- From Traditional Soviet Microdistricts towards Lively Neighborhoods   680 kb by    Golubeva, Yana | yanagolubeva@gmail.com    Short Outline The traditional Soviet microdistrict housing typology is set to transform into a more intimate human space by means of bottom-up actions and small interventions. The concept is tested on the site of microdistrict Kamennaya Gorka in Minsk, Belarus. Abstract The rapid urbanization that happened after the WWII in the Soviet Union set such demands that it was decided to meet it with fast prefabricated method of construction and type designs. 50% of all Soviet Union housing stock was constructed in the so-called “Brezhnev's period” (1965-1982), when the modern “mikrorayons” (microdistricts) were built on the outerbelt of cities. The Scope and Scale of the housing construction in the Soviet Union starting from 1960`s was such that it left very limited possibilities for interpreting local identity nor individual entrepreneurship. The tradition of microdistrict typology is still very strong among the planning institutions in Russia and neighbouring countries. It is supported by the housing production industry, governance, existing land management. As there is still demand for housing stock people go for square meters regardless of the quality of the environment. And bulk cheap prefabricated high-rise are being constructed in greenfields. It might not be realistic to change the working scheme of mass housing construction today, but there should be mechanisms that would allow existing and newly constructed dwelling districts to change and evolve over time into more lively neighborhoods. The individuals should be invited to actively inhabit and adapt such places. My interest is to investigate what are the negative aspects of current microdistrict typology, what are the missing elements that could add sense of place, identity, possibilities for individual interaction and community integration, what are the mechanisms/instruments that can make things work, what bottom-up actions could be activated. This paper presents the results of the research and design project done by the group of students of the Belarusian National Technical University. The area of the case study is the newly constructed microdistrict Kamennaya Gorka in Minsk, Belarus. Keywords Soviet microdistrict adaptation Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2012: Fast Forward: Planning in a (hyper) dynamic urban context   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper