THE IDEAL COMMUNIST CITY

e

The i Press Series on the Human EnvironmentThe Ideal Communist City by Alexei Gutnov and other planner-architects from the University of Moscow.World of Variation by Mary Otis Stevens and Thomas F.McNulty, Architects in Boston.The Japanese Metabolism by Noriaki Kurokawa and others.Urban Ideas by Giancarlo de Carlo, architect-planner fromMilan, Italy.Over-populated Society: Prototypal Studies for India byCharles Correa, Architect and Planner from Bombay.Toward a Non-oppressive Environment by Alexander Tzonis,Harvard University Graduate School of Design.Forms of Communal Living by Gary H. Winkel and ReneeEpstein.Urban Systems on a Global Scale by Martin Kuenzlan, anarchitect from Berlin.Socialist Solutions to Environmental Problems a collection ofarticles by architects and planners from Yugoslavia and otherEastern European countries edited by Vladimir Music, architectfrom Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.Concepts for Continental Planning a collection of articles whichwill include studies by architects and planners in South Americaand Africa, and emphasizing the new settlements and decen-tralized planning concepts in mainland China.

THE IDEALCOMMUNIST CITY By

Alexei GutnovA. BaburovG. DjumentonS. KharitonovaI. LezavaS. Sadovskijof Moscow University

Translated by RENEE NEU WATKINS

i press series on the human environment

GEORGE BRAZ1LLER • NEW YORK

Translated from the Italian text (Idee per la Citta Communista)ii Saggiatore, Milano, 1968.

All rights reserved.

For information, address:

i press incorporated145 Hanover StreetBoston, Massachusetts 02108

George Braziller, Inc.I Park AvenueNew York, New York 10016

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 75129358Standard Book Number: Clothbound-0-8076-0576-X

Paperbound-0-8076-0575-1First printing.

THE IDEAL COMMUNIST CITY

CONTENTS

Preface ixToday and Tomorrow 1Social Relationships and the Urban Environment 11Production and the Urban Environment 29Organization of Daily Life 51Leisure Time 83Structure of the Urban Environment 10 IThe Physical Unity of the NUS (New Unit of

Settlement) 129

PREFACE By Giancarlo de Carlo

This book was initiated by the architecture -facultyof the University of Moscow in the late fifties. For theItalian edition in 1968 the material was enlarged andrevised by the authors, a group of young urbanists,architects, and sociologists, who represent a renewalof ideas and men that is taking place in Soviet Russia,especially in fields concerned with the organizationof the physical environment. Their work is particularlyoriginal in its general assumptions, method of inquiry,and choice of models. The authors turn away from theproposition that the city should attempt to restorethe habits and appearance of the countryside. Thisproposition adapted from the bourgeois naturalismof the nineteenth century, contradicted the ideologi-cal foundations of communism. By contrast, what isproposed in this book is world-wide urbanization. Theauthors design concept, the New Unit of Settlement,incorporates countryside with city, conceiving bothas a communication network, uniformly intense anddiffused.

The method by which this original proposition isapplied is as new as the proposition itself. No longerrelying upon academic preconceptions, the authorshave based their architectural and urban proposals onthe analysis of life in the existing Soviet society andthe directions of change within it. While the modelsand formal solutions are only sketched and presentedhypothetically, they build upon the rich heritage leftby Soviet architecture and urbanism in the twenties.Unlike Western architectural "revivals," which con-sistently turn toward the past and are pseudo-inno-vative, the Soviet heritage suggests the idea of a"revolutionary tradition" to serve as an example forfuture-oriented planning.

Milan, Italy, May 1970

TODAY AND TOMORROW Today the city does notfulfill its essential purpose,which is to be an organiccommunity.Seeking new approaches,architecture strives tocreate the city of thefuture.We must find a structurethat responds organicallyto the social and economicfunctions of the new urbanlife.We must understand howarchitecture will betransformed by the newfunctional structure ofurban environments.

The architect's creative powers turn to the future. The City Is a TangleAll that is being built today in our country is being of Contradictions

incorporated into the material substructure of com-munist society. It is the function of planning to calcu-late the immediate needs of the future. However, thevision that seems to provide a firm basis on which toconstruct a housing project or a city may prove tofall short in the end, or to be in some ways irrelevant.If is impossible to predict accurately the developmentthat will take place several years from now. Time willinevitably show the limitations of today's solutions.

Fundamental changes in the structure of the urbanenvironment can, however, be anticipated. Planningmust take such changes into account, and tomorrowshould not be sacrificed to an imagined expediencyof the moment.

Examination of the errors of the past can help usto define our problem correctly, yet even the bestjob of criticism cannot do away with the problem.It must, in some positive sense, be solved.

Seeking new approaches in architecture, consciousof its growing possibilities, we look first of all at thecity.

The city embodies the highest achievements of ourmaterial and spiritual culture. As an inclusive organ-ization, it connects residence and factory, past andfuture, individual and society.

But the contemporary city is a tangle of contra-dictions, partly because of the complexity of itseconomic and social parts, and partly because itsearlier development came about through accidentalhistorical processes. In the Soviet Union, in contrastto capitalist countries, urban construction is being 5

key:p new cities0 large zones of new developmentLI zones of older development

Peterborough Norwich 0

BedfordIpswich 0 -

Banbury EL(. A Bletchley Stansted

Er Colchester

Northampton 0

AylesburyN '

Swindon 0 \Reading° 0'Newbury,A

ISouthampton ff

Poole 0 1)114. Portsmouth

Areas of intensiveindustrial development

6

Chelmsford'-. 0 Southend

Medway towns

Maidstone 1-1— -

" Ashford0 t

- LI Hastings

undertaken as part of a unified plan for the nationaleconomy. Our urban planning, however, has not yetbeen able wholly to overcome the accidental charac-ter of city growth.

Intensive industrial development often brings irre-versible changes in the functional structure of theenvironment, including a confusion of industrial andresidential areas and the lack of a well-defined trafficsystem. Old city plans prove incapable of assimilatinga continuous influx of population.

City planning to date has not given enough con-sideration to incessant growth as a continuing factorin the development of cities. This omission alone isample proof that present theoretical thought in thefields of building and planning is inadequate to directa communist building program.

The appearance of gigantic urban centers, humanagglomerations of every sort, is not a matter ofchance. The development of socialist productionrequires, and will continue to require, the creation ofnew and ever more massive territorial-industrial com-plexes; if is bound to regroup vast populations atselected geographical points.

In our pursuit of a congruent structure, we mustmake sure that the one we define corresponds organ-ically to the social and economic functioning of thenew urban world. This functional structure should bea matrix or, to be precise, a social program for archi-tects and city planners as organizers of social processin time and space. As a model, this structure mustmeet all the basic needs of any urban environment orcity, regardless of the specific features of the situa-

I. Years from 1800 on. By 1009/o2000, the urbanizedpopulation willconstitute 75% of thetotal population of theglobe.I. Rural areas—pop.below 5,0002. Towns—pop.between 5,000 and20,0003. Cities—pop.between 20,000 and100,000 3004. Cities—pop. above100,000

2. Years from 1800 on.The growth of urbanizedpopulation in theU.S.S.R. wasconsiderably greaterthan the growth of itstotal population.I. Growth of urbanizedpop., U.S.S.R.2. Growth of totalpop., U.S.S.R.

200—

100—

oniiii1 1 111111ammM1111111111111111110111111

1800

1850

1900

1950

2000 rr

1850 1900

1950

2000 rr

or

1800

Social Relationship

8

tion and regardless of the creativity of the individualarchitect. Today, given automobile traffic and con-sumer services, the planned microsector representsthe ultimate modernization of the residential cityblock. The microsector, however, as a basic structuralunit for contemporary residential areas does notsatisfy all the complex social, economic, and technicalneeds involved. The result: bad conditions of healthand sanitation, traffic frustrations, a great waste oftime, and the isolation of individuals in extremelyconfined spaces.

What should be the relation of urban environmentsto nature? To production? What expressive meansare legitimate in designing them, etc.?

These are questions that arise for anyone who triesto establish criteria in order to evaluate particulararchitectural proposals. We need to understand the

evolutionary direction that determines specific typesof construction, changes in the city's elements, andreorganization of the different sectors of buildingactivity. Otherwise we cannot analyze results or finddirection within each field of creative endeavor.

The scope of this inquiry can now be defined: afterestablishing a scientific projection of the model ofcommunist life, which by agreement guides all theactivities of our people, and after examining actualcontemporary trends in urbanization and relocationof population, we shall attempt to outline the func-tional structure of an urban environment that is com-munist in character and show how this new functionalstructure determines methods of three-dimensionalcomposition and expressive possibilities in archi-tecture.

9

To resolve the problem ofthe city scientifically wemust begin by studying lifein the society, that is, thesum of relationships andwider associations shapingall social experience intime and space.A logical analysis ofsociological models showsthat the economic system,through its impact upon alllevels of social relationship,determines the urban formof a given society.The creative relationshipwith its spectrum ofsociological elements is thedominant feature of asociety, and it determinesclassless communistgroup structure.

SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS AND THE

URBAN ENVIRONMENT

Mow

What should be our criteria for analyzing the func- Social Relationshiptional structure of the communist city?

First cf all, we must arrive at one basic relationshipthat can express the whole social process (economic,esthetic, creative, etc.) and that can serve as anobjective standard for measuring. We must examinethe diverse forms of this relationship in differentsocial contexts. Then we can construct a general func-tional model of the social organism that can beapplied accurately to the historical analysis of anyparticular urban settlement. Accordingly, we shall beable to see the influence of different social systemson the some spatiotemporal organization and to fore-see future trends.

All this preliminary work is necessary if we are togo beyond mere wishful thinking in trying to resolvethe problem of the communist city. Considering itschief activities and basic social units with due care,we must also define and clarify the goals characteris-tic of communist society. Before we can think abouta single housing plan, we need objective data on theprincipal types of structure to be created and thefunctions and relationships of the social groups to behoused. The distribution and ordering of the totalpopulation can be studied only on the basis of facts,with a knowledge of the types of structure requiredand their interrelationship (quantity of each type,sizes of groups to be housed in communist society,limits on size of residential areas, distances betweensuch areas, dynamics and discontinuity of the urbani-zation process). I 5

Soviet Relationships in To understand how social relationships manifestthe Soviet World themselves in spatial and temporal organization we

need a materialist approach and clear basic premises.Marx and Engels, in creating the materialist concept

of society, gave their views a scientific basis. Theystated: Our basic premises are not arbitrary assump-tions or dogmas but concrete facts, from which onecan abstract only by an act of imagination.... Thesecan be established empirically."'

The premises in question concern human beings,each with a specific biological make-up. They includetheir need for food, clothing, shelter, etc., the con-text into which they are born (natural and social), andfinally their own vital activity, which takes two differ-ent forms: the natural—birth, growth, and reproduc-tion—and the social—the collaboration of many in-dividuals in a system of common action to ensuresurvival.

"In this way men enter into material relationshipswith each other, relationships conditioned both bytheir needs and by the means of production, relation-ships as old as man himself. It is these relationshipsassuming ever new forms which make up what wemean by 'history.' "

Those material and social bonds that men share incommon and the many-faceted interdependence ofhuman relationships, as distinct from man's personalconfrontation with nature and his own vital processes,were viewed by Marx and Engels as social relation-ships. All these, including relationships founded onlanguage and thought, were viewed as aspects of asingle process and, in a broad sense, as aspects ofthe total human experience (for the social processitself is also conditioned by the structure of thehuman body and its environment).

The Marxist conception of social relations together

1 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Socinenija, Vol. Ill, p. 18.16 2 Ibid., pp. 28-29.

1

111 .11114141,;,̀: n,,,4,‘:

with the recent achievements of certain sciences—cybernetics, information theory, human engineering,and the esthetics of technology—not only enable usto gain a picture of demography and populationmovements (the latter with the help of statistics) butalso to shape and control social processes.

The achievements of these sciences make it possibleto study social relationships as occurrences in theprocess of information exchange. It becomes possibleto compute the interaction of all the internal andexternal factors that maintain the social process inits normal condition. We can view social relationshipsas sets of material interactions existing in time and 17

space, taking place among individuals, and can applyobjective and quantitative measurement to any de-sired social process.

The effectiveness of this approach was first provedin the application of time-motion studies to airplanepilots, automobile drivers, and the routines of menin control rooms. Instrument panels, instruments, andsteering devices were constructed to correspondperfectly to the physiological and psychologicalcapacities of the man and his working posture. Theidea that the quantitative and qualitative characterof a space—its dimensions, form, color, light, tem-perature, etc.—as well as time and change plays anenormous role in production and greatly affects thevital morale of the individual worker is one that isgaining influence in every sector of human activity.

We have learned to give up methods for plan-ning machines, articles of consumption, and livingspaces because they failed to allow for the physio-logical and psychological peculiarities of the humanorganism and its cultural needs. Human engineeringhas now spread to every area of life.

In interior design we no longer think so much interms of furnishings as in terms of creating an envi-ronment precisely suited to the functions to be per-formed. The same basic attitude is coming to beaccepted in exterior architecture. However, in mostcases the scientific organization of space and time,based on the objective measurement of social reali-ties, still has not become the basis of planning.

Scientific research into social reality has becomepossible today and is of undeniable importance forthe solution of urban problems.

Use of an Analytical

Any social function can be analyzed as one or aModel of Social

combination of several social relationships that areRelationships possible under given conditions. As seen in a model18 of social interaction, the conditions define and shape

a particular function and indicate the quantitativeand qualitative characteristics of the participantsand the environment.

By using models based on analysis of social rela-tionships we are able to describe the essential forma-tive stages of individual life. Levels of mental andphysical maturity can be defined in terms of thesocial behavior that is characteristic at various stagesof growth in a given society.

