Western World. While two main concepts of soup kitchens and food bank/ pantries were established and actively used in the wider world, Russia had no single successful working concept and relied more on the private sector, international aid, and the Church

Famine is not an issue at all in Russia today. As was said before, however, there are still people who fail to eat normally. Private charity feeding patrols, Church and guerrilla Food Not Bombs activists do their best to give homemade food to those who have no opportunity to get, prepare and enjoy food three times a day or more as is recommended by The Ministry of Healthcare.

Church canteens are closing due to the complaints of neighbors, Food Not Bombs activists are arrested by the police, and charity patrols lack stability in their food supplies. The foodstuffs they use come from regular people in small amounts while big food companies that could be potential food donors rarely manage to work with the demands of small–scale charity. Charitable organizations literally have no space or facilities to store the amount of food needed monthly. Food companies find it unfeasible in terms of logistic to deliver weekly supplies of food. Sometimes food enterprises are ready to provide the food needed but with the proviso of five or more pages agreement on advertisement on the Internet, which contradicts the charitable organizations’ policies. What is most shocking is the fact that food companies offer expired food to charity. It is more efficient to give expired products to charity than to find a way to get rid of it according to state regulations. One state law says that every organization that is in any way connected to food production is obliged to utilize its waste according to the ecological norms defined by the RF Codex of administrative violations chapter 8, article 8.2. In reality, only food recycling centers can provide companies with proper documents confirming that the waste has been utilized according to ecological standards. This service tends to be expensive, creating an environment for the successful illegal flow of the food waste in the city. The real statistics for food waste in Moscow are very enigmatic — we have so far been unable to find anything about this illegal flow.

A shot from a movie based on Knut Hamsun’s novel “The Hunger.” The main character is the embodiment of hunger in the sense that hunger affects his thoughts, work and behavior and sometimes makes him a different person than he was before

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

Back in olden times, Russia faced the extreme version of hunger–famine — many times during its history. Since the abolishment of serfdom in 1861, starvation spread around the country.

Millions of people were given freedom but not enough land to survive. The wealthy private sector started to sponsor cheap public canteens, build charity houses and form trusteeships.

The Church as an important spiritual influence in the Russian Empire, supported by the state, used to help locally and later brought a massive helping force – the sisters of mercy — to the country. Apart from Church and private donors, huge aid came from foreign charities, such as the American Relief Administration, which put millions of dollars into helping reduce famine in Russia. From the governmental side there was never a centralized programme or policy against famine or homelessness. In the Soviet period, everyone was supposed to be full and accommodated. Anything otherwise was accused of parasitism and sent into exile.

First Malta Countine

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THE NEW RITUAL OR FEED THE BUM

Greenpeace Russia made an attempt and came up with a tremendous figures of 2.7 million tonnes per year. Using simple calculations based on the annual amount of food per person as is recommended by the Ministry of Healthcare — approximately 700 kilograms — around four million people could potentially be fed. These heartbreaking figures include food waste on the customer level (the contents of our garbage bins), but also industrial/retail food waste and loss. The difference here is important: a hand of bananas that fell off a truck is considered a food loss while a carton of brown–spotted bananas is food waste.

Both food waste and loss happen mostly at the level of storage and handling, food production and food casting. By ‘food casting’ or ‘food fascism’ I refer to the retail tendency to sort products according to formal and aesthetics criteria. Food is supposed to look fresh and appetizing to make customers buy it. For example, retailers require only certain parts of the animal to be sold in the supermarket while the rest of the animal, that is considered to look disgusting due to retail created standards, is wasted.

Food loss is potential food to feed the hungry. The World Food Organization supposes that almost half of the food loss in industrialized countries like Russia consists of fruit and vegetables. Moscow still uses the Soviet concept of collective greenery distribution — big wholesale markets. This prompts me to conclude that these wholesale markets are the place where this 45% of fruits and vegetables loss and waste occurs. The story of one enormous wholesale market — Pokrovsky — attracted me the most. Pokrovsky wholesale is one of the largest wholesale markets in the city. It is considered by the government to be a strategically important place for food logistics in the city. Pokrovsky was built in the 80s. It occupies a ground area of around 120 thousand square meters. Every day, three thousand vehicles come and go to distribute fruit and vegetables around Moscow. The peculiarity of Pokrovsky is the coexistence of two markets in one: a legal one with goods from all around the world and one which is under the patronage of the Mafia. Almost half of the fruit and vegetables flow happens without any documentation, thus avoiding the customs dues. So it is a total enigma what is happening with food waste and loss there.

