Soviet Urban Planning. What Makes it so Unique? 

Fellow Aussie here, totally agree mate 👏

By Adam Something you’ve meant Adam Gebrian? 😅

Also from Perth, the city with a better transport network than its horrible land use deserves

I partially agree, and have seen this happen where i live. Here in Bucharest, we have some ground floor apartments in our own soviet blocks, which have been repurposed by some owners into commercial spaces. But i think a common thing that gets overlooked is that usually this comes at a price: a general lack of accessibility for disabled people, cramped conditions (like in the clip above, the building's walls are structural so you cannot reconfigure the apartment space to serve the commercial need), a very high problem of constant noise that can travel quite far through these thin, resonant walls, making daily life quite unbearable for the neighbors, and the traffic it attracts which needs to be accomodated (parking space is already non-existant, and people will bring their cars to shops). solve at least these problems and you might be on the right path to get some level of multi-mode usage out of these modernist buildings. Also, i would like to say a kind thank you to Oleg, for his insightful video.

@@q01q yeah, I agree with you on that. Repurposing buildings built from prefabricated elements can be pretty tricky and of course unless you’ve designed in the access the spaces created can be impractical. A lot of the buildings here in our area have purpose built commercial units. The ones that have been repurposed tend to just function as office spaces or very small niche shops. It’s a tough thing to get right but as I stated it’s a great way for a building to make money off underused space to cover maintenance and renovations. I agree also, it’s a nice well thought out video.

multi-level parking buildings would work very well. For whatever reason, I have only seen paid parking lots repurposed for new high rises, and only saw multi-story garages built. A garage can also fit some cars, but it is much more expensive and cannot fit nearly as many cars as a parking building.

I think one of the points of this video is to say that building stand-alone parking lots here isn’t really economically viable given the low property values. Also I’d reckon enforcement of any parking restrictions is quite difficult in a neighbourhood like this. People will always choose convenience unfortunately.

The climate is not as comfortable for cycling, plus Russian plains are quite hilly, so you would prefer an aluminium (under 15 kg so you could lift it) bicycle with gears, and that is more expensive. No cargo bicycles as well. Another problem is, there's nowhere to store your bicycle, because the flats and lifts are small (putting a full-sized bicycle, especially commuter/cruiser/dutch bike, they're longer with wide handlebar, in a flat's corridor means it's difficult to pass by) while bicycles left on the street get stolen even when chained. An aluminium bicycle with planetary gears is more expensive than the minimum monthly wage in Russia, and easy to bolt-cut and carry away. Basically, to use a bicycle, you have to own a garage with a steel locking door next to your house.

@@annasolovyeva1013 I would say an MTB is a good compromise for Russia as it is still relatively lightweight whete you can reasonably carry it, while also being sturdy and fit for most weather conditions above zero and even bad road conditions. There are options for storage besides a garage, but they are individual. You can store the bike in your apartment, but it would probably require you to wash it when it is muddy outside. In some houses you can also become a happy owner of a storage closet either near the garbage chute or in the basement. Several bicycles can fit there. The important part about the time of the year is very true though. Unless they make streets skiable in winter like in Finland, there is no way to get anywhere except cars and public transport in winter.

@@alexeytsybyshev9459 cycling and skiing are generally village/surburban thing. Not for the city. Winter conditions are too unstable for skiing usually, and most Russians only know classical/parallel skiing on beginner/amateur level, which is not significantly faster than walking. 5-10 kmph. Not-very-athletic not-a-pro on inexpensive skis - isn't any fast. As fast as the same not-an-athlete average Joe jogging. The issue with retrofitting microdistricts with commercial exists in this video, because it is illegal in Belarus as far as I know. It's not a problem just anywhere else. They limit the profits of retail, and have more strict buliding laws for distances between bullyings and living to commercial. So, there's less convenience stores in Belarus than it would be in the same place if it was in Russia.

Just like in campus.

i haven't been there, but i thought LA was all about driving...

There are a lot of great renovation projects, that transformed such neighbourhood into something more modern. The best examples can be found in Germany, where it is common practice to add elevators and balconies to GDR-era buildings, close backyard for cars and fill it with gathering places, bicycle parkings, sports facilities and convenience stores.

Convenience stores are often added in Russia, it's not that impossible, but needs demand and violates some of the Soviet building standards.

@@annasolovyeva1013 Yes, Soviet era neighbourhoods has bees renovated everywhere, including Russia, just not on the same scale as Germany.

@@MrPrevedmedved it's not even renovating It's just a convenience store network putting relatively small convenience store bulidings in empty places. Or "densifyung" when towers with flats on top and commercial on the bottom occupy the emptyness Not in Belarus though.

I agree, consumer goods and simple services may not affect country economy as much as heavy industry, but greatly affect quality of life. Even through Belarus is pretty poor by European standards, for me it's sound insane that my parents couldn't buy jeans or foreign music, had no access to contractors or car services. Sure, I can't afford latest and greatest, but there are a lot of high quality used stuff that is imported. Especially things like clothing, car parts, tech and entertainment. Something my parents could only dream of at the time. And I'm not talking about food. Soviet Union was limited in its climate zones so not only that excludes a lot of fruits from diet, it's also means most of the vegetables weren't available year round, something that is possible because of climate in southern hemisphere. So yeah, quality of life consists of many small elements, sometimes that is impossible to plan.

Mikrodistric is aredy Superblok Because it prohibits Truck and high speeds road . But low density and lack of number of shops Making it less effective for commercial activities And this microdistrict is 50%(ruang terbuka hijau) forest . Soviet live in an apartment in the middle of the forest. Each building is 50 meters separated by trees

I think the major issue mentioned in the video is that large supermarkets have become more popular than the small local convenience stores, and there is no space in the micro districts to place such a large shopping center, so they just get built on the outskirts of town, pretty much a reversal of urban planning in North America where the shopping centers are placed at the center of town and residential on the outskirts. As per the video the remedy would be to have the shopping center form the base of the micro district and then place residential towers on top.

Also there’s cost. In modern construction, using modern fire and accessibility regulations you’d never be able to build that high without more stairwells and lift shafts. You need to build in redundancy and ensure stairwells are wide enough as a means of escape and to access with fire appliances. It then becomes a lot more expensive because you’re eating into floor space. It’s why most modern apartment blocks are kept at the more human 5-7 storey height and the real ‘high rise’ stuff is only done in cities with high land costs or for ‘prestige’ purposes.

The Commonwealth's polotsk was completely destroyed during the napoleonic wars and there are zero traces of that time in the city