suburbia

Abstract

There are two variants for Russian translation of the English word ‘suburbia’. One of them, ‘prigorod’ (suburbs), has a respectful shade of meaning, typical of the American suburbia within the last decades, when the suburbs were inhabited by the middle class, house-owners and representatives of the well-educated and well-to-do social groups. Calm and regular life in the suburbs close to the earth, clean air and familiar neighbors determined a high cost and a high quality of suburban housing. Another variant, ‘okraina’ (outskirts), has a slightly different connotation. We associate it with poverty, lost souls of youngsters, their gangs, as well as drugs and immigrants from the South and the East… The city districts that cannot be called central are perceived differently in town-planning, historical or economic contexts… Sometimes this area turns into ‘outskirts’, and sometimes into ‘suburbs’. What is primary and what is secondary in this unsteady perception of suburbia? Do economic processes cause displacement of the population with different income levels? Or do the mood swings of citizens affect their willingness to pay more for a square meter in different parts of the city? The main topic of this issue of Project Baikal deals with discussion of different approaches to the problem of correlation between the center and the suburbs (outskirts) of today’s city. The news is about the spring events of architectural life in Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk and Vologda. The snowless winter did not put off the forum of architects-skiers in Sheregesh. And the new genre, Walk around Irkutsk, became so popular among the readers that we continue it in two more walks along literature streets of the left bank.