RETHINKING EVOLUTION OF SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF RUSSIAN MICRODISTRICT IN THE POST-SOVIET SPACE

Abstract

Residential planning units of a large city are indivisible in their overall structure and morphologically identical, as a medieval city. Self-sufficiency and viability of their structure is confirmed by the presence of planning boundaries, a social institution represented by schools and kindergartens, as well as the presence of an open public core – a market or a square, and division into residential groups – formations of lower order (Lawhon, 2009, Patricios, 2002). Colonization of public spaces by the market was the first step in the morphological post-socialist evolution of residential units. This process led to the formation of a pedestrian network connecting the community center, public utilities, recreational and educational institutions. The next step was a change in the land use of the territory, followed by extension of the architectural typology of residential buildings (Kukina, Posdniakova 2011). Morphogenesis of modern residential planning units is a combination of the basic models of their planning. This study is aimed at finding general mechanisms of functional, morphological, as well as social and administrative transformations in the microdistrict structures in the post-Soviet space.