Rethinking Soviet Era mass housing in Kazakhstan

Abstract

Mass high-rise, tenement housing in former Soviet bloc countries, built within the modernist genre, has proved to be problematical throughout the history of architecture and urban planning. This study addresses features of mass housing in the former Soviet state of Kazakhstan, in which planning, artistic, psychological, social, and urban aspects of housing have resulted in the inhabitants’ diminished quality of life. The study’s findings reveal specific critical problems regarding typical tenements in Kazakhstan for their inhabitants and for the urban environments they occupy. An interdisciplinary approach reveals both negative and positive characteristics of various types of Kazakh mass tenement housing, with an emphasis on the former. The paper addresses some potentialities and recommendations for renovation that would enhance the quality of life in the urban setting.

Keywords

• renovation
• mass housing
• housing adaptation
• urban renewal
• regeneration