Baltic Mikrorayon · Past, Present, and Future Lives of Soviet Housing Estates in the Baltic States
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2016-01-01 → 2017-12-31
- EU contribution
- €148,583
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Past, Present, and Future Lives of Soviet Housing Estates in the Baltic States
To address a gap in knowledge about socialist urban planning (especially construction of housing estates and mikrorayon) and to find out how to maintain the attractiveness and social mix of housing estates, I conducted original research [including interviewing planners and architects who practiced during the Soviet era (and those practicing more recently)] to analyse these topics in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and create an urban biographical analysis of housing estates and mikrorayon. Gathering information through interviews is vital to (a) understanding how principles of territorial planning in Soviet times influence the built environment of residential districts and residential preferences today; (b) learning how principles can be adjusted to current-day conditions to help ensure a positive image for housing estates; and (c) producing an updated set of principles for the renovation of housing estates. This Individual Fellowship included a 24-month academic stay at the University of Tartu (UT), Estonia where I engaged in training-through-research supervised by Prof. Tiit Tammaru, Professor and Senior Research Fellow in the Chair of Human Geography and Regional Planning. I undertook new training in archival research and interviewing, and participated in local planning processes. UT benefitted from my academic visit through exposure to my urban planning scholarship, a topic undeveloped in Estonia and highly prioritized at UT. The project maximized opportunities for collaboration by emphasizing ongoing engagement (in student mentoring, academic visits, funded research, and publications) between colleagues and partners in Estonia, the Baltics, and throughout Europe. Outreach events focused on impact through knowledge exchange.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
In Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), modernist housing estates, built between the 1950s and 1990s to meet housing demand and rebuild cities after World War II, introduced revolutionary changes in urbanization. Today, overcoming the challenges posed by vast housing estates presents one of the greatest challenges faced in post-Socialist cities. To address a gap in knowledge about socialist urban planning implementation (especially the construction of mikrorayon) in the Baltic States, I propose to interview planners and architects who were active practitioners during the Soviet era (as well as those practicing more recently) to analyse past, present, and future lives of housing estates in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The project proposed for this IF is not only a natural progression of my research trajectory, it is also transformative because it applies my expertise to multi-disciplinary research that covers a range of research questions and avenues of inquiry. The project will produce broad impacts on research methods (interviews of original “actors” in residential settlements), new knowledge on the history of urbanization, and recommendations for present-day urban planning in cities in CEE. This Individual Fellowship requires a 24-month academic stay at the University of Tartu (UT), Estonia where I will engage in training-through-research supervised by Prof. Tiit Tammaru, Professor and Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Human Geography at UT. The project will give me new hands-on experience in interviewing and archival research and I will produce important publications that will (1) help me establish myself as the pre-eminent North American scholar on architecture, town planning, and urban geography in the Baltic States, and (2) assist my career advancement (from Associate Professor to Professor) at my home institution, the University at Buffalo.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- TARTU ULIKOOL · TartuCoordinatorEstonia
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union