The life of a man from cradle to grave, includingboth his labor and the raising of children, can be seenas a unique system of interactions between a set ofbasic biological facts and a combination of naturaland social relationships (all manifested in the contextof a culture and shaped by it). We can construct ageneral human model consistent with the anatomy ofsociety as a whole, logically derived from prototypalrelationships, and including all the functions essentialto any individual life regardless of its particularculture.

The following steps mark the formative stages ofpersonality:

I. Relationship of mother and infant: a stage inwhich the genotype or hereditary features unfold andin which the foundations are laid for social thresholdsof perception.

2. Relationship with parents: a stage at which dif-ferent social relationships begin to be distinguishedand language is formed.

3. Relationships with other children.4. Preliminary self-determination of the person-

ality: relationships arise in the process of learning.Cognitive norms are being assimilated, and personalattitudes are being formed through differentiationamong social relationships.

5. Economic relationships: a stage permitting theindividual to validate his attitudes in a working en-vironment and to establish his personal identity. I 9

The model interprets socialfunctioning in terms ofinformation exchange. Anoptimal organization of theenvironment takes intoaccount a relationship'sspecific character andminimizes information loss.The environment then canbe measured objectively asa medium for transferringinformation.I. Loss of information due

to interference in therelationship.

2. Reduction in informationloss when the conditionsfavor the relationship.

20

6. Relationships that give a person social value I

through activities freely initiated by him and throughhis participation in the cultural life of his time.

7. Relationships arising out of consumer activities.8. Sexual relationships that serve to continue the

generational process.

It is important to note that each stage can be definedin terms of its characteristic social relationships.

If we use historical analysis to give some concretecontent to our analytical model, we can make thefollowing observations that turn out to be useful andimportant:

I. In planning an environment we must conform tothe dynamics of social relationships and their tend-ency to localize at specific centers of social organi-zation.

2. We can substantiate the tendency of industrialand research complexes to isolate themselves andbecome relatively autonomous territorial structures,detached from the larger environment.

3. We must discover the influence of differentsocial systems on urban life, that is, on the spatio-temporal organization of society in urban environ-ments.

In classless primitive society, for example, we finda tribal village, its structure always reflecting the pre-dominance in that society of relations based on kin-ship (houses for clan, separations marking other clansand brotherhoods). There is one unit of settlement:the tribal dwelling.

In the ancient era of slavery, the dominant roleplayed by political relations, especially in the city,resulted in the physical dominance of structurallyhighly developed public buildings in urban centers(agora, forum, palace, temple). Three basic units ofsettlement were present: the city or polis, the manoras a productive unit, and the village.

With feudalism we see how the closed circle ofrelations governing each social class tended to isolateeach class from the others; feudal lords lived in castleand court, peasant serfs in the village, and merchantsand artisans in the town. There were still only threebasic units of settlement.

With capitalism in the era of free competition, thedominance of economic relationships (i.e., the pursuitof immediate private profit and the intensive devel-opment of marketing) became the principal cause forthe spontaneous, malignant growth of the industrialcity. Happening at the expense of the village and thenonindustrial city, this led to the breaking up ofvillages into separate factory and farm communities.The fundamental units of settlement at that stagewere the large expanding city, the small and stagnanttown, the suburb, the village, and the farm.

In the era of monopoly capitalism a spontaneousdissolution of the large city takes place and intensifiesthe growth of suburbs. The fundamental componentsthen become: the central city, the small satellite 2 I

Southern Cotton Plantationin the Soviet Union

center (old and new) tending toward a certain opti-mum size, the workers suburb, the factory town, thevillage and farm, the industrial complex, the researchcenter, and the shopping center. Various institutionsand services move away from the city: hotels, movies,stadiums, hospitals, schools, camps, etc. All these

22 elements are linked by a single transportation and

communication network. Together they constitute themegalopolis: the unplanned result of urban growthunder contemporary capitalism.

Historical analysis thus reveals how the mode ofproduction, being the sum of productive forces andrelations of production, influences the spatial andtemporal organization of the environment, not in a 23

Change and discontinuityin the growth of socialorganization, withcorresponding spatial andtemporal effects ondemographic patterns andurbanization.

I. Communalorganization of primitivesociety: The structure ofthe environmentcorresponds to thepredominance of a socialsystem based on kinship.The community of tribaldwellings houses branchesof a family andbrotherhoods. There is one

unit of settlement: thetribal village.

2. Slavery: Theimportance and intensityof political relationships areshown by the dominanceof public building over allother forms in the ancientcity: agora, forum, palace,and temple. There arethree units of settlement:the polis or capital city,the agricultural holding,the village.

3. Feudalism: The closedcircle of relationshipswithin each class isolatesclasses from each other (the

lords in their castles andrural holdings, the serfs infields and villages, themerchants and artisans intowns).

4. Capitalism in the eraof free competition: Buyingand selling predominateover all other forms ofassociation. The pursuit ofprivate profit and theexpansion of marketrelationships result in thepredatory growth of theindustrial city and in thedispersal of villages. At thesame time farms areabsorbed into large

direct or mechanical way, but in an indirect one--through the specific kinds of relationship dominantin a given society.

In communism, also, the dominant kinds of humanrelationship will vitally influence the character ofspatial and temporal organization.

The present situation shows that new communistforms o-F social relationship are developing within aninherited urban environment. Even the designs ofbuildings now being constructed rarely express thenew structural criteria. This is understandable in aperiod of transition, since new functions, not yethaving found their proper forms, are forced toassume old ones. Unlike similar transitional stages inthe past, however, the present does not call on us

agricultural operations. Theforms of social organizationbecome: large cities in theprocess of unplannedexpansion, small stagnatingtowns, residential suburbs,as well as factory towns,

ryillages, and agriculturalsyndicates.

S. Monopoly capitalism:Spontaneous functionaldissolution of the largecity results in newagglomerations, includingall the elements of itsdecaying core besides allthe components of olderforms of settlement.

simply to wait and see how the new communist en-vironment will shape itself and then to note its char-acteristics. It is the special and historical claim ofcommunism to be a work of conscious creation basedon theory. We must begin to look at the prevalentforms of social relationships and to inquire into theeffects they should produce historically on the wholespatio-temporal structure of communist life. Thismeans that we should analyze the basic communistpremises of society as elaborated by Marxist-Lenin-ism and also the contemporary social realities thatreflect these premises.

Such analysis leads to the basic conclusion that inclassless communist society the predominant socialrelationship is creative and that in this society theindividual has real and equal opportunities for thefree and harmonious development of his own capabili-ties through creative work. The communist system, infact, focuses on the individual and on his creativedevelopment.

Applied to an urban environment, this principlemeans that anyone living in a true communist societyshould enjoy equally with all others living anywhere init conditions conducive to self-development and sim-ilar creative activity. Analysis of communist premisesand our schematic model indicate both the basicsocial institutions and the phases of individual growthin communist society. This method also allows us toplan the lines of influence of society as a whole on thebasis of each person's or each group's creative activi-ties. Identification of the person or group with thesocial process defines what we mean by the functionalstructure (social matrix) of the urban environmentand underlies its spatial and temporal organization.

Recognizing the intensive social interdependencethat is required in a society built on automation ineconomic production and on collaboration in scien-

26

Infancy infant)(mother and

Re l ationships of kinship andfamily (families)

Childhood relationships(nursery)

Education (school community)

Productive relationships duringtime of necessary work(creative collective)

Voluntary relationshipsI. Leisure-time work2. Study while production

activity is suspended for a3. Relations established

according to one's interests4. Social life5. Solitude (free collective)

Relationships connected withconsumer activities

Solitude (free collective) Nature

0

0

0Li

Individual housing

Social center clubbased on interests

Public services

Park

Research center IEducational center

Industrial complexAgricultural

Nursery andkindergarten

School community

Man in Forms of social Spatial forms Forms of settlemen

the system relations and socialof relational forms units

tific and creative work, we propose three systems ofsocial interaction:

I. The research complex: a combination of lab-oratories, experimental projects in animal and plantcultivation, classrooms, libraries, and buildings foradministrative personnel and central computers.

2. The residential complex: dwellings, nurseries,kindergartens, elementary and high schools, commu-nity parks with leisure facilities and areas, and otherpublic services.

3. The industrial complex, which also includes orga-nized agricultural production.

What we are proposing are patterns of settlementthat are based on groups in the population. By so

The system of relationshipsin communism determines1-he functional structure ofthe environment.Each type of constructionis imagined as an elementof the unified structure,which is presumed to be ageneral prototype.

27

doing we are taking note of the general tendencytoward functional disintegration in modern cities.This tendency produces the isolation of industrialcomplexes and research centers into relatively auton-omous units with a "daytime population" of com-muters from the central city or suburbs. Obviously,these isolated units in their present form have neitheracquired a distinctive character of their own nor havethey become well-integrated systems within them-selves. Because of their unplanned development, theyfunction simply as elements accidentally juxtaposedwith others in one vast urban agglomerate.

By contrast, each of our proposed examples is anintegrated and systematic element that producesby means of functional social grouping a plannedpattern of urban settlement. This concept of popula-tion grouping is appropriate to a society in whichcreative relationships dominate. For example, eachof our proposed systems provides a frame of refer-ence for people devoting a given amount of time(workday or week) to their occupation or to educa-tion befitting their age, family role, and personalinterests.

To make this concept work, the subsystems makingup the total urban environment must be well co-ordi-nated and in equilibrium with the whole. Working outtheir interrelationship in detail would require the col-laboration of many specialists in many fields.

Unfortunately, we have only rather incompletestatistics so far and a few elementary indications ofwhat may be the physical and psychological capaci-ties of man, along with our still crude empirical expec-tations. Even on the basis of such incomplete data,however, we believe that we can draw some prelim-inary conclusions concerning the qualitative andquantitative characteristics of the communist urbanenvironment and at least focus attention on this

28

important question.

With electrification, auto-mation, efficient productionmethods, and a reducedworking day, productionhas come to consist ofthree fundamental sectors:

I. Automated industry2. Scientific research

and use of feedbackfrom the machinesthemselves

3. Mass education—theformation of commu-nist man

Each sector's capacity forabsorbing manpower andterritory creates a dynamicpattern of expansion witha corresponding effect uponspatial relationships withina given economic and geo-graphic region.Social relationships that areintrinsic to the productionprocess nevertheless do notdetermine the character offuture residential building.

PRODUCTION AND THE URBAN

ENVIRONMENT

29

Social relationships intrinsic to the production The Scientific andprocess are a formative and central factor in es- Technologicaltablishing each individual's personal identity. Only Revolutionthrough productive interaction with others, using andtesting his own abilities, and applying the knowledgeacquired during his education does a person becomea true member of society.

During the transition to communism, social rela-tionships intrinsic to the production process undergoradical modifications as they respond to economicchange and to all other relationships characteristic ofclassless communist society. The technical and scien-tific revolution now transforming large-scale produc-tion brings about striking changes in the humanrelationship to commodities, instruments of produc-tion, and the process of communication.

Electrification, automation, highly efficient pro-duction methods, and reduction of the working dayare obvious aspects of this revolution. For example,electrification reduces the need for physical laborto the manipulation of controls. Since it can be gen-erated and relayed almost anywhere to meet localpower demands, electricity provides a centralizedpower system that favors the rational distribution ofsociety's productive forces.'

Automation means that, wherever it seems possibleand reasonable, the mental and physical work of mancan be replaced by machine labor. This process endsold occupations, frees men from monotonous and un-creative work, and allows them to overcome the

3 Cf., M. A. Vila nskij, Electrification in the U.S.S.R. and the Distributionof the Productive Forces (Moscow, 1963) , pp. 175-203. 33

natural limitations of human physical and intellectualpower. The direct connection between man and theobjects and instruments of his work is being replacedby a new relationship: one between man and the auto-matic device. As his purely material involvement withthe production process comes to an end, he takes uphis position at the controls and handles the criticaldevices that regulate the flow of productive proc-esses. Now the skill that is needed is the ability toevaluate quickly and correctly a situation describedon an instrument panel that is linked to a productionor research process.'

Automation involves both a substantial reductionof menial labor in material production and the up-grading of the qualifications of those who remain inthat sphere of activity to the level of mechanicalengineers. Automatic devices produce and regulatethemselves, creating the most efficient means ofdoing their work. Man's role, then, is to program andcontrol the labor of machines in a fully automatedsystem of production.

Complexity of Contemporary technical and scientific advancesProduction are realized in the material world through complex

methods of production. Elements are separated andrecombined; raw materials and partly processed ma-terial are put through a series of modifications. By-products are utilized, and waste is avoided. These arethe chief characteristics of today's production pro-cedures. The basic minimal unit of production, there-fore, cannot be a single specialized factory or asimple combination of industries grouped togetherby happenstance, but rather a territorial organizationof productive and industrial processes, in whichcomplex yet rational functioning demands mutual

4 Cf., A. I. Leont'ev, B. F. Lomov, Man and Technology ("Voprosy psi-34

chologij").

adjustments.5 Within the industrial centers, and theeconomic and geographic regions defined by them,we find the most advantageous kind of specialization,co-operation, and placement of the units of produc-tion.

Automation opens up unlimited possibilities formachine specialization and for the consequent lib-eration of labor; indeed, for the liberation of theindividual from the obligation to work at a singleoccupation all his productive life.' The resulting multi-plicity and interdependency of human activitiesnaturally create major problems of co-ordination.There must be co-operation among those who planand direct parts of the productive process, as well asamong those who engage in scientific research.

