Ambivalence towards historical urban development

Abstract

The authors consider the consequences of the reduced control over the architectural and urban planning approval of capital construction in Russian cities. The new practice that simplifies the approval procedure will allow to reduce the costs for developers. However, without taking into account the opinion of specialists and citizens, it will provoke mass replication of unattractive cliches, aggressively erasing the traces of architectural identity. In view of the ongoing urbanization in large Russian cities, we can predict the transformation of certain historical buildings into architectural marginal formations forced out by uncontrolled development, which leads to the destruction of the integrity of perception of the cities’ architectural space and the loss of significant landscape components.

Keywords

• ambivalence
• reconstruction
• architectural monuments
• crisis of urban culture
• identity of urban environment