EXPIRED FOOD FOOD RETAIL

City’s current schemes of dealing with food waste Second Life Approach: a scheme that was found while talking to ex– workers of chain and local groceries and a consierge who found a basement reanimation department in her house

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PRIVATE RETAILER

SOME BASEMENT

It is planned to close down the Pokrovsky wholesale market. The state is now looking for a new model to reopen since this was considered a strategically important city infrastructure and must be replaced. The time has come to rethink the old–fashioned methods of food distribution and to think of food waste and food loss potential to feed those who are hungry.

SAME EXPIRED FOOD SECRET MARKET OF EXPIRED GOODS EXPIRED FOOD WITH RENEWED EXPIRY DATE LOCAL MICRORAYON GROCERY STORE

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

Adding a new department to the current working scheme of a wholesale market – a Waste Control Department — would make it possible to distinguish waste on its main levels and divide it: the actual waste that can be sold to farmers for a reasonable price and the food loss that could be used to provide food for the hungry. Farmers would bring the business potential to this project. What next? The initial idea was to distribute the food loss — ugly or slightly damaged fruit and vegetables that are still fresh enough to become a dinner — to kiosks placed close to the Metro stations where the homeless congregate everyday, in order to prepare healthy street food for them and give it out for free.

Pokrovsky cleaning: 500 people were arrested, 300 policemen took part in the operation; guns and knives were seized

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Schemes based on conversations with ex–workers of franchise food vendors and local groceries, a concierge who found a basement reanimation department in her house, and on my own observations Mobile Hospitality: project that brings kitchen to the streets. It aims to make city dwellers more responsible and initiative in public space

If we improve the situation with food, we will improve the very existence of the homeless.

Through food we can offer the homeless a totally new life trajectory (or at least feed them); a new way of DWELLING. Probably, we cannot give shelter to the thousands sleeping rough in Moscow, yet we can think of a city–wide action, a ritual to lift a homeless person to an existence maximum way of living, while leaving the existence minimum concept behind. To do this, a certain ritual is needed. In talking about ritual I mean a set of actions performed on the prompting of the symbolic values of a community. Food was always a perfect vehicle for ritual. The relationship between religion and food offers an example: sacrifices, taboos and celebrations have always involved food since the dawn of humanity.

We come together to cook and share a meal. a magical power was always attributed to the now–endangered custom of the family dinner. Every kitchen or dining room becomes a sacral place where a ritual is underway.

Dining and cooking nowadays is undergoing a major process of rethinking by creative minds all over the world. Moving towards an existence maximum, people are attracted to the idea of access and dissolving borders, mobility and interaction. They hack the city space to establish ideas that were once considered irrelevant. That’s why projects like the solar kitchen, that works outside using only the energy of sunlight, or the mobile kitchens that pops–up in unexpected city spaces and operates without gas and electricity appear.

So, my proposal is to use the idea of movable kitchens to create a new city ritual and a new ritual for the city homeless.

Instead of the “passive help” of food kiosks, mobile kitchens may work best in giving homeless people the chance to cook food for themselves, using the supplies and food distributed from the new wholesale facility, and provided with basic instructions and tutorials. The mobility of the kitchen is a good approach to take in easing the relationship between the homeless and local residents who worry that lines of bums lead to falls in their real estate values.

Open access may involve not only wholesale as the main donor, but also make locals aware of the problem, prompting them to share their surplus food that is always a pain to throw away.

