Climate-Responsive Planning: The Case of the Northern Territories in the Soviet Union

• In Event: Placing Climates Across (Post-)Soviet Regions: Knowing, Writing, Planning

Abstract

The initiation of the first Five-Year Plan represented both a quantitative and qualitative transformation in regional and urban planning. In this context, the reorganization of the architecture and urban planning sectors was conceived with the aim of establishing urban science, grounded in the analysis and processing of extensive data pertaining to the geophysical environment. This paper will first aim to situate this evolution within a theoretical and technical framework, tracing its development from the early 20th century onwards, including influences from Hygienism, the Garden City movement, the German school of urban technicians, and the tradition of Russian human geography and climatology. Secondly, it will examine the conceptual and technical advances of the 1930s, focusing on climate-responsive planning and design for the northern territories. The economic integration of these northern regions, facilitated by the Gulag system, was quickly framed as a process of permanent settlement colonization and urbanization. This policy prompted specialized institutes, notably Giprogor and Lengiprogor, to engage in the conceptualization and experimentation with innovative building techniques, typologies, and spatial organizations, tailored to the extreme climatic conditions of these territories.

Author

• Stéphane Gaessler, U of Toronto (Canada)