As the modern system of production grows, itdemands men of various skills and in turn is influencedby their personalities. The wider the range of contactsof men who are performing specific jobs of co-ordina-tion the higher will be their productivity and theirability to realize fully their own capabilities. The range

Cf., N. N. Kolosovskij, The Basis of Division into Economic Districts,Moscow, 1958, pp. 39, 138, 143; V. V. Poksisevskij, Crucial Problems of theFuture Distribution of Production ("Geograficeshie Problemy Krupnykhrajonov S.S.S.R.), Moscow, 1964, p. 19; A. E. Probt, Distribution of So-cialist Industry, Moscow, 1962, p. 98.6 S. G. Strumilin, On the Ways of Communist Construction, Moscow, 1959,p. 12. 35

4

2

1

Man and the machine; asystem. The man can bewholly isolated from everystage of mechanicalproduction.I. Control board2. Regulatory system3. Tools4. Products

of their contacts includes both access to technicalskill and association with administrative colleagues.Sometimes initiating contacts spontaneously, such agroup of men tends to make the production systemexpand until it reaches the greatest possible outputin both the central system and in all related subsys-tems (including subsidiary research centers) within agiven economic and geographic district.

Those people who constitute the guiding produc-tive force in the economy must be gifted with versa-tile personalities, "capable of orienting themselvesanywhere in the whole productive system." Thismeans not only being able to move freely from onefunction to the next, or combining several functions,but working in teams when a complex problemrequires a collective approach.

The working day can be reduced through theextraordinary growth in labor productivity, which inturn can be attributed to electrification, automation,and efficient production procedures. As this changetakes place, the proportion of work time to free timechanges radically. For the first time in the history ofman, leisure time will exceed work time. The problembecomes ''how to reduce to the minimum the timerequired for socially necessary work.' 8 If we considerthe demands that are apt to be made in various fieldsthrough the recombination of various kinds of labor,we can estimate that an individual's work time willtend to average approximately four hours per day.

From this summary of the changes produced byelectrification, automation, and efficient productionprocedures (including the reduction of the work day),we can draw some conclusions of significance for ourpresent study.

7 K. Marx and F. Engels, op. cit., vol. IV, p. 33.8 Karl Marx, unedited manuscripts, "Bolshevik" (Moscow, 1939), I f—I 2,

36 p. 62.

As communist production develops in space and Three Levels oftime, three distinct levels of economic activity be- Economic Activitycome apparent:

I. The level of automated production involves theentire productive process of extracting raw materialsand reshaping them, producing the means and instru-ments of further production as well as articles of con-sumption. At this level the machine dominates. Itproduces a high level of material well-being. Humanparticipation and intervention are minimal and consistalmost entirely in running machines, checking equip-ment, and starting new manufacturing routines.

2. The educational level includes extensive institu-tions offering the instruction necessary to technicaleducation. It sometimes means the use of speciallearning machines and generally requires the applica-tion of methods and devices resulting in a varied andwell-co-ordinated training to meet all the needs ofthe fundamental areas of production. At this level thedominant element is man. As a student, he is theobject of labor; as an instructor, he is its instrument;as a trained person graduated from a technical orprofessional course of study, he is also its product.

3. The scientific level of production uses a varietyof means for receiving, storing, exchanging, and elab-orating information concerning any field of humanactivity or nature. In this area the object, instrumentand product of activity, whether performed by manor machine, is primarily information:

a) The initial data in the form of human or machinememory become the basic material.

b)Information that acts to transform other informa-tion, whether it be through operations of the humanmind or through application of the algorithm or corn-puter, can be considered an instrument of produc-tion.

c) New information, the result of initial informationprocessed by human mental activity and by machine, 37

can be termed the product. Obviously, this thirdlevel of productive activity includes pure scientificresearch.

Collectivization In large-scale production today mental labor (sci-of Science entific work and research) outweighs any other kind

of human involvement. Science embraces all fieldsand all levels of production, and controls what isproduced.

As a result of the mass production of information,and because of the complexity of the problems to besolved (which at times surpasses the cognitive powersof any individual), the character of mental labor haschanged. Reception and communication of informa-tion and its modification at critical points are nownot so much an individual as a collective process.

Nowadays any problem of a complex order im-pinges on several spheres of activity. Formulating andresolving a problem require a collection of peoplewho can work together on its various aspects. Notonly must each team member apply his specialty tothe problem, but at the same time he must be gen-erally knowledgeable. Above all, he must be able tocollaborate with others on research and must be ableto understand the whole problem and the technicallanguage of his colleagues.

We are not concerned here with specialized re-search limited to a restricted circle of experts whosometimes speak an altogether separate language:rather, we are referring to the collective work ofmany individuals who, given a varied and well-co-ordi-nated training, can collaborate effectively to modifya set of initial data.

Nevertheless, we cannot expect the developmentof co-operative personalities or individual aptitudesand interests of the kind that enrich each person'spreparation for a chosen field of work to happen

38 automatically as the result of a new system of social

/ New Uses of Energy inIndustrial Plants

relationships. Rather, these are necessary precondi-tions that must be fulfilled if every member of societyis to participate in valid creative work. Hence, ques-tions of how to organize collective work—decidingwhat should be the quantitative and qualitative com-position of research teams—are of critical concernand influence the principal area of human productiveactivity today, namely, scientific inquiry, which is onecritical level of productive activity in general.

The technology of scientific work, including theprocesses that modify data and store the vastamounts of information flowing from meetings and

39

3 it

Dynamic in the spatialgrowth and in the growthof the capacity to absorbhuman beings in the threefundamental levels ofproductive activity.I. Material production by

means of machines2. Formation of human

beings3. Science

Mt

MU

regular conferences, requires spatial definition (justas much as manufacturing processes and the inter-change of raw and partly finished materials do).

Scientific institutions require the creation of cen-tralized research centers. Such organizations in turnneed a centralized system of communication to per-mit personnel from various institutes to gather withmaximum speed at any given moment and, as a singlecollectivity, to exchange information from labora-tories and related institutions. In such a scientificcenter there must be a single comprehensive systemof information storage and exchange, besides a uni-fied system of data storage and processing, so thateach scientific team and each technician can receivewhatever input he needs at any time and in any field

40 of scientific knowledge.

Let us take the three sectors of productive activity Dynamics ofand examine the broader relationships characteristic Developmentof each, their expansion rate in spatial terms, andtheir immediate capacity to absorb human labor.

Rapid territorial expansion in a given period oftime is characteristic of machine production, first asits function of processing a supply of raw materialgrows and then as its subsidiary activities which tendto expand with the manufacturing enterprise itself,call for ever greater quantities of space.

The transportation of raw materials follows variousroutes that eventually join and make a functional setof interchanges among two, three, or four industrialcomplexes. These contacts may even generate anentire transportation system within a given economicand geographic region, as has actually happened inseveral of the most developed European industrialzones (Urals, Don Basin, Ruhr, Alsace-Lorraine, etc.).

Expanding production, with its accompanying de-mands for suitable space, is not something that asociety should seek to limit inadvisedly, since suchattempts would mean renouncing the satisfaction ofits growing needs. The problem is not to limit growthas such, but to interrupt its linear continuity, toimpose a systematic pattern and plan on its territorialexpansion.

We have noted previously that the basic and mostvisible factors of economic growth are the industrialcomplex and its discontinuous expansion within aneconomic and geographic region. Planning thereforeshould envision the division of regions into industrial,agricultural, and residential zones. Accurate surveysof the natural resources within each region and plansfor their use should help determine the division intozones. A dynamic plan for the communication andtransportation systems should be worked out to jointhem together. 41

The industrial zones aredivided into two types ofspaces:I. The world of the

machines2. The world of menThe world of the machinesdoes not require carefulspatial organization inrespect to human needs.The uninterruptedautomated productionprocess works without thepresence of men.The world of men is foundin research laboratories, inadministrative offices, etc.Here we can find the basisfor a direction forcontemporary architecture.

42

Every industrial complex must be planned and builtwith an adequate allowance for the correspondingtrends toward increased automation and decreasedmanufacturing time. These tendencies gradually dif-ferentiate two levels of production: that of the ma-chine and man. Accordingly, a control center shouldbe planned in the beginning to meet the needs of anywell-co-ordinated and defined industrial complex.Various plant operations could then be unified by asingle transportation system, which would mean, forone thing, that personnel could be carried to work atmaximum speed.

The organization of agriculture presents a specialproblem. Assuming an abundant supply of electricity,any area if connected with centralized energy sourceswould have maximum potential power, light, and heat.In addition, artificial means of feeding and the use ofstimulants for growth provide crops and livestock

n11,!4i1'13/1ii $11.1,t1;--

with the best nutritive substances and acceleratetheir development. As a result, agriculture should beable to reduce its dependency upon local conditions(type of soil, atmospheric conditions and climate,even seasons, and the day-night cycle) as well as onthe amount of available arable land. In the initialplanning the areas of land to be cultivated should belaid out clearly with provisions for later reductionsproportional to the global increase in production.

Ultimately, there must be a transformation of agri-culture into a kind of industry based on the spatialunit of the rural and industrial zone that processesprimary agricultural products by means of a commonelectrical and thermal energy system.

We confront another special problem of labor pro-ductivity in the service occupations. The spatial isola-tion characteristic of service activities (stores, ware-houses, food distribution centers, eating places, 43

domestic services) results from a preference for locat-ing them within residential zones, even though thisisolation puts a strain on the residential area's trans-portation system due to consignment, shipping, etc.

As for the service sector's capacity for absorbingmanpower, we note two contradictory trends. On theone hand, there is an increase in both the quantityand variety of consumer goods, as well as in thenumber of centers where consumer transactions arecarried on. While this tendency leads to an increasein employment, the very growth of services leads tomechanization; and self-service will prevail even if inthe next ten years the capacity of this sector toabsorb manpower still may increase considerably. Asfor spatial growth, we have already indicated (on thebasis of a simple calculation) that a stabilization in thenumber of service facilities per capita will take place.

Machine-oriented economic activities clearly willundergo great territorial expansion as they generateindustrial complexes, while agricultural zones will tendto stabilize. Employment in both presumably will de-crease to a minimum.

On the other hand, the educational sector withinthis model of a communist society develops relativelystable patterns with regard to space utilization andnumber of persons employed. The facilities requiredare estimated on the basis of the number of personsof an age to receive instruction, the correspondingnumber of required teachers, and the amount ofspace normally allotted to an educational program.

As the scientific techniques and the actual scopeof planning continue to develop, it seems that in spiteof the wide use of teaching machines a significantgrowth will begin to take place in the educationalsector's capacity to absorb manpower. This growthwill come from increasing specialization of knowledgeand from the complex activities involved in its appli-

44 cation, particularly to functions like social planning.

Intensive Use of Space inModern Buildings

Consequently, we can anticipate a spatial growth inthis area, a growth generated by the creation of newscientific planning centers.

At this point, however, we expect the spatial ex-pansion of the educational sector, even if growth iscontinuous, to be far smaller, in absolute terms, thanthe analogous spatial growth in the sector of mechani-cal production.

Research centers and planning institutes, togetherwith the educational institutions related to them,constitute the basic element of spatial organizationin this sector. Again they are connected by a unified

45

Sketch of FunctionalRelationships in a Zonewith Groups ofUrbanized Settlements

Proposals forSpatial Distribution

46

**4 • • • • • • • • •S • • • • •Area reserved for • • • • •

industrial use

/ IndustrialIzone

n.‘

• • • • •• • • • • • • • 41.0.0.0:0:0:0:0 . 0 . 6 . 0 .0 0\ • • •• a a a • • • • •Flow

• of information l ••••••• Op Residential area"••••••••-•••••-•-• le•°

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• • •• • •• • • ••• •• • • •• ••• • • •• •• • • •• •• • • ••• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

communication and transportation network linkingthem to each other and to neighboring residentialand industrial zones.

Comparing the basic functions of productive ac-tivity leads us to some conclusions about their spatialdistribution within economic and geographic regionsand the kind and amount of contact among sectorswithin them.

The rapid extension of the industrial complex re-quires that ample open space be provided within agiven economic and geographic region. This reservedspace will constitute the larger part of the industrialzone, and only industrial construction will be per-mitted. However, the industrial zones can be contigu-ous with agricultural and residential ones, even ifareas of assimilation develop on either side of theborder between industrial and residential areas.

The tendency of agricultural areas to stabilize andfuse at their border with industrial zones implies thatwe should deliberately plan for industrial zones to be

• ••••.%•• Flow of persons

•• •• ••• •• •• • •• • •• • • •• • •• • •• Flow of products

Agricultural zone

a ' Research • • • • • _cenfer • • • • • • • • • •• •••• •• • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •••••••• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ••••• • •• • ••• ••• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ••••• • • I• • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • i• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

4s-

surrounded by agricultural ones. Generally, residen-tial zones are assumed to develop either as scatteredsettlements in agricultural areas or in conservationareas (parks and protected forest lands) that are notassigned to agriculture or industry.

The organization of centers for education and sci-entific planning represents a separate problem, since othese are thought to be units that will increase at aconstant though moderate rate. Since science usuallyis applied to production, one might think initially oflocating the two functions near each other.

Spatial Correlation

48

The impact of science on production comes onlyafter technological and mechanical developments,based on the programming of information, themaking of models, and the elaboration of designs inthe laboratory (in other words, on the kind of workundertaken in planning centers) have been accom-plished. Scientific innovations in machinery and inproduction methods, moreover, are not often testedin actual industrial environments. When this is desir-able, the test situation can be handled by organizingan information exchange and by shipping the materialneeded for a pilot project. Accordingly, these centersof scientific research need not be located very nearindustrial complexes.

Science does not study production alone, ofcourse, but all nature and all society in their myriadinteractions. Science is therefore at the same timeboth free from and dependent upon all areas of vitalhuman activity. We should say then that scientificand educational planning centers represent an auton-omous sector of productive activity. Since their spe-cific location is determined by their intrinsic functionsand the course of their development, we can foreseethat in the immediate future the capacity of thesecenters to absorb manpower will increase enormously,

while their spatial expansion will be moderate. Hencethey will tend to be attracted to the residential zoneswhere their workers live.