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WASTE

WASTE LOSS LOSS

WASTE CONTROL

Robyn Fox. Food and Eating: an Anthropological Perspective. HYPERLINK "http://www.sirc. org/publik/foxfood.pdf" http://www.sirc.org/publik/foxfood.pdf World Food Program. HYPERLINK "http://www.wfp.org/" http://www.wfp.org/ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations HYPERLINK "http://www.fao.org/" http://www.fao.org/ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Statistics HYPERLINK "http://faostat.fao.org/" http://faostat.fao.org/ Greenpeace Russia HYPERLINK "http://www.greenpeace.org/russia/" http://www.greenpeace.org/russia/ The Ministry of Medical Care HYPERLINK "http://www.rosminzdrav.ru/" http://www.rosminzdrav.ru/ “People die for coriander”, Bolshoi Gorod, № 2, 2013 World Health Rankings. Malnutrition statistics based on the death rate HYPERLINK "http:// www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause–of–death/malnutrition/by–country/" http://www. worldlifeexpectancy.com/ Moscow City Department of Social Security HYPERLINK "http://www.dszn.ru/" http://www. dszn.ru/ “The city and the cold,” Lenta.ru HYPERLINK "http://lenta.ru/articles/2014/01/27/bezdoma/" http://lenta.ru/articles/2014/01/27/bezdoma/ Caroline Steel, Hungry City, Strelka Press, 2014 Federal law on waste. Waste info system. HYPERLINK "http://www.waste.ru/modules/section/item.php?itemid=91" http://www.waste.ru/modules/section/item.php?itemid=91

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

Sources:

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Nicholas Moore

THEORY OF THE DOMESTIC EXTERIOR 12.

HERE IT IS WRITTEN: “PASSERBY: STOP. THINK.” — Lev Rubenstein, Farther and Farther On Source: http://vectors.usc.edu/thoughtmesh/publish/176.php

Where does the ‘domestic’ end? What are the limits of ‘home’ in the city? Modernist existenzminimum determined spatial and material limits in order to furnish domestic order for the masses. Now, nearly a century after Hannes Meyer articulated his 12 motives for building a home, it is clear that existenzminimum leaves something to be desired. Today, architecture and design strive to deliver existenzmaximum to the masses.1 If existenzminimum was the regime of the rationally reduced enclosure, existenzmaximum explodes boundaries; existenzmaximum provides, in addition to the minimal shelter, access to plenty, time for escape, and space, outside the dwelling, available for appropriation. The possibility of existenzmaximum is latent in Moscow’s Domestic Exterior, the common spaces between and beyond the confines of apartments. These spaces, neither fully public nor fully private, are the local zones in which an enhanced city life may already be taking root—quietly, almost without design, and in response to urban forces that operate on apparently different levels. The Domestic Exterior is poised to become the Domesticated Exterior, a living space where individuals can take conscious control of the area around them. With precision, with an eye for the poetic, and with creative hands, Moscow’s yards may be intensified and converted to a landscape of the maximum.

In the 20th century, cities were designed according to the principles of existenzminimum which were calculated to support a regime of economic production. This in turn engendered a monotonous urbanism of aggregated minimal containers. The struggle (sometimes revolutionary) for modernist cities in the 20th century has become the triumph of the minimal box in the twenty–first. [Illustrations: apartment building photo, “triumph of the minimal container”; & “Soviet Planning, logic of the radius”] Existenzminimum is a built fact, repeated millions of times, all over the world. Economic conditions confirm that, especially in cities dense with demand, the spatially minimal dwelling is here to stay.

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1. IN 1928, MEYER PUBLISHES THE MANIFESTO “BUILDING” IN THE 1928/4 ISSUE OF THE PERIODICAL BAUHAUS, IN WHICH HE WRITES: 1. SEX LIFE 2. SLEEPING HABITS 3. PETS 4. GARDENING 5. PERSONAL HYGIENE 6. WEATHER PROTECTION 7. HYGIENE IN THE HOME 8. CAR MAINTENANCE 9. COOKING 10. HEATING 11. SUNLIGHT 12. SERVICE THESE ARE THE ONLY MOTIVES WHEN BUILDING A HOUSE …

SOURCE: HTTP://BOOKS. OPENEDITION.ORG/CEUP/1177, ACCESSED 26.05.14]

The Bestegui Apartment: prototype of the maximized domestic exterior

Crowning the Bestegui penthouse was a garden of surreal delights, with framed views of Parisian monuments, architectural details of conflicting epochs, and push–button landscape features, including hedges raised and lowered by hydraulics. The garden is adaptable and totally personalized, simultaneously built up, designed, and also open, with specific relations to the city, to the sky, to the sun and rain. It takes the inhabitant’s private interior and mixes it with the exterior of the shared city. The Bestegui garden is powerful because it artistically manipulates the familiar, intensifying typical relations between the technological and the natural, the private and the public, the interior and the exterior.

To operate on the exterior of the existing minimal city, new optics for the domestic are required.

