Alfiia Gibadulina
THE CRISIS OF MICRORAYON
The Problem of the Quality of the living Environment
of Russian residential Development in the last Decade (2007-2017)
Supervisor: Prof. Filippo Lambertucci;
Coordinator: Prof. Antonino Saggio
2018
PROF. Filippo Lambertucci, SAPIENZA – UNIVERSITÀ DI ROMA
The research deals with a subject of pressing relevance in the world of the ex Soviet Union, where a huge part of the residential heritage since the post-World War II was realized on the model of the so-called Microrayon.
This model has been for decades the basic building block of the planning and construction policy of the USSR, devising a system that has been applied, with subtle variations, intensively and extensively throughout Union territory, regardless of contextual factors, and aimed at the optimization of industrialized construction and the strictly functional design of the city.
The fall of the Soviet system, the de facto affirmation of a capitalist economic system and the cultural openness towards Western-type models have led to a different demand, but theoffer remains anchored to previous cultural models of both planning and production building.
This is determining a period of crisis, first of all cultural, which highlights the need for a revision of the Microrayon model which, moreover, is what has most embodied the urban ideals of the modern Avant-gardes
PROF. Luca Lanini, UNIVERSITÀ DI PISA
In the 20th century the Russian city represented from the years of the NEP to the Krushev era an extraordinary laboratory of urban hypotheses of outstanding importance. From the hypothesis of the "unlimited city" to the constructionists works with complex and congested small urban infrastructures capable of lighting up entire suburban life, the giganticism of the neoclassical city of Stalinist urbanism, the newly founded cities with its kvartal, rayon and microrayon. The thesis is concerned precisely with this experiment begun at the end of the socialist city and how it has served as a trigger for the current building boom.
Natalia Balukhina
A SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF THE RUSSIAN MODERNIST NEIGHBORHOODS
for the definition of intervention guidelines for their spatial recomposition
Supervisore: Prof. Roberto Cassetti;
Coordinatore: Prof. Fabrizio Tucci;
Coordinatore curruculum: Emanuela Belfiore
2018
One main element, on which the whole practice of Russian urban planning was based and built from the beginning of the 1960s, is the ‘micro-rayon’. The concept of ‘micro-rayon’ development has been used in a variety of forms and patterns in all cities, and is firmly rooted in urban morphology. After passing through a few generations, it's survived the changes in Russia’s political and socio-economic system.
The aim of the work is to analyze in detail the current urban context of the Russian cities and, simultaneously,to examine the European experience accumulated in the last quarter of a century during the transformations and renewal of the modernist open-scheme neighborhoods. The present research focuses on the detaled spatial analysis of micro-rayon of the period of mass housing construction, which lasted from the 50s to the 90s of the 20th century. On the basis of the results obtained from the spatial analysis and the comparison between the various reflections on the European experience, which has formed a framework of principles and methods aimed at the redevelopment of existing modernist neighborhoods, the guideline is carried out. It includes a framework of spatial operations for the redevelopment of ‘micro-rayon’ for the goal of improving the urban environment quality in Russian cities.
Prof. A.L.Palazzo, UNIVERSITY ROMA TRE
The work is of great interest because it develops a parallel life between socio-political events that mark the evolution and building and urban types destined to the great mass of urban areas.
The work was carried out with great seriousness and commitment, not neglecting the most up-to-date documentation on the subject, dealing with an original theme in an original way. The deepening in the annexes is a contribution to be enhanced. The conclusions are very interesting.