Designating locations for interconnected activitiesand organizing them in economic and geographicregions lead us to some ideas about plans for trans-portation and communication systems. The flow ofcirculation can be divided into three distinct streams:

I. A stream of commodities subdivided into, onthe one hand, the flow of raw materials and partlymanufactured components within the zone of produc-tion and, on the other (on completion of this cycle),the flow of finished products out of the zone.

2. A human stream (transportation to and fromwork), which can be divided into a main stream oflabor pouring into the production area and branchesdistributing workers within it.

3. A stream of information, including all relation-ships and communication taking place between indi-viduals, between machines, and between individualand machine.

If we assume co-operation among society's produc-tive functions and allow for their potential capacitiesto absorb manpower and to expand in space, then wecan determine the force of each sector and foreseehow their communication systems will develop. Obvi-ously, the major flow of material goods will take placewithin industrial complexes, between industrial com-plexes, and between industrial and residential zones.Human traffic will tend to be heaviest between resi-dential zones and industrial complexes, and betweenresidential zones and research centers. The plan an-ticipates the reduction of the work force in industrialcomplexes with a correspondingly heavier employ-ment in the scientific centers. Within the centersthemselves, traffic circulation becomes internal, likethe flow of information itself, which is mostly con-tained within a research center or industrial complex. 49

Questions ConcerningSocial Relationships

From our analysis of social relationships, we can seewhat the principal forces are that shape the spatio-temporal development of a geographic and eco-nomic region, not only under present conditions butin the near future. This thegretical structure providesus with some guidelines and gives us a basis for plan-ning applicable to any region.

Yet one cannot help observing how incomplete thisproposed structure is. For example, one of the mostimportant questions concerning contemporary urbanenvironments remains unanswered: What residentialarrangements should be provided for the workers ina production process organized according to thegeneral schema given here?

Analysis of the production process cannot answerthis question, for the housing of workers is a matterof absolute indifference from the point of view ofproduction. Within a given economic and geographiczone, people can live in large, medium, or small cities,in workers' suburbs, in villages, or in groups of indi-vidual houses scattered through residential zones.From the point of view of production all that is neces-sary is that qualified workers be found at their postsin the mornings, well rested and full of energy, andthat these men somehow raise their own capacitiesbeyond what their work tasks impose on them. Exceptfor these very abstract requirements, analysis of theproduction process does not tell us anything aboutthe character or scale of desirable residential con-struction. This problem can be solved only by analysisof all the other forms of social interaction character-istic of classless communist society.

50

ORGANIZATION OF DAILY LIFE In the present phase ofsocial development thetransformation of daily lifewaits upon the growth ofpublic child care.The residential complexwill include low-risebuildings for overnightnurseries and elementaryschools, and high-risestructures of standardresidential units for adults.From both our analysis ofthe social implications ofearly child care and fromour estimate of likelyconsumer service andtransportation needs, twomajor substructures can beexpected to appear in thenew environment: theprimary residential complexand the residential sector.Examination of the changedorganization of daily lifefinally leads to predictionsabout the architecturalcharacteristics of futurehousing.

51

For the contemporary architect the most interest- Public Educationing aspect of the complex urban environment ishousing (from the simplest house to the most elabo-rate residential structure). Housing is pertinent tomost of the objectives of current planning, decidesthe degree of their realization, and determineswhether various different goals will prove compatible.

Questions about the organization of daily life areespecially relevant today, since this area of ordinaryroutine now shows signs of rapid change.

Why expect a series of transformations in thisaspect of life? Basically, because a clear and decisiveimprovement in the material well-being of the peoplecan be expected to occur within the next twodecades.

"Every family, including young couples, will have ahygienically adequate and comfortable home, a placesuited to civilized living." 9

"Conditions must make it possible to reduce andsimplify the domestic labor of women. Public serviceshould replace their labor and be able to satisfy thedaily material needs of the family.',

"Extending the network of institutions for childcare on a large scale will give every family the optionof keeping their children in such institutions withoutcharge through adolescence." "

Changes in the traditional family unit will directlyaffect all solutions to the housing problem. But suchchanges depend in many ways on the further devel-

9 Program of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R. (Moscow, 1961), p. 94.10 Ibid., p. 97.11 Ibid., p. 98. 55

opment of public education, concerning which thereis a good deal of controversy among parents andeducators.

Those who believe in raising children at home seetwo justifications for public child-care institutions.First, the fact that parents are too busy, and second,the need to isolate children from bad parents. Gen-erally, however, as the amount of free time increasesand educational standards rise, the need for a systemof public education covering the child's complete lifewill diminish, and every couple possessing materialcomforts and necessities can be expected to raisetheir own children to maturity.

On the other hand, in the present formative stageof communism, society is seriously concerned withchild rearing and with the competence required ofthose involved. This task requires educators with agreat deal of biological, psychological, medical, es-thetic, and other sorts of training. It demands thatresponsible persons be able to apply such disciplinesto specific situations and that they be experienced indoing so. It also demands that they show a specificdisposition and love for teaching children of a par-ticular age. These qualifications mean that those en-gaged in raising the next generation must truly havea pedagogical vocation and be scientifically trained.Mere experience of life and paternal or maternal sen-timents are not enough to equip a person to teachcorrectly a member of society.

It is also said that a socialized system of educationis inhumane toward parents, for it takes their childrenaway and does not give them a chance to see themand participate in their education. This error is basedon present practice, which locates most child-carecenters and schools far from the homes of parents.This has happened partly because of the need toremove children from the poor hygienic conditions of

56 overcrowded neighborhoods and partly because of

the principle of assigning places in schools on thebasis of the parents place of work. Once we havegood new housing, however, it will be possible tolocate all child-care institutions in the immediate resi-dential neighborhood.

The proper development of full-time public educa-tion will require large staffs. Many parents (besidesthose choosing the profession of teacher) can givetheir free time to kindergartens and public schools,where their own offspring are being educated.

The arguments of those who defend public childrearing are stronger, in our opinion, than those of theopposition. Their ideas, however, sound rather hypo-thetical as yet, because they lack positive evidenceand cannot offer a clear and precise model to con-trast with the traditional system. Developing such amodel requires an objective study of the forms ofsocial interaction, especially at the early stages ofpersonality formation.

Contact with their peers is certainly valuable to Childhood andchildren. In early childhood these contacts come Educationthrough group play, an important activity from thefourth or fifth year of a child's life to the eighth ortenth. Play itself, in modern educational thought, is afundamental method of preschool and school instruc-tion. The success of a child's work in the first andsecond grades in reading and writing and arithmeticdepends to an extent on the games of the earlieryears.

The best opportunity for contact among childrenof preschool age occurs in the nursery, which is thebest setting for developing the child's imitativepowers and individual activities. He expresses his in-clinations most freely here, and his egocentricity isleast harmfully repressed.

The positive value of group activity, of course, isfully realized only when it is organized and directed

57

Environment Where theSoda! Relationships ofChildren Are Established

by educators who have benefited from advancedsocial training.

The largest desirable size of a group of childrenmust be experimentally determined. The findings ofexperimental psychology indicate that an individualadult is capable of giving his attention to and con-trolling simultaneously up to fifty-seven objects.Therefore, with such complex objects as children tosupervise, an educator probably should be assignedno more than six children at once.

During his play periods, a child should have theopportunity to relate to others of preschool age,either younger or older, so that in a wide range ofgames and roles he has a chance to develop hisvarious natural abilities. Mixing a primary group ofpreschool children with another older or younger agegroup creates a double cell: two age groups and two

58

teachers. The primary group (six children and one

teacher) and the double cell (twelve children and twoteachers) may be used as our module in working outthe structure of a child-care center.

The organization of double cells and the series ofgroups required for a child-care center covering thewhole elementary cycle from the preschool gradesthrough the school grades gives us the following mini-mum capacity for any one institution: six age combi-nation groups (each containing one primary groupfrom each grade of the four included in elementaryschool).

To this should be added the structure of the nur-series whose fundamental functions are:

I. To provide mothers with help and advice in theinitial period of child rearing.

2. To prepare children three and four years of agefor kindergarten and to develop their capacity forimitation and learning through collective play. 59

If we make a numerical estimate of these transi-tional groups, the basic number needed for the func-tioning "nursery-elementary school" is not less thanabout 216 pupils (or a multiple thereof). Such a ca-pacity calls for a staff large enough to make possiblea full range of specialists in every sector of preschooleducation (includuing moral and esthetic education,medical supervision, music, drawing, dancing, arith-metic, construction).

What theModern School IsAttempting to Do

Through play and relationships with adults, the in-formational system of the child, itself a particular kindof relationship, is gradually fed and reinforced, andlearning takes place. By the eighth or ninth year oflife, formal learning experiences begin to shape thechild's social experience. He moves into a new stageof development and slowly becomes aware of himselfas a human being with an autonomous personality.

The fundamental purpose of any school providinggeneral education is to forge within the group and bymeans of the group a well-rounded and harmoniouslydeveloped human being, "a new individual who har-moniously combines in himself spiritual riches, moralpurity, and physical perfection." " The school shouldhelp its pupil to find his own vocation and develop it,not by restricting him but by opening up to him allthe fundamental fields of human knowledge. He canthen creatively relate all sorts of knowledge to thepursuit of his own interests and to his relationshipswith his peers.

Eccentric development and professional deforma-tion can be avoided only if pupils who representdiverse vocational tendencies continue to developwithin the framework of a single institution. The stu-dents' inevitable specialization and eventual choiceof vocation are possible within large general school

60

12 program of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R., op. cit., pp. 120, 121.

communities, well equipped and able to attract awell-qualified staff of teachers. These are preferableto various separate vocational schools, for only theselarge educational complexes can guarantee teachingspecialized enough in all the fundamental areas ofhuman activity to produce both a well-rounded andculturally aware person, and one who has developeda specific skill.

If we accept the conventional division of teachinginto eight disciplines (sociology, education, the liberaland fine arts, biology, chemistry, mathematics, andengineering), specialization in one of these fields candevelop in the course of an eight-year program asfollows:

Class I—IV. Common curriculum for all students,with a supplementary program for those who areartistically talented and seminars for those who showpromise in mathematics and physics.

Class V—VI. Specialization in two general direc-tions: the humanities and the sciences.

Class VII. Further specialization along four distinctlines: socioeconomic; artistic and literary; chemicaland biological; physical and mathematical.

Class VIII. Final specialization in one of the eightfundamental categories indicated above.

Practical experience in today's schools, as well asthe findings of psychology, suggests that no morethan twelve pupils should be assigned to each group inelementary school. This number should be maintainedin the specialized courses of the upper level classes,although it can be doubled to twenty-four pupils ingeneral courses.

Since each field includes about six to ten specialsubdivisions, the creation of primary groups withinsubdivisions will encourage co-operation among stu-dents who are entering a course of professional spe-cialization. The number of graduates in any specialfield should also be a sign whether satisfactory 61

working relationships developed with schoolmates inmore advanced classes.

If we assume that the minimum number for a groupspecializing in an advanced field is six persons, thenumber graduating with a vocational training willrange between thirty-six and sixty. Taking a statisticalaverage, we shall assume forty-eight students, or fourgroups of twelve.

The sum of graduates in the eight areas of profes-sional specialization will be 384.

If we now compute the functional structure of theschool community as described above, we arrive ata total of 3,072 students. This gives us an approxi-mate basis for estimating its size and for planningits buildings.

To complete his education, that is, to receive theright and the opportunity to work in a particularbranch of social production, the graduate of a schoolof general education must take a supplementarycourse in his special field. This course can take fromseveral months to several years, depending upon thestudent's specialty. In principle, however, this trainingis distinct from general education and constitutes asecond stage in his professional development. It iscompleted at large educational centers such as uni-versities or technical and professional schools thathave been assimilated by general institutes of tech-nology.

Throughout the whole cycle of public educationthe child's relationship with his family complementsand guides his relationship with his peers in school.

While the child is in preschool, his contact withhis parents will be fairly intensive. The parents willactively participate in his education and spend con-siderable time in the institution itself. For this reason,the institution should be close to the parents' resi-dence.

62

During the time of the child's education in the gen-

Types ofResidential Structure

eral school community, the relationship with hisparents changes in character. Contact becomes lessfrequent (only a few times a week) and is related toholidays. Hence the interaction of children and theirparents may take place either within the educationalinstitution or in the parents home. In either case, itrequires a specific and yet to be defined spatialorganization.

To sum up:I. The first foundations of communist personality

are established in nurseries through the relationshipof children with their peers in preschool groups. Thepersonality further develops in primary groups duringthe earliest grades. These are excellently suited tofoster the unfolding of all aspects of a child's po-tential.

2. The personality formation that is richly devel-oped in a number of directions must also take placethrough a shared educational process. This requiresa careful subdivision of experience into two stages:general education (in a school community) and pro-fessional education (at a higher academic institution).

3. Nurseries and elementary-grade schools, schoolcommunities for general education, and advanced in-stitutions will constitute separate building complexes.

Efficient communication must link the school withthe child's home. Therefore, schools for younger chil-dren ought to be within a radius of 100 yards to 150yards of home; the secondary school communityshould be within walking distance (a radius of one-halfto three-quarters of a mile); higher academic institu-tions should be linked to the home by twenty minutesto thirty minutes of public transportation.

With the development of full-time public educa-tion, the traditional functions of family housing willbe taken over by three new types of residence:

64

I. The residential units attached to the preschooland elementary school.

2. Residential quarters attached to the secondary-school community.

3. Apartment-type units for individual adults orfor couples who are parents.

This list can be made more complete by addingcertain more specialized kinds of housing, such asdormitories at higher academic institutions, homesfor older persons requiring personal care, and hotel-type accommodations in resort areas meeting thevacation schedule of workers.