Limits can no longer be conceived as property lines drawn on the ground, or as the walls, floor, and ceiling of the standard apartment. Rather, we must see past convoluted legal frameworks and beyond the measures established by the decree of outdated needs. Just as Rachel Whiteread’s House made solid the empty rooms of a house destined for demolition, the Domestic Exterior must be envisioned in multiple dimensions. [Illustration: Rachel Whiteread, House] It is a volume, not only in space, but in time, and multiplied by the presence of innumerable transient inhabitants.

By working across the spectrum of these dimensions, and by amplifying the potentials of one with the means of the others, we can curate a rich evolution of urban space.

2. IN 1926, CORBUSIER AND PIERRE JEANNERET PUBLISH THEIR “FIVE POINTS TOWARD A NEW ARCHITECTURE”: 1. THE PILOTIS. 2. THE ROOF GARDENS. 3. THE FREE DESIGNING OF THE GROUND–PLAN. 4. THE HORIZONTAL WINDOW. 5. FREE DESIGN OF THE FAÇADE. SOURCE AND COMPLETE TEXT: HTTP://WWW.LEARN.COLUMBIA. EDU/COURSES/ARCH20/PDF/ART_ HUM_READING_52.PDF ACCESSED 26.05.14]

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

The minimal dwelling is always an enclosure, a limited space. From Meyer’s Co–op Zimmer (1926) to Albrecht Heubner’s satirical drawing The Minimal Dwelling (1928) to Ivan Nikolaev’s Dom Kommuna, built in Moscow in 1930, we see personal space compressed to a Vitruvian perimeter that encapsulates the individual. [Illustrations: Co–op Zimmer; Minimal Dwelling; Dom Kommuna] The minimal dwelling is impossible to eliminate, but it can be improved if a fantastic outside is grafted to it. a flagrant outlier of the Modernist canon offers initial inspiration for the design of a maximized Domestic Exterior. Le Corbusier’s apartment for Charles Bestegui, also built in 1930, is often overlooked because its eclectic and humorous design falls somewhere beyond the righteous purity of the iconic ‘Five points of a new architecture.’2

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What is the Domestic Exterior in Moscow?

The Domestic Exterior is the residential space outside of the individual apartment cell.

It is the stairs and the lifts, it is the basement offices and the shops that have been rented out on ground level. It is the ground overrun with parked cars, and it is the fences, the playgrounds, the dirt and trees. It is the roof where the mobile cells are mounted, and it is the wells of the manholes, where the utilities are buried. It is the space of security guards, nannies and grandmothers with babies, garbage trucks, commuters leaving for work. It runs into the public streets, and it hides shortcuts between blocks, known only to locals. It can be sunny and public, and it can be shaded, mysterious, behind layer after layer of gates. The Domestic Exterior of Moscow is especially rich; history has left us a city with relatively few roads. In their place, the Domestic Exterior and its yards swell to fill the space between buildings, hiding vast expanses of the city from easy inspection.

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The Domestic Exterior is a site of conflict There are divergent interests that control the Domestic Exterior in Moscow today. At the top levels of the Municipal government, there exists the desire to see more land privatized (according to journalist Alexey Shchukin). This would result in greater tax revenues for the city while simultaneously opening up more real estate to the private market, and also would further absolve the city of the expensive responsibilities of buildings and grounds maintenance. On the other hand, many members of the city government, especially those lower–ranking deputies, gain significant (illicit) income and power from their management of city territory. These members of the power structure are loath to see their influence diminished by privatization.

From the perspective of citizens, the privatization of their apartment buildings and the land that surrounds them is also of ambiguous value. Privatization means that a group of citizens gains financial and operational control of their surrounding property, and that they can improve it as they see fit, making additions according to their budget and also for their collective gain (many houses lease commercial space in or on top of the building). They also assume control of maintenance and utility contracts, which, if properly organized, results in lower costs to the residents than those costs incurred in a government owned building. On the other hand, privatization means that the residents must be well–organized and cooperative, and additionally become liable for taxation on their property. 3

Examples of private spaces of the Domestic Exterior: On the left, a private household garden has been decorated by its owner. On the right, the yard of a privatized apartment building is secured by a locked fence

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3. INTERVIEW WITH SOCIOLOGIST PETR IVANOV 4. ARCHEOLOGY OF THE PERIPHERY P.238

Given that any change faces resistance, and that the successful privatization of buildings and land requires communication and teamwork with sometimes unreliable partners, there can be significant resistance to the process. The obscurity of legal and technical information on the subject and costs of privatization is a major hurdle to its successful implementation. There are scattered informational resources, and while more and more experts with sound ideas for yards are emerging, there is no single source that offers a complete strategic toolkit for envisioning, managing, and improving the Domestic Exterior.

