|
|
Zelenograd, Russia, Asia |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
elenograd (green city) is a satellite town 30 km. nortwest of Moscow falling within Moscow's administration (1975). It was built on an empty, forested site to be the centre of the Soviet electronics industry. For security reasons, the town never officially existed, and if you look at a map that is over 10 years old, you won't find Zelenograd on it. As recently as the early 90's, the city was closed to foreigners. Zelenograd is a dense mixed construction: The number of storeys of the dwelling houses range from five to seventeen, the high-rise point-blocks forming plastic groups. The city has a clear-cut structure. It is extremely well organized and reminds of a university campus: It has few real street names, but is instead grouped into 17 districts (1-18, but there is no 13th) called "microregions". Directions and addresses are by microregion number and building number. Strips of greenery form barriers to divide the residential zone into districts and neighbourhoods. The neighbourhoods are united into two areas with centres of their own. Zelenograd was the site where the German army was stopped on its march toward Moscow. The monument to the dead is huge. Most of the people who have moved from Moscow to live here are reasonably well-off, middle-class professionals, most of them working in Moscow. Zelenograd is not considered a provincial outpost but rather a pleasant escape from the outskirts of Moscow with the capital a reasonable commute away.
source: Chobotaru, Adrian, 'Soviet New Towns' in: Architectural Design, XLV: 9, p. 563-564, 1975; Ikonnikow, Andrei, Russian Architecture of the Soviet Period, Raduga Publishers, Moscow 1988; http://www.languagelink.ru/e/jobs/zelenograd.php |
|
2008 - 2024 disclaimer
|