Let us, however, consider only the three funda-mental types.

The basic housing unit attached to the nursery andelementary school will be a complex of two dormi-tories for twelve children (six in each), two rooms forplay, two bathrooms, a room for teachers, and auxili-ary space. The whole will not exceed an area of 2000,square feet.

Housing for the general population will be substan-tially altered, yet its fundamental purpose will remainthe same. The human being needs a private placewhere he can separate himself from others, rest,sleep, and live his family life. Housing must respondto these needs; it must create conditions suited torestoring the physical and moral forces that a manexpends in his productive and social life.

These demands will continue to exist in the imme-diate future; in fact, they may become rather morepressing.

The more intense the social interaction and thewider a person's relationships the more he must beable to regenerate the energies socially expended,and the more profound and complete must be hisphysical and mental relaxation.

How much space does an individual need for this?65

What should be the standard type of housing thatnot only can guarantee functional necessities, but alsocan provide the best conditions for psychologicalprivacy?

As experience shows, existing housing, when judgedby these standards, is far from ideal. The tendency toincrease the amount of space allocated to individualhousing is clearly understandable under the circum-stances. It can decrease, however, as the morerational planning of housing units separates privatefrom public functions and services. Then it wouldseem reasonable to use a residential standard of notmore than 225 square feet per person (on theaverage).

This assumes a small number of persons living per-manently in each apartment and the development ofpublic eating places within residential buildings. Thepreparation of food in the family unit will no longerbe necessary, but merely optional. The stove andkitchen cease to be the focal points of a residentialplan. Minimal kitchen facilities can be included in aliving room or foyer, and the space thus freed canbe used for other needs, such as more spacious bath-rooms.

The basic plan for an apartment divides it into twosections: rooms for daytime use and others for night-time use. Furthermore, for the privacy of a marriedcouple, it is essential to be able to subdivide thespace into two ample areas for husband and wife.

The apartment should also provide a separate roomfor children during the hours and days that they visittheir parents. Approximately fifty square feet to sev-enty-five square feet should be allocated for eachchild's play, sleep, and other activities.

Both expanded public services and areas in the resi-dential building and reduction in the number of per-manent inhabitants per apartment permit us to think

66

in new ways about planning the interior. Instead of a

Waft.

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0.g. '40.16.......... Waft.

NO°

Center of instruction

-

series of little rooms lined up along a wall we imaginea single open space that runs the whole depth of thebuilding and ends in windows on two opposite sides.

Bilateral orientation becomes more than a meansfor assuring greater freedom in planning the interior

Temporary dwellings in nature Types of Residential Cellsand Their Relationship inPhysical Space

AILSchool,0•••.--- 111111,I \

/ .....Child-care center

/ •

/ \ 11

I 1

Pedestrian access

or an important principle of cross-ventilation forhealthy living. Bilateral orientation signifies a newprinciple in the construction of housing and couldmean the end of psychological restrictions and dis-comfort.

The principle of bilateral orientation is especiallyimportant in cases where apartments are locatedabove the ground; in other words, where directaccess to nature is replaced by visual contact. Herethere is no substitute for a variety of views fromwindows. 67

Architects at present do not concern themselvesmuch with "views." Yet it is precisely the view thathas a most powerful influence upon the individual'spsychological state when he is living in the limitedspace of an apartment. The view works as an exten-sion of interior space and becomes an integral partof the world in which the individual is living. The visualrelationship binding a person to his surroundingscannot be replaced by any degree of comfort in theinternal arrangement of the home. This is why, nomatter what technical solution the future residentialarchitect may provide, bilateral orientation will retainits importance as a basic principle of planning. Anyproposals for future housing that ignore this principleare unlikely to be successful, from the visual point ofview, even though they might be satisfactory in everyother respect.

The way in which apartments are combined deter-mines the character of a building. Two aspects ofthe problem always seem to be in conflict. On the onehand, there is the desire for comfort in the apartmentand for a link with green outdoor spaces: on the otherhand, there is the need for economy in using availableopen space.

Ideal conditions for rest and privacy are offered bythe individual house situated in the midst of nature.But this is an expensive kind of well-being. To giveone family the comforts of life in the heart of nature,the costs of construction must be paid, as well as thecost of a series of individual services, from the refrig-erator to the laundress to the automobile. The villa isthe traditional retreat of the leisured minority at thetop of the bourgeois society. The attempt to makethe villa available to the average consumer meansbuilding a mass of little houses, each on a tiny pieceof land. This method entails a minimum of domesticservices, fairly satisfactory shared services, and trans-

68 portation to meet individual needs.

Common room Bedroom

Closet

Bathroom

Kitchen Bedroom

Anteroom

The mass construction of individual houses, how-ever, destroys the basic character of this type ofresidence. There is no longer the possibility of isola-tion in nature. What results is a chaotic and depress-ing agglomeration of dwellings covering enormousstretches of land. This is obvious, for example, in thecase of some new American cities and suburbs. Atthe same time, given the conditions of social equalityand the increasing growth of demand for housing inour country, the search for a future kind of residentialbuilding leads logically to high-rise structures.

The spatial isolation of apartments in high-rise resi-dential blocks allows the concentration of a very large

Functional plans of thetraditional and the futureresidence. Instead of smallisolated rooms, a singlelarge space.

69

Monotonous stretches ofindividual low-rise houses

number of people in a relatively small space and thecreation of an efficient system of services. Moreover,even with high density, considerable green spacescan be provided for the development of gardens andparks.

Bilateral orientation of apartments combined withthe high-rise-building concept assures great privacyfor each unit and large sweeping views. Proper siteplanning of high-rise buildings among green areas canmake it possible to place low-rise children's institu-tions as near as possible to home. The real advantagesof low-rise structures can then be enjoyed by our so-ciety, but according to different precepts from thoseof bourgeois society, that is, not by whoever canpay the most but by those who need these structuresmost, especially young children.

Our construction industry will soon be able to mass-produce reinforced-concrete structural componentsand lightweight infill panels. This means that in largeprojects standard residential construction can changefrom a brick-bearing wall system with five floors per

70

building to prefabricated concrete units that allow

a more flexible subdivision of interior space and agreater number of floors. We can expect fifteen-story to seventeen-story residential structures tobecome common.

Present housing practice requires society to pro-vide a great variety of apartments to meet the needsof families with different numbers of permanentresident members. As we move to full-time publiceducation, however, the number of different apart-ment types can be reduced to a few, since their sizewill be determined only by the number of adults inthe family. For children's visits, a single room willsuffice, although H-s area can be increased for anumber of children by reducing the size of otherrooms in the apartment.

In conclusion, we suggest only three basic residen-tial prototypes: one for the single individual (with orwithout children); one for the couple (with or withoutchildren); and one for two couples (a generation ofolder people, a younger couple, and children). Thislast type represents, in substance, a combination oftwo units of the second type, including a double allot- 71

cr.I/

•nn••00

Different types of housing:(1)residence of one floorfor small children, withdirect access to garden;(2) residence of two floorsFor students—windows ongarden; (3) residence ofmany floors for adults.Bilateral orientation ofapartments—wide horizonsvisible from windows.

ment of bathroom and kitchen facilities.Under these conditions there is no need to distin-

guish between buildings of different apartment types.Instead, we note a trend toward standard residentialstructures, each containing prototype apartments

1

fir

tfit

tdt

2

As public educationdevelops, the number oftypes of apartment will bedecisively reduced: (I)apartment for singleindividual; (2) apartmentfor one generation of adultsand children; (3) apartmentfor two generations ofadults and children.

it tiffOMNI

3

and conforming to a standard construction systemand layout of facilities. With such a universal systemany variation on the family nucleus can be foreseenand provided for.

In considering the basic apartments or residentialunits, we have come to realize that the solution of thehousing problem brings about important changes thatare not merely mechanical but signify a general im-provement in the quality of residential life.

The normal spatial area required for a child's up-bringing, for example, will be distributed among threetypes of housing: the respective dormitories of ele-mentary and secondary schools, and the family apart-ment. On the whole, the adult will need a proportion-ately larger area for living space than the child. This iswholly justified, as long as the child spends a consid-erable amount of time playing in the fresh air, ormeeting in classes and assembly halls, while the adult,during the hours he is alone, has an acute need forindividual space.

Different types of residence are not related in thesame way to nature. For example, preschool-agepupils need a daily and direct relationship withnature, while older students can make frequent jour-neys into the open country and so gain direct contactwith the earth and larger-scale natural environment.Hence, though the very young are better off inground-floor housing, older children can live in multi-story buildings.

Finally, for the more mobile group—that majorityof adults who spend a relatively small part of the dayat home—we should accept the high-rise residentialstructure. The loss of immediate contact with theoutdoors at ground level and the need for daily useof an elevator are compensated in this situation by abilateral orientation of views and, above all, weekendvisits to temporary hotel-type residences, where rela-tionships with nature are restored. 73

PlanningResidential Areas

74

Variety in residential units results in a unifiedsystem that rationally allocates space according tofunction.

The residential system includes: kindergartens, in-dividual houses, school communities, and apartmentblocks. These are the basic elements of residentialconstruction. Through their interrelationships theydetermine the size and shape of subdivisions in thenew residential area. The functional relationshipsamong them, which we have delineated by analyzingpatterns of communal living, are precisely what bringsus now to other aspects of the housing question, suchas public transportation and communal services.

The daily contact of preschool children with theirparents requires, as we observed earlier, that residen-tial buildings be in the immediate neighborhood ofthe children's school. In fact, the whole communalcomplex, even the detailed layout of prototype resi-dential units, is organized on the basis of relationshipsbetween members of each group.

In principle, the planning of a primary residentialcomplex permits all kinds of solutions: a system oflow-rise buildings, a group of prefabricated units ofvarying heights, or a single high-rise building. In everycase, however, the residential complex is not simplya conglomeration of dwellings but a social and spatialcommunity. The apartment loses the autonomy of thesingle-family house. It is a unit that is unthinkableapart from the existence of the whole, and it there-fore becomes the primary element in a collectivesystem of housing.

To determine the size of population in the primaryresidential community, we can take the approximatenumber that we have established for each preschoolinstitution (216 pupils) and the percentage of thepopulation consisting of children from three to nineyears old presently enrolled in the preschool and

elementary system (thirteen per cent to fourteen percent of the general population). This method leads usto a total of from I ,600 to 1,700 individuals (approxi-mately 1,000 adults) per residential complex. Whenwe consider the accompanying public services andconsumer activities, we discover again the rationalityof proposing a primary residential community of thissize. To arrive at estimates of capacity, that is, toestablish the number of persons that a center forconsumer activities can easily serve, we must deter-mine what kinds of service are to be provided andthen estimate the potential demand for them, keep-ing in mind what the maximum distances betweenhome and consumer service should be.

Two fundamental kinds of services should bedistinguished among consumer needs. In the firstcategory are the kinds of service that should effi-ciently provide the population with articles of dailyuse. These services should offer an assortment ofgoods and should be within a short walking distanceof home. The second category of service includes themovie theater, pharmacy, swimming pool, ball park,local administration offices, cafe, restaurant, etc.

The practice in urban planning has been to distin-guish very clearly between these two categories ofcommerce. In traditional English cities the micro-sector provides primary services at a distance of nomore than 400 yards from a residential complex.Commerce has a fairly low density, and major trafficdoes not enter this microsector. Aside from theprimary residential complex, there is a school forapproximately every 6,000 persons. Services of thesecondary category, on the other hand, are found ina town or neighborhood center with a population ofover 20,000 persons. Usually these services are athighway intersections, and the shopping area is lim-ited to about half a mile in any direction.

In mentioning foreign experience in the planning 75

of microsectors, we must remember that our ownpresent residential system is based on four- or five-story units and thus considerably exceeds the densityof the English neighborhood. Because of prevailingstandards in Soviet housing, moreover, we need amore complete and more accessible system of publicservices than is required in foreign countries, wherehousing can be counted on to include adequatekitchen facilities for individual housekeeping.

This accounts for the considerably different fea-tures of our existing microsectors. Within a radiusof about 400 yards to public transportation (sevenminutes' walk) we concentrate 10,000 to 12,000 per-sons. Furthermore, each of our microsectors containsnot one but two schools, occupying a relatively largeamount of space and lying within range of publictransportation. The primary services within the resi-dential center generally seem to be insufficient forthis population density and seem especially to be toofar away from people's homes.

The desire to correct these faults has led cityplanners to formulate a whole new group of ideascentered on linking services and housing as closelyas possible. These plans provide primary complexesof public services for every 1,000 to 4,000 personswithin an effective radius of 300 feet to 500 feet. Theresult could favor a more intensive community life,because a fairly small group of residents, in face-to-face contact with workers providing the services,could correct and regulate the consumer activity inaccordance with felt needs. Supplementary services,such as public-assembly halls, studios, special trans-portation needs, could also be arranged easily.

Approximate figures based on present serviceneeds in large apartment houses and in microsectorsindicate that a population of about 1,000 adults perprimary unit would work very well.

76

In the present phase of development there are at

Channels of Access toSubway

least two possible ways to organize these services.The first option is to provide services at three

levels: a primary level located within the residentialcomplex; a nucleus of secondary services (food stores,clubs, etc.) within the microsector; a third nucleus ofservices (cinema, club, park, sports center, etc.)planned in the center of the larger sector. The systemresulting from this organization of services is awk- 77

A new functionalresidential structure willreplace the microsector.I. Plan of the microsector

traditional in England2. Plan of the microsector

characteristic of Sovietbuilding practice

3. System of three levelsof consumer services

4. Two levels of consumerservices: pedestrianwalkways are crossed byhighways

5. Proposal: two levels ofservices. Rapid transportsegregated frompedestrian traffic; schoolat periphery of built-upresidential area

4

2

3

78

ward, however, and has few advantages, because theservices are distributed too thinly among three kindsof consumer centers. This organization also leads in-evitably to useless duplication.