The Domestic Exterior is extensive It is estimated that over 50% of Moscow is “public space,” including parks, walkways, and the yards surrounding houses. Outside of the center, this figure rises to 73%; given that 90% of the city’s population lives between the Third Ring Road and the MKAD, we can infer that most of this public space is part of the Domestic Exterior. 4 Using map analysis and rough calculations, we can see that the combined space of the Domestic Exterior in the center is equal to approximately 200 hectares, nearly twice the size of Gorky Park; if we extend our calculations to the whole of Moscow, we are left with a Domestic Exterior of 138.000 hectares—75 times the size of Moscow inside the Garden Ring.

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NEED CAPTION HERE

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THEORY OF THE DOMESTIC EXTERIOR In the Domestic Exterior, construction is improvised and contigent on the existing. It is a landscape of overlaid paths of least resistance

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As the capital of the Soviet Union, Moscow was home to the pioneering experiments in microrayon construction, a building logic that created unprecedented square meters of minimal dwelling even as it created unprecedented square kilometers of Domestic Exterior, the yards between housing blocks. This logic is founded on standardization, on the rational distribution of facilities and resources, all within a specific radius of the housing unit. These standards were implemented across the Soviet Union and beyond; the planning technology of the Soviet existenzminimum can be found all over the world, and is still being constructed. In Moscow’s historic center, the massive influx of capital funds new experiments, perhaps to be reproduced in other Russian cities. 19th century blocks are now haphazardly reorganized and developed according to a peculiar mixture: part Soviet–style standardization, with schools and playgrounds in each yard, and part contemporary gentrification, with expansive parking for new cars, security guards in booths, and historic facades concealing evroremont interiors.

DWELLING: FROM SUBSISTENCE LIVING TO EXISTENZMAXIMUM

The Domestic Exterior of Moscow is prototypical

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The Domestic Exterior is in transition The Domestic Exterior of Moscow center is a knot of conflicting heritage. All land in pre–revolutionary Russia was declared property of the Soviet state. The post–Napoleonic urban fabric of Moscow was first subjected to Soviet design logic and ownership policies, which eliminated the boundaries of private property. Now, with the reintroduction of private property, Russia faces the problem of creating or recreating private boundaries. Sergey Shoshin (Strelka 2010–2011) gives this classification of public space boundaries: retro–active; re–active; and pro–active (see http://issuu.com/strelkainstitute/docs/public_space p.

60–65). These classifications refer to contemporary surveying policy, which seeks to determine property boundaries according to the combined lines described by a given plot’s historical ownership layers.

Property developed before the revolution is subject to retro–active boundaries, and must be surveyed in such a way that its pre–revolutionary dimensions are considered, along with its Soviet dimensions, with both of these augmented by it’s ‘actual land use’ as described by the Moscow Town Planning Code, excerpted below:

Ownership Government Owned Individually Owned Commonly Owned

Town Planning Code (190–FZ), Article 43, Part 4 Dimensions of land within the boundaries of built–up areas are established based on the actual land use and town planning regulations and rules in force during development of the territories. 5 The “actual use” clause of the town planning code is critical, as it means that facts on the ground gain legal significance. Chaotically parked cars, improvised barriers, and private structures such as garages describe patterns of ‘actual use’; these patterns must be accounted for as the city is surveyed.

Collective property developed in Soviet times is subject to re–active boundaries, which (along with contemporary use) are translated to capitalistic delineations. Finally, newly developed properties, such as real–estate projects on the Moscow periphery, are subject to pro–active boundaries, determined by the fluctuating regulations set by Russian and Muscovite officials as they negotiate the transition to capitalism. On the ground, the transitional state can be observed in the barriers, more or less fortified, that have come to define the Domestic Exterior. Where one was once able to walk behind buildings, between streets, and through yards on extended pedestrian routes, there are now numerous dead ends and locked gates that partition the city.

The complexity of the situation of privatization can be observed in the accompanying diagrams, which illustrate the ownership dynamics possible in a single apartment building. From the total state–ownership of the USSR, the domestic landscape is now one of fragmented ownership, divided between the individual cell of the apartment, and the collectively owned common spaces of the apartment building and the surrounding land, sometimes under state ownership, sometimes owned by individual commercial enterprises (i.e. developers), and sometimes owned by collectives of citizens. These modes of ownership are often in close proximity, complicating efforts to understand opportunities on the ground and to manage collectively owned assets.[Illustrations: 5 diagrams of ownership in apartments] In spite of the complexities, the Domestic Exterior is one of the few remaining sites of mixed private and collective ownership — as well as collective incentive — in Russia. It is a spatial type whose conditions suggest the possibility to create a new Russian model of harmony between the public and private interests. This gives the Domestic Exterior a special potential in terms of its role in city life, as it could be the site of a new definition of ‘collective’ activity in the post–Soviet environment.

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Moscow : $52.4 Billion $4517 / Citizen

11.6 Million Citizens

The Domestic Exterior is well–funded

5. TOWN PLANNING CODE (190–FZ ),

The Moscow municipal budget for 2014 is $52.4 billion dollars. According to the vague but optimistic city budget website, 73% of the budget is to be spent on “new quality of life” for Moscow citizens. 6

6. HTTP://BUDGET.MOS.RU

Further analysis of the site and the city government’s stated initiatives suggests that as much as $20 billion per year could be available for work in the Domestic Exterior, by drawing from the city’s expenditures on items including “Targeted Investment Programs” for “Residences”; “Health”; “Social Support for Citizens of Moscow”; “Sport in Moscow”; and “Development of municipal engineering infrastructure”.

Even given the traditional loss of 30% of budget funds to bribery and graft, the amount of money is substantial: $14 billion. For comparison, this is equal to 1,166 million Strelka stipends per month — representing enormous potential for the sponsorship of urban action.

HTTP://WWW.CONSULTANT.RU/ 7. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO URBANISM, IN S,M,L,XL, P. 971

Paris : $10.6 Billion

New York : $69.9 Billion

Shanghai: $67.4 Billion

$890 / Citizen

$8421 / Citizen

$2831 / Citizen

City budgets

11.9 Million Citizens

8.3 Million Citizens

23.8 Million Citizens

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WHAT IF WE SIMPLY DECLARE THAT THERE IS NO CRISIS—REDEFINE OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CITY NOT AS ITS MAKERS BUT AS ITS MERE SUBJECTS, AS ITS SUPPORTERS? Rem Koolhaas 7

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The Domestic Exterior is almost all right The Domestic Exterior is the site of infinite tiny negotiations, in which cars are parked, the garbage is taken away, the security guards direct, children play and grow, and handy–men make provisional fixes. These innumerable actions accumulate, and in accumulating they document an unconscious intelligence as the inconsistencies and trials of life are smoothed out and improved by individual increments. What the Domestic Exterior lacks is a strong sense of distinction and connection, not only to the immediate surroundings of its specific urban context, but to the other isolated yards that compose it. The Soviet model of mediocre equality distributed equally has stifled the tendency of distinct places to have distinct characters; slowly, however, spatial and programmatic difference is re–appearing, as yards are appropriated and modified by their residents.

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FRACTURING OF THE MOSCOW YARD LINES IN RED REPRESENT FENCES, WALLS, AND SECURITY PERIMETERS ESTABLISHED AFTER THE FALL OF THE USSR. WHAT WAS A POROUS COMMON SPACE IS INCREASINGLY RESTRICTED. SCALE 1:2000

GROUND

BUILDING

METERS 0

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10

50

100

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PROPOSAL: AN AGENCY FOR THE DOMESTIC EXTERIOR In Moscow, the Domestic Exterior is superficially familiar, but it is fraught with political and economic complexities, and its natural intelligence is obscured by the detritus of everyday activity. To improve it is less a question of large–scale design operations, but rather requires the light touch of a poet combined with the expansive imagination of a master–planner. What is proposed is a business model, an Archipelago Agency, which is capable of seeing the Domestic Exterior as an extensive, networked landscape, connected to the city which surrounds it and in dialog with the other islands of the archipelago of yards.