The second possibility is to combine the two pri-mary levels of service and locate the new single unitin one or several residential buildings. This leaves thethird in the center of the larger sector, probably at acrossroads. Here an important disadvantage arises.Since it is not practical to locate all needed servicesin the residential complexes, we make the residentsdependent upon the center of the sector. Since theseprimary-service levels cannot include a large foodstore (still less can they compete with large stores inselling manufactured goods) the system demands thatresidents cross large streets when they go to theshopping center.

Clearly, the analysis of service distribution in resi-dential sectors leads to an attempt to separate vehic-ular from pedestrian traffic. This would enable us toplan the whole sector in a unified way and to enlargeits major shopping center, while primary servicesremain immediately accessible.

Solutions to the problem of urban transportationalways depend upon interrelationships, which in turnare shaped by the preceding development of residen-tial areas. We can be sure, at least, that the new kindof residential sector, constructed with commuter inmind, will be supplied with some form of rapid transit.This system should be planned from the beginning toavoid conflicts of cross-circulation for pedestrians,both for their safety and for the efficiency of thetransportation system.

It is hardly necessary to add that private individualtransportation has produced such an overwhelmingset of unresolved problems in cities that even plannersin bourgeois societies are inclined to limit it. In modernpractice, planning has come to include subways run- 79

ning underground at a moderate depth, as well aselevated electric trains. The economic advantages ofsuch a transportation system for getting commutersto and from production areas are obvious, and it isalso an answer to congestion in the central city.

Having established that public transportation is tobe separated from pedestrian circulation, we proposethat large-scale residential structures in each sectorbe planned around a central pedestrian space. In thisspace will be a subway or elevated station, as well asconsumer service centers and some light industry, ifdesirable. Pedestrian access accordingly determinesthe size of the residential sector. The larger the popu-lation that is to be housed in the sector the moreeasily we can justify localizing all needed services.

High-rise residential construction (even with chil-dren's institutions of only one to three floors) permitsfairly high density of settlement, and it gains the ad-vantage of efficient land use for this plan for anurbanized sector.

If we place 1-he secondary-school community at theperiphery of the residential sector (just within reachof pedestrian access), we gain interior density.

Assuming a maximum walking distance from hometo the area of services and public transportation ofabout 500 yards, and a maximum straight-line dis-tance of 100 yards from secondary school to home,the density we established earlier allows us to plan for25,000 to 35,000 persons per sector. This numbercorresponds to our estimated capacity for the sec-ondary-school community. In fact, it correlates withthe fact that a school complex of 4,000 students cor-responds to a population of 20,000 to 35,000 inhabi-tants.

The future residential sector will include the follow-ing distinct elements:

I. A system of services organized on two levels: the80 primary level of services as near as possible to home,

111111111'Prior

• •

and the other located in a much larger and centralizedshopping and commuting center.

2. Children's institutions for preschool and ele-mentary education to be located as near as possible

Lcr_00=E)Evolution of Means ofTransportation

to home; secondary schools at the periphery of theresidential sector.

3. A public-transportation terminal within theshopping center, but not interfering with pedestriancirculation.

Two basic subdivisions become the obvious means 81

of organizing a total residential area. They are: ( I )the residential complex of 1,500 to 2000, persons; (2)the residential sector of 25,000 to 35,000 persons.

We have used visible present trends to plan ourresidential communities. Our conclusions are basedon the consideration of coming conditions that canbe reasonably foreseen.

It is not difficult to imagine that in time a newattitude will develop toward density and that newmeans of transportation and a more effective orga-nization of collective services will suggest residentialpatterns characterized by altogether different cri-teria. It is sufficient to mention the possibility ofgathering an entire residential area in a single macro-structure.

To sum up, we have here considered the basicproblems that must be solved in reorganizing dailylife, and we have analyzed the forms of communallife opened up by the technical and economic possi-bilities of the immediate future. Although our think-ing has included the definition of residential units, wehave not defined the architectural character of thenew environment.

We know, however, that full-time public educationfor children, progressive extension of public servicesand transportation, and a high density in constructioncan all be realized in practical terms, given any sizeof residential population area.

82

LEISURE TIME The twentieth centuryconfronts mankind with theproblem of leisure time,that is, with the problem offreedom. Freely developedsocial interactions are vitalto vigorous urban life.Computations based onprobability suggest that afully developed cultural lifecan emerge and that arecognizable urban nucleuscan form on a social baseof at least 100,000population. This is the newelement in urbanenvironments; this is thesociospatial unit of thenew society.

83

Life structured by freely chosen relationships rep- Freely Chosenresents the fullest, most well-rounded aspects of each Relationships as ahuman personality. These are developed through Function of Leisurechoices made during the time free from work, on thebasis of interests, desires, and cultural options opento all.

The twentieth century is the first to pose seriouslythe question of how to make use of the leisure timeavailable to the laboring masses, who have just beguntheir self-liberation from the full-time working day.

In the coming years, with the reduction of the workday to five or six hours and the parallel reduction ofother chores, leisure time will consist of about six toseven hours per day." If we further decrease the workday to a period of not less than four hours and assumea minimum system of daily services, leisure in the nextdecade may increase to an average of eight to ninehours per day, not counting holidays or the extendedannual vacation.

The increase in leisure time in coming years willpresent a social problem of extraordinary signifi-cance: how to make use of this free time in a mannerconsistent with the communist ideal, that is, how touse it in the interests of each and all.

To resolve this problem it is necessary to examineleisure activity as a process distinct in character yetpart of the general process of community life. Leisureactivity creates numerous individual and materialneeds. These mean that areas must be assigned toleisure activity, areas that, of course, should be fullyaccessible to everyone.

From this point of view we can structure the kinds

135 • G. Strumilin, Our World in Twenty Years (Moscow, 1964), p. 91. 87

of leisure activity characteristic of the period oftransition to communism as follows:

I. Activities that promote fellowship and broadenprofessional interests.

2. Activities that train one either to become morequalified in one's own field or to qualify for a differentsphere of work.

Considering the sudden increase in the number ofpeople studying while holding full-time jobs and con-sidering that this increase is attributable to the short-ening of the workday in 1959 by one hour, we canpredict with confidence that successive additions tofree time will produce a situation where a large ma-jority of the population will engage in some form ofstudy. Friendship, too, can be viewed as a form offree relationship and can be related to work andstudy, since it involves meditating on and evaluatingin communication whatever problems and interestsarise for an individual in his development.

We have already considered the desirability ofplanning for residential privacy. Free relationshipscan easily develop anywhere that privacy is providedin the context of community life, whether the placebe attached to a residential unit, an educationalcenter, a research center, or a place of work. Any ofthese can foster associations based on interest anddesire. The purpose of free relationships is to encour-age an individual to develop his capacities in full, toattain insight, and to grow in accord with that insight.Free association with other persons has been lessstudied than other forms of human relationship.Nevertheless, the development of this kind of asso-ciation also requires suitable spatial planning.

Associations based on shared interests combine anumber of functions. They range from useful and cul-tural recreation, which widen a person's horizons andelevate his intellectual level, to activities that lead to

88 a new profession. This kind of association is becoming

common enough to make it a consideration in allurban planning from now on.

In our country the club, gallery, museum, library,and theater are focal points that bring people to-gether for cultural activities. The university and thepopular theater also foster these interests .

Unfortunately, inadequacies in the planning andcorrelation of leisure activity are obvious everywhere.Smaller cities have a network of cultural institutions,but their potential is usually mediocre. The culturalofferings of neighboring small cities are rarely co-or-dinated or raised to certain standards, as they oughtto be. Consequently, considerable leisure time isbeing wasted. In many ways the individual's self-de-velopment is poorly supported by society, since allpossible channels of information are by no meansused to their real potential to communicate culturaland general events, to disseminate scientific andtechnical discoveries, etc. Yet such stimulation re-news the individual by arousing his natural desire formore knowledge, by suggesting new goals in his fieldof work, and by helping him to direct his energiestoward the common good.

The wasteful overconcentration of cultural valuesin very large cities leads to huge agglomerations ofmillions of persons there; yet even the capital city isincapable on a national scale of satisfying the desireof the masses for scientific knowledge, or the individ-ual's desire for self-development. It is this discrep-ancy that has strengthened voluntary associationsand given rise to leisure activities based on commoncultural interests. This type of social organizationmust overcome the contradictions in the cultural lifeof both city and small town.

"Eventually, with the realization of another for-midable rise in the material level of culture there willbe established . . . an expanded network of libraries,reading rooms, theaters, cultural centers, clubs, 89

cinemas . . . a vast development of popular universi-ties, repertory theater companies, and other culturalorganizations ... a great chain of film and art studiosconnected with technical and scientific laboratories,so that all those who show creativity and interest inthis particular direction can participate in this kindof work.

As a matter of policy, we must uniformly distrib-ute across our national territory cultural institutionsthat are designed to raise the cultural life of smalltowns to the level of the great cities and also tosponsor a rapid cultural development in newly re-claimed areas. 14

The Club for Culturaland Scientific Projects

90

The individual's broad human development andsocial fulfillment through cultural activities are consid-ered extremely important today and are being real-ized through free association. To meet such aspira-tions we must plan the new urban environment toinclude a large proportion of people representingeach fundamental field of human knowledge and toprovide such people with ways of forming groupsdevoted to their cultural interests.

Considering that the successful pursuit of culturalconcerns always requires a certain amount of equip-ment, books, instruments, etc., a cultural associationwould be organized: (I) to meet a required standardon a par with the current work in that field; (2) toinclude enough qualified persons to maintain a livelylevel of activity in the field. Each club should have anucleus of enthusiastic enrolled members who regu-larly devote part of their leisure time to the asso-ciation.

In our opinion, the club is the best form of organi-zation for a voluntary group pursuing specific culturalinterests, for it permits the most varied communica-14 Program of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R. ( Moscow, 1960), pp130-131.

1111,1" '1111110

'4 1 ILIA11. Illitl11111111111111111111111111

tion in the free pursuit of learning. There can be sys-tematic courses or occasional lectures; seminars onchosen topics; conferences, debates, discussions, andpublic or private conversations. Individual and groupinitiative are equally applicable. There can be infor-mative exhibits showing the results of any particularinquiry or reflecting the activities of members. Pre-sentations can be made on any aspect of art (film,theater, concerts, etc.). Without limiting the individ- 91

ual's freedom, this form of flexible association cansatisfy any level of interest in a field.

Depending upon public interest, knowledge gainedthrough these associations can become generallyavailable through lectures and discussions, reports,seminars, debates, and art exhibits. All these activi-ties give people the opportunity to obtain a greatdeal of information in various fields, to explore cur-rent problems, as well as acquire or use a variety ofbooks, reproductions, films, records, etc.

A higher and relatively more time-consuming levelof cultural participation would involve regular coursesin specific subjects: serious lectures of the type givenin the university. This kind of course promotes cultureand, furthermore, communicates a great deal of in-formation to people.

Finally, the highest level of participation is achievedthrough active membership in professional circles andgroups specializing in certain areas. Either workingalone or in small groups, the individual under thesupervision of experts can test his capacity in a newfield and satisfy his inclinations in that direction.

The club as a social function clearly brings outpeople's inclinations and talents and helps some toacquire new professions by directing them to appro-priate institutions (universities in the true sense).

Within the general framework of the club differentsubgroups can form to explore the basic areas ofknowledge and activity existing in our society. Foreach basic area the club should have a section. Howeach section is further subdivided should vary andreflect the free and changing flow of interests amongmembers.

A combination of permanence and fluidity in orga-nization is absolutely necessary to preserve genuinelyfree relationships and to assure the individual bothfull choice of his pursuit and control of the way it

92

develops.

Logically, too, we can suppose that every nucleusof enthusiasts, being a free and creative group, willneed at least a core of five to nine members in orderto function as we anticipate and multiples of thisnumber to assure a maximum return on teamwork. Letus also suppose that in each of the ten sectors (eightfundamental fields, plus a section for collectors ofstamps, coins, etc., and a sports section) there areabout ten subdivisions. From our analysis we concludethat to obtain the desired free interaction and cul-tural vigor the club structure requires seven multi-plied by ten, multiplied by ten again, that is, 700active participants. These would then represent allthe basic cultural activities current in our society.

Probability calculations based on the presenteducational level of our population and on the re-quirements of the proposed club structure indicatethat the minimum population needed to create andsustain a complete club would be about 60,000adults. This corresponds to a general population ofabout 100,000.

What will be the club's location in the urban plan?Where must it be built in order to be equally acces-sible to all of the 60,000 persons to whom it will be areal necessity? Its location in the period of transitionto communism is of exceptional importance because,as leisure time and cultural demands increase, theclub will tend more than any public function to attractgreat masses of people. The masses will spend asmuch of their time here as at home or at work.

The location of the club should take into considera-tion the fact of the population's continual movementduring the workday and week. The working massesdaily enter and leave the industrial complexes of anindustrial zone, the agricultural enterprises of an agri-cultural zone, the centers and residential develop-ments of the residential zone. Obviously the club'slocation should be determined by this triangle: resi- 93

dential area; service center; industrial complex. If weplace the club in the service center or in the industrialcomplex, most people will have to make three insteadof two trips per day. However, if the club is placedsomewhere in the residential zone, most people willfind it equally accessible.

It must be observed, moreover, that the social lifeof the masses—their gatherings and parades, theirfestivals and feasts—require a proper place and time.The place where the masses gather on great occa-sions (no matter how infrequently) should always, evenwhen empty, express its high functional importance.It should be a permanent symbol of all the people'saspirations. Therefore, the place of assembly shouldbe located with the club in a single architecturalentity. Creating a center that would be equallyaccessible and of great public benefit to all couldunify the whole residential zone.