THE ARCHIPELAGO AGENCY DESIGNS OPPORTUNITIES FOR COMMUNICATION, COLLABORATION, AND WONDER. IT IS A VERTICALLY INTEGRATED SERVICE PROVIDER THAT SPECIALIZES IN THE MANAGEMENT, MAINTENANCE, AND INTENSIFICATION OF THE DOMESTIC EXTERIOR. IT ANSWERS THE GENERAL QUESTION—WHAT TO DO WITH THE YARD?—WITH POETRY, IDIOSYNCRACY, CONTRAST; ITS MISSION IS TO MAXIMIZE THE SPECTRUM OF VALUE. THE ARCHIPELAGO AGENCY IS A COMMUNICATIONS AGENCY. IT FACILITATES DIALOG BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS, ASSOCIATIONS OF NEIGHBORS, BUSINESSES, AND GOVERNMENTAL OFFICES. THE ARCHIPELAGO AGENCY IS AN INFORMATION AGENCY. IT RUNS A DATABASE THAT COLLECTS RULES, FINANCIAL DATA, AND STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING RESIDENTIAL AREAS. THE ARCHIPELAGO AGENCY IS A DESIGN AGENCY. IT FINDS OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVING THE DOMESTIC EXTERIOR, AND IT WORKS WITH RESIDENTS AND THE CITY TO REALIZE THEM. THE ARCHIPELAGO AGENCY IS A GENERAL CONTRACTOR. IT COORDINATES BUILDING AND MAINTENANCE SERVICES FOR RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS AND THEIR YARDS.

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Minimal interventions, built in the language of the existing Domestic Exterior, can have maximum impact.

Here, a builidng is wrapped in insulated balconies while a pop–up beer garden occupies an empty lot

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Its different branches allow the Archipelago Agency to work in the city at multiple scales, in multiple media, and for the benefit of multiple stake–holders.

8. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO URBANISM, IN S,M,L,XL, P. 969

If there is to be a ‘new urbanism’ [. . .] it will not longer be obsessed with the city but with the manipulation of infrastructure for endless intensifications and diversifications, shortcuts and redistributions—the reinivention of psychological space. —Rem Koolhaas. 8 Exemplary works of contemporary Russian arts and culture make use of the everyday, the discarded, the routine, the mundane. The Archipelago Agency takes its cues from these creators, whose sensibilities match the pedestrian aesthetics and roughshod tectonics of the Domestic Exterior as it exists today. Inspired by poets such as Lev Rubinstein, artist/curators such as Vladimir Arkhipov, city operators such as the Stay Hungry Supper Club, and designers such as Alexander Brodsky, the Agency uses limited, thrown–away, and quotidian means to enhance the qualities of today’s Domestic Exterior and to foster new interpretations and manifestations of the built environment. . The Agency employs poets and photographers, artists and designers, security guards and immigrant workers, culturologists and lawyers, operators and facilitators, to invest the yards of Moscow with maximum difference. From this difference, this spectrum of options and intensities, a new landscape to explore and experience emerges, an evolving and myriad poem of psychological space.

Experts

Bibliography

Alexei Shchukin, journalist, Expert Magazine

Forgács, Éva. "Hannes Meyer." THE BAUHAUS IDEA AND BAUHAUS POLITICS. Central European UP, 1995. Print.

Peter Sigrist, PhD candidate, Cornell University

Koolhaas, Rem. "Whatever Happened to Urbanism?" S,M,L,XL. New York, NY: Monacelli, 1995.

969–71. Print.

Petr Ivanov, Sociologist

Le Corbusier, and Pierre Jeanneret. "5 Points Towards a New Architecture." (1926). Art Humanities Primary Source Reading 52. Columbia University. Web. 26 May 2014. www.learn.columbia.edu/courses/arch20/pdf/art_hum_reading_52.pdf.

Katya Girshina, Strelka Kirill Asse, Architect

Metres, Philip. "Installing Lev Rubinstein's "Farther and Farther On": From Note Cards to Field Walks, by Philip Metres." Installing Lev Rubinstein's "Farther and Farther On": From Note Cards to Field Walks, by Philip Metres. National Poetry Foundation. Web. 10 May 2014. vectors.usc.edu/thoughtmesh/publish/176.php.

"Moscow City Budget." Moscow City Budget. Moscow Municipality. Web. 12 May 2014. budget.mos.ru.

"Town Planning Code (190–FZ)." Town Planning Code of Moscow. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. www. consultant.ru.

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By programming edges and superimposing uses, the yard can be enriched for all citizens. Above one parking lot, a playground. Above the other, garden plots

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