The Unified As demonstrated earlier in our analysis, the aspectsEnvironment of community life that develop through free choice

and association have their physical base partly in theclub, which functions both as a center of cultural lifeand as a place for mass gatherings. This institutionrequires a supporting population of not fewer than100,000. Cultural interests are, of course, pursued athome as well, and so leisure-time activity is directlyconnected with the residential system. Accordingly,the club and assembly hall are focal elements in thesocial structure of a large residential area.

As we contemplate the formation of freely devel-oped groups, we recognize their great significance inplanning the period of transition to communism. Re-quiring a minimum population of about 100,000 inorder to flourish, the center of leisure-time activitybecomes a decisive factor in planning, not only for itscultural initiative, but because it determines the pop-

94 ulation to be assigned to one entire residential area.

taillegirminre„

Thus the analysis of voluntary associations and ac-tivities leads us to conclusions that are analogous tothose arrived at from analyzing how a primary resi-dential complex should function in an urbanized areawithin an economic and geographic region.

In the last decade many city planners and sociolo-gists have concentrated their interest on the en-hanced role of the cultural center in urban life, antici-pating that it will be a growing aspect of social lifeduring the period of transition to communism.

These theoretical planners, although recognizinghow vital a civic center is for stimulating culturalinterests in an entire population, have concluded thatcapitalism does not encourage the kind of life thatwould find its expression in a civic center of this newtype. Therefore, it is unlikely that it will be created ina capitalist environment. 95

Present bourgeois planning seems to justify thisview. What tends to get built are shopping and enter-tainment centers.

The Social andCultural Center

96

Our own urban-planning situation is in many re-spects analogous. In the years since the war we havegenerally constructed political and administrativecenters. Beginning in the mid-fifties, a tendency tocreate shopping and entertainment centers becameevident. As for the clubs, which have truly beenhearths of culture since the very early years of thesocialist revolution, neither their scale nor their socialbase is large enough to assure the desired intensityof communication and free interaction.

The proposals of Soviet planners and of the mostprogressive foreign architects do no more than insiston the value of such centers and two existing types ofurban environment: the city and the small town.

No previous proposal has suggested that the cul-tural center, rather than industrial growth, should bethe principal factor determining the size of a residen-tial area. Yet industry, as we have shown in an earlierchapter, has no inherent significance that need deter-mine the size of residential communities.

The question, on these new principles, is only howto relate increased industrial employment to a resi-dential population whose size has been determinedby its collective infrastructure.

The social center, which is based on free associa-tions and common interests, constitutes the third(and largest) of the subdivisions of the total residen-tial area, to which we would assign a population ofabout 100,000. In the framework of an urbanizedcomplex of 100,000 persons, practically all the needsof the individual, whether related to his work or to hisdaily-life activities, can be served specifically.

To describe the residential area proposed by ourplan we can hardly use the word ''city.'' The breadth

of that word and its many connotations would thor-oughly confuse our inquiry. The term "city" has ac-cumulated meanings throughout history and includesthe notions of ancient, medieval, and early capitalisttowns. According to our interpretation, it means col-lections of relatively small populations, which are con-centrated compactly within a planned system ofhouses and streets. To employ the term "city" todesignate a very different system comprising from10,000 to 10,000,000 inhabitants is to interpret newand highly diversified phenomena in terms of old andrather inadequate conceptions, thus complicating oursearch for the structure of new urban environments.

The term "city," moreover, includes the notion ofindustrial life and industrial labor as well as highlydeveloped cultural institutions. The use of this termalways implies, therefore, that somewhere else thereexist rural areas with a relatively low level of culturaland industrial activity. The important problem ofending the contrast of small town and city (especiallyvital at this point for our constructive reshaping ofcommunism) is thereby ignored. The search for asingle type of human environment would turn intomerely elaborating and perfecting the traditionalcity.

For these reasons we have decided to invent a term,and so we have called the sociospatial complex exam-ined in this chapter by a more complicated, yet, wethink, a more precise name. We call it the new unit ofsettlement (NUS), thus underlining in the very namethe significance of this entity as the basic sociospatialunit of a new society.

The spatial autonomy of the NUS, its system of resi- The Plan of NUSdential sectors with a sociocultural center serving all (New Unit ofthe people, depends on a whole range of factors. We Settlement)considered some of them before, when we weredefining the physical plan: density, transportation, 97

and network of public services. Climate, topography,and, up to a point, the kind of economic productionin which the majority of the population is engagedcertainly also play a role in planning.

Improved health and sanitation in urban environ-ments are presupposed for an intensive communallife. Planning of NUS should guarantee easy pedes-trian access from every residential sector to bothnature and the sociocultural center.

The opening of residential sectors to nature is par-ticularly important. Most cities today, having devel-oped in an unplanned way according to the tradi-tional spoke plan, have sprawled beyond their originaldefinition to the point where they join with unbrokenstretches of built-up land spreading out for manymiles. Therefore, to leave the city and find nature, itis necessary to take a trip for an hour or more bymeans of transportation.

We think that high standards of health and sanita-tion and of life in general can be achieved in anenvironment where all it takes to leave the built-uparea is an easy walk. In other words, the limits of thewhole area should be kept within the range of atwenty-minute walk. This means a mile can be consid-ered a conventional distance from home to nature.The area covered by buildings should not be morethan a mile from center to periphery.

If we start with this goal and with the dimensionsof the massive and densely inhabited buildings re-quired by NUS, we find that two basic plans, bothproviding good conditions for health and sanitation,can be used to relate the sectors to each other spa-tially. Let us examine them.

Linear arrangement: the sectors are stretched outalong a single line; the school zone runs parallel to theresidential one.

Circular arrangement: the sectors form a closed98 ring with an open space in the center; the school and

)

sports area alternate with areas of residence.Both these general schemes assure easy pedestrian

access to nature and from that standpoint are equallydesirable. In a concrete situation the choice of one orthe other will obviously depend upon topography.The linear scheme is preferable where the residentialsectors ought to be related in a certain way to promi-nent natural features, such as rivers, seacoast, or agreat forest. The circular arrangement may proveimpossible in areas where there are sharp drops interrain, or under special atmospheric or climaticconditions.

The linear scheme may also prove the more reason-able when a great part of the NUS population isactive in a kind of economic production that doesnot need to be segregated from the residential area.Here we would logically wish to create the possibilityof direct transit between home and work. Unfortu-nately, in the linear plan the various residential sectorsare bound to be unequally distant from the socio-cultural center. The end units will be at a maximumdistance of two miles from the center and so willneed motorized transportation to reach it.

With the circular plan, on the other hand, thecenter of NUS is equidistant from all the residentialunits and is accessible to everyone by an approxi-mately equal walk (the radius of NUS will not surpass1.2 miles). Unequal distance of the residential unitsfrom the sociocultural center is one disadvantage ofthe linear scheme. To some extent, however, it canbe compensated by a very direct and economicalsystem of transportation.

The growth of free associations among people,particularly those based on leisure-time activities,and the tendency for units of production to be placedat a distance from residential areas indicate that theNUS conforming to a circular plan will become themost common type.

Comparative schemes forthe planning of residentialareas: (1) traditional city:central area distant fromnature- peripheral sectorsdistant from center; (2)linear schema: the built-upzone of a depth of 1.5kilometers would extendfor about 6 kilometers tohouse a population of100,000; residential sectorsideally enjoy equalproximity to nature, but theperipheral sectors aremore distant from thecenter; (3) circular schemawith central green mass;residential sectors arepleasantly linked to natureand are equally convenientTo nature and the center.

Accordingly, the residential portion of the newurban environment becomes an autonomous space,complete in itself and clearly defined. The plan forNUS as a static projection (not incorporating thefeature of growth) becomes a clear and integral partof the dynamic context of any economic and geo-graphic region.

100

The chaotic growth ofcities will be replaced by adynamic system of urbansettlement. This system willevolve out of an integratedand self-sufficient nucleus:the NUS.Urban growth, through theformation of nuclei,represents a new phasein the consciousdevelopment of urban life.The goal is to transformthe whole planet into aunified sociologicalenvironment.NUS is the fundamentalunit of that organism. It isthe "quantum" of theurban environment, thefinite unit, limited by itselfand directing itself.The realization of theprojected NUS can beinitiated today, for its realeconomic and technicalinfrastructure alreadyexists.

STRUCTURE OF THE URBAN

ENVIRONMENT

101

The System ofUrban GrowthAccording to theFormation of Nuclei

We must apply to the unified and constructiveplan of communist urban life the results of our inquiryconcerning various aspects of its functional structure.To make our model more understandable we shallcomplete our argument by presenting some specificplans and suggesting some ways of realizing the func-tional structure that we have previously describedon an abstract level. These schemes will inevitablyappear to be rather conventional, lacking the depthand the concrete detail proper to an architecturalproject, but this defect, in our opinion, is outweighedby the usefulness of the schemes in clearly illustratingour fundamental hypothesis.

Demographic expansion, including the rapid indus-trial transformation of territories rich in naturalresources, as well as the never-ending expansion inpartly developed areas and the tendency of heavyindustry and scientific centers to take over vast landareas all give us reason to anticipate some unifiedform for the urban environment, a form in whichthere is close interdependence of environmentalelements (industrial, scientific, and residential) andin which compact regions are created for their in-tensive development.

The emergence of rationally planned areas manymiles in dimension indicates that we have moved intoa new stage of conscious urban development ulti-mately aimed at uniting the planet into a singlesystem corresponding to a new kind of social orga-nization and to the growing potential of moderntechnology.

The region of urban settlement with many nuclei 105

Diagram of groupdistribution in the urbanenvironment

I 06

Industrial complex

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can become populated by as many as several millionpeople. The region itself is formed by the economicinterdependence of its development, from the indus-trial complex to the industrial area and the industrialregion. The region has a single system of transpor-tation, a centralized administration, and a unifiedsystem of education and research.

The urban nuclei in this region form a system thatis spatially autonomous although connected with in-dustrial areas, auxiliary and agricultural lands, andareas preserved in their natural state.

Each unit of settlement (NUS) is planned to havea standard social and spatial structure and to fulfillindependently the major cultural needs and servicesfor its inhabitants. The fact of standardization doesnot exclude diversity, however, in the local planningsituation, which should respond to topography, cli-mate, and other indigenous factors.

These units of settlement (NUS), novel in their sizeand conception, would be rationally distributedthrough an urban zone. They should be planned fairlyfar apart (from one to two diameters of a single NUS)in order to keep (or create) large green belts betweenthem, which could be directly contiguous with the

residential areas. The natural conditions in the greenbelts between different NUS could provide recrea-tional services, including institutions for public healthand sport for the entire population of the administra-tive zone. Other unused land areas in the zones as-signed to settlement could be given over to agricul-ture, thereby serving the population with fresh pro-duce and providing the food industry with raw mate-rial. A large portion of the population living in theNUS could be employed in these activities. It is likelyalso that many people in the urbanized area would beattracted into agricultural labor during their leisureperiods. Consequently, the weblike structure of ur-banized zones that results from our planning of nucleiwill largely abolish the distinction between rural andurban environments.

Every zone with its urban nuclei will require somecentralized institutions to co-ordinate and direct itseconomic activity and scientific education. Theseinstitutions can be placed in a single complex locatedat the center of the whole urbanized area, where,along with administrative offices to direct scientificresearch and higher education, a center for economicco-ordination would be located. Here, too, signifi-cantly, there can be an information center on whichthe sociocultural activities of the NUS, including itspolitical and administrative functions, can depend.

The regions with settlements of nuclei, therefore,would be free of many of the serious defects thatare characteristic of existing gigantic urban agglom-erations with their histories of unplanned growth,health and sanitation problems, remoteness fromnature, tangled transportation, and unequal accessto both center and periphery. At the same time, theurban zone that is based on nuclei will preserve allthe real virtues of the contemporary metropolis,especially the high level of social and cultural life.

The residential zone, attached economically to an 107

69c00

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000

Central NUS

eCommunities ofmobile homes??,

c6D030

Diagram of NUS in anagricultural zone.Along the radial links oftransportation transientcommunities are housedin mobile homes.

108

evolving industrial complex, will form part of a totaleconomic and geographic region and will call for anadministrative and territorial organization related toit. In a single economic and geographic region oneor several nuclei could develop, where most of theregion's population would be concentrated. Thecenter of one of these would presumably take overthe co-ordinating and directing of the whole region.

In the process of spreading to new land areas, asingle NUS or small groups of two or three may arise.In time, these will split off into autonomous regionsor be united with neighboring regions, depending onthe economic and geographic characteristics of theterritory.

New NUS, isolated and relatively autonomous,very remote from all others, will probably arise quiteoften in agrarian zones, at centers for the processingof agricultural products. Similar isolated settlementswill tend to appear around refineries in mining areas.

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In these cases NUS will be the social, administrative,and cultural center for a widely scattered population.

If such a central NUS can be linked by adequatemeans of transportation with the agricultural ormining area as a whole, it will make sense to constructtemporary housing (perhaps mobile homes) for sea-sonal use by agricultural workers (or for miners rotat-ing periods of work in the mines).

What we have said concerning new areas of settle-ment leads us to sketch out a method for recon-structing existing urban areas as well. Reconstructionalways touches on a great number of previouslydeveloped situations and cannot be really resolvedunless one knows all the details and has worked outa full and accurate plan. Reconstruction cannot beachieved by blindly following some simple formula ora single plan. This is a problem that calls for uniqueand often surprising approaches. But we may brieflysuggest here some helpful principles.

Complex of mobilehomes for temporarysettlements in agriculturaland mining areas: (I)homes; (2) complex offacilities provided; (3)public building ofpneumatic type.

109

•tEo•a(501:3o

61PDiagram indicating to whatextent a city could bereconstructed. Theundifferentiated system ofneighborhoods is dividedby green open spaces intolarge nuclear urban areas,each with its autonomouscenter.Industrial zones areindicated by the openspace above.

Where there are concentrations of millions ofpeople, we want to make a gradual transition fromthe metropolis to the urbanized zone composed ofNUS nuclei. We want to intersperse green beltsthrough existing complexes of buildings, to transformthe whole into a system of large civic units (typeNUS), each with its administrative, cultural, scientific,and educational center.

In small and medium-size cities where the possibilityexists for intensive economic development, it can bestimulated by the construction of new NUS, whichalso would raise the level of consumer and culturalservices. On the other hand, if economic develop-ment is slow, the logical procedure would be toremove the population gradually to the nearest urbancenter.

In agricultural regions economic activity, includingmodern agricultural work and cultural life, can beginto cluster at physically and economically advanta-geous locations. There should eventually develop atthese locations a central NUS, or group of NUS,whose cultural institutions would attract the popula-tion of these regions.

The basis of our planning is the concept of a newunit of settlement (NUS); we propose a "quantum"for urbanization, the size of which can vary onlywithin narrow limits. This is a theoretically validpremise and merits a supplementary word of expla-nation.

In defining the average numerical size of NUSpopulations at 100,000, we do not mean this to bea fixed or rigid total. It may indeed be argued thatbecause of an elaborate complex of local conditionsthere might be a NUS in some places with a popula-tion of 150,000, or twin NUS of 200,000, sharing asingle enlarged sociocultural center.

Although we are assuming that further experi-mental inquiry into the nature and growth of free

sociocultural life will lead to corrections of our pro-jections, we nevertheless do postulate NUS as alwaysrepresenting the fundamental unit of the future com-munity. We also maintain that a population of100,000 accurately reflects the correlation betweenoptimum size of a large primary residential unit andthe requirements of an organizational structure thatwill support intensive free association and the pursuitof cultural interests.

It is important to clarify how the "maximum" sizewe have set for the population and dimensions of anyNUS will fit in with the requirements of economicproduction, especially where there is vast economicgrowth.

In contemporary production it is common practiceto isolate certain essential activities from the funda-mental process of manufacturing. (These includeadministration, experimentation, research, and pro-gramming.) This is done regardless of whether em-ployment is increasing or declining. The procedure ineither case directly affects what happens in the urbanenvironment.

While the most important manufacturing pro-cesses show a tendency to move away from residen-tial areas, administrative and research activities thatare directly connected with them appear to be gravi-tating toward urban centers.

A system of rapid transportation connects NUS,the industrial area, and the scientific center, unifyingthe whole urbanized region. Thus it is possible to dis-tribute the labor force with equal efficiency over thewhole region and regulate the immigration of peopleinto an urbanized region in addition to its normalpopulation expansion by settling all persons in newunits of settlement (NUS).

Sometimes a single NUS will form an adjunct to aparticular industrial complex or to certain intensivelydeveloped sectors of an industrial zone because

these still employ a major portion of the population.Even then, however, there is no reason for NUS todiffer radically, either in physical size or in popula-tion density, from the proposed dimensions.

Although the location of some industries is deter-mined by proximity to refineries, mines, and suchoperations, other manufacturing processes can belocated practically anywhere in a region as long asthey are reasonably related to the overall transporta-tion and production system.

When a great number of industries, each requiringspatial autonomy, move into an urban region, it iseasy to imagine that an isolated industry of minimaldimensions will bring in a certain number of people,say 11,000, while larger industries will bring in propor-tionally more.

The development of the urban environment on aregional scale will, of course, be simultaneous withthe construction of NUS nuclei. Therefore, we canbegin to envision the urban environment of the futureas a dynamic system, one in which the number ofelements expands rationally in the process of devel-opment. Each element, however, is not planned toexpand autonomously but to be integrated with agrowing quantity of other elements into an expandingsystem. The concept is analogous to the growthprocess in nature by which each element is assuredan appropriate site and function. The growth of anycomplex organism has a definite limit, after which theorganism generates a new organism resembling itself.The chaotic growth of the modern city beyond anylimits is comparable only to the growth of a malignanttumor. This kind of growth prevents the normal activ-ity of the organism and ultimately destroys it.

The idea of limiting the growth of the communityis nothing new in itself. The literature on urban plan-ning in capitalist societies is full of good intentions

112

for ending the monstrous expansion of metropolitan

"Continuity anddiscontinuity: twocontradictory featureslinked indissolubly together,and found generally innatural, social, and mentalphenomena."—BolsajaSovetskaja Enciklopedija,XXXIV, 434.

113

areas. Given their social context, however, theseideas, no matter how reasonable, are impossible toput into practice.

In Soviet planning the idea of limiting communitygrowth has long been part of a fairly widespreadconcept: the concept of the "ideal city.' This con-cept begins with the attempt to proportion thegroups within an urban population numerically inorder to assure the best economic and social devel-opment, hygienic conditions, and transportation, andgenerally to solve the major urban problems.

The very term "ideal city" implies that theseproblems (and especially the problem of the organicrelationship between production, housing, and long-range economic planning) are all to be resolvedwithin the framework of a single integral urbancomplex, while the study of the relation betweenenvironment and large-scale industry is relegated tothe background. This intellectual starting point leadsto irreconcilable contradictions. For one thing, thepopulation size of the "ideal city" is rigidly set andcannot accommodate the massive influx of popula-tion attracted by rapid industrial expansion. Thispopulation size is not based on any one real consid-eration, moreover, but is simply a kind of arithmeticalaverage among several answers to different and sep-arate problems.

Our notion of a new basic element in the urbanenvironment derives from quite a different perspec-tive, one which takes the whole urbanized region intoaccount. This means that we can fully anticipate in-dustrial growth and can study and predict the effectsof economic and transportation systems on the totalindustrial and territorial complex.

We have arrived at a clear and secure position fordefining a self-regulating basic unit. Our new element

114

in the urban environment (NUS) was not postulated

on the basis of factors extrinsic to it but on the basisof the urban residential situation itself, in otherwords, on the basis of the real individual and socialrequirements of communist society.

We have attempted to describe the functional From Plan to Actualitystructure of the urban environment by presenting allthe data that have a direct bearing on the kind ofbuildings to be constructed and on their plannedrelationships. It is necessary now to sketch, at leastbriefly, some architectural solutions that would bepossible within this framework and to consider someof the available construction techniques.

We must turn from our inquiry into the socialmatrix to some general architectural schemes that,although general, are much less abstract than thetheoretical arguments and statistics that we havebeen presenting so far. To speak concretely, we mustconsider how long a time period we expect it willtake to move from plan to actuality. The rhythm ofprogress today is highly accelerated, and the periodof time that we estimate defines from the planners'point of view a stage in technological and economicdevelopment—a level of technical innovation.

New techniques in architecture open exciting pos-sibilities. The use of synthetic insulation materials isbringing major improvements to building. We canpredict, for example, that a plastic film will soonreplace glass as the usual window material. Combinedwith the new, but already praticable, concept ofinflatable structures, this means that whole complexesof residential buildings can be enclosed and given anartificial climate. There are unlimited possibilities inthe use of effective substitutes for primitive methodsof construction, methods that have only traditionalvalue. Construction is becoming a field for fascinat-ing experiments. 1 15

Time will change theappearance of the new cityto the point ofunrecognizability. The useof laminated transparentplastics may lead to thecreation of fantastic citiesunder transparent domes.The eventual developmentof bearing structures ofmetal and reinforcedconcrete will probablymake the city of the futuretake on the character of asingle gigantic edifice.

In this book we have avoided fantasies about thedistant future; we have tried to show how a new func-tional structure for the urban environment is alreadypossible. To use this planning approach as the basisfor spatial solutions would in itself generate a quali-tatively new environment. The proposals we mentionin this chapter should not be compared with the in-numerable existing proposals for an architecture ofthe future. Our proposals are intended only to clarifythe principles to be applied to certain new urbanprojects. We are absolutely not engaged in lookingfor new kinds of building materials or techniques;those we describe are quite conventional construc-tion techniques that are normal today, or ones that

116 will be common in the next few decades.

Our plans for NUS illustrate no more than our gen-eral conception of its spatial arrangement. We cer-tainly do not intend to dictate the actual profile ofa settlement or the design of any individual building.We realize, moreover, that every environmental im-provement is made not only by building new struc-tures but by relating these in some way to existingsurroundings. Any plan we offer, therefore, even themost abstract, assumes that change will be gradual,consisting of increments of progress toward a distantgoal.

The standards for areas and cubic space that wehave applied here to NUS are ones that will actuallybe guiding construction for the next few years. Theaccelerated building program and the progressiverise in standards for housing and public services thatappear here simply conform to our society's actualpresent plans.

Accordingly, to comprehend our examples, onemust realize that our standards are the ones actuallyexpected to prevail in the near future.

The fundamental principles governing the NUS:I. Equal mobility for all. Residential sectors are at

equal walking distance from the center and from theforests and parks surrounding them.

2. Distances are planned on a pedestrian scale. Nohome is so remote from the center or from the parkarea that it cannot be reached by a reasonably shortwalk.

3. Elimination of danger from vehicular traffic.Rapid public transportation operates outside the pe-destrian area yet is linked centrally with NUS. (Itscircuits carry people from home to work and fromhome to home.)

4. Green belts. Every sector is surrounded on at-least two sides by open land.

Space Planning

117

Diagram of NUS.I. Residential units2. School and sports area3. Rapid transport above

pedestrian level4. Highway5. Community center of

NUS

Diagram of the NUS. Theplan of the NUS herepresented assumes typicalconditions: the NUSis in an urban zone withnuclei; it is shown in ageographically central andaverage region; the sectorsare arranged on a circularplan with no topographicalbreaks. What we indicatehere is the most abstractprojection of NUS and theclearest illustration of itsbasic structure. This plan issimultaneously a symbol ofthe idea and a program forits realization.

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Sectors are planned like spokes around the NUScenter, which focuses attention on the large com-munity park and on the sociocultural center. Thesetogether occupy an area of 200 acres. Residentialsectors are linked to each other and to the industrialcomplexes located three to four miles away by asystem of public transportation. Motorized trafficcirculates on a peripheral highway, except for athroughroad that takes it into the center. Roadsbranching from this one provide access to, but donot traverse, residential, educational, and recrea-tional areas.

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The basic concept stresses:I. A pedestrian scale. The distance from any resi-Residential Sector

dence to the center of services including public trans-portation will not exceed 500 yards to 600 yards (aseven-minute walk).

2. The school environment. Placing the school com-munity at the edge of a residential area allows theschoolgrounds to connect directly with park andForest lands.

3. Parks and recreational land. Spaces between theresidential sectors will be green, linking the trees andlandscaping of the center to forests and parks outsidethe developed area.

The residential sector is a densely built-up area andincludes sixteen primary complexes. It is surroundedby a green belt, at least one quarter of a mile wide,and it incorporates a shopping center for 25,000persons, some light industry, and space for collectiveactivities.

Storage space for both residential and nonresiden-tial buildings is provided by basements. Undergroundaccess is also planned for delivery and other servicescoming from the peripheral road. This means that allheavy traffic can be kept out of the center, whichwill contain only light pavilions reached by a widewalkway. In this central area, close to shops andservices, we locate the subway or elevated station.

There is enough space between two residentialsectors to provide for a school community and areasfor recreation, rest, and sports. Set among fields andgardens, the school community has a three-storycentral residence, around which are clustered variouseducational buildings. Four of these are sufficient tobegin with. Later, in response to the growing educa-tional system, this number will have to increase. Forthe present, however, school structures will appear,as shown in our diagram, bordering on the outer areaof green, where general sports facilities and an indoorswimming pool are also developed, to serve both

119

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The diagram of NUS doesnot dictate a single uniquespatial solution. Despite thefact of a single functionalstructure, the profile ofeach settlement will bemodified by variousconcrete circumstances, bythe creative character ofthe architect, and by theeffective level of technologybeing applied.I. An example of lineararrangement of residentialunits near nonharmfulindustrial plants. High-risebuildings with tower, someof which are united with ablock containing sharedservices, will form the basicresidential units.2. Example of compactarrangement of residentialunits. Buildings of six tonine floors are primaryresidential units.The urban total:I. Primary residential units2. Community center for

the sector

students and adults. Medical and general healthservices should be available here.

The geometry and physical size of the residentialsector can be described in other ways. The sectormay be viewed as a planned high-rise area with twoextensions for school and sports, or it can be identi-

3.

4.5.

6.7.8.

fled as a school campus and sports area with twodensely populated residential extensions. From eitherpoint of view, our plan shows an integrated systemof housing, consumer services, schools, and recrea-tional facilities for 25,000 inhabitants.

School communitycomplexAcademic centerCommunity center ofNUSSports complexHighwayRapid transport abovepedestrian level

Primary residential unit:I. Seen from above2. Residential cellThe area of auxiliaryinstallations is shaded. Thevertical connecting link(elevator, stairs) is indicatedby a circle.

Primary The principles underlying our plan for housing unitsResidential Unit are:

I. Reasonable economy, privacy, and comfort. Toanswer these needs, high-rise residential structuresare combined with low-rise children's institutions.

2. Variation in total structures based on the com-bination of standard units. The basic apartment unit

serves as a module, and combinations can be variedto create apartments of different types to suit differ-ent numbers of persons per family.

3. Bilateral orientation is recommended for alltypes of apartments except those for single persons.

The primary residential complex includes seven-teen-story apartment blocks, some primary consumerservices, and a low-rise preschool and elementaryschool.

In the high-rise building both vertical traffic (ele-I 22 vators) and horizontal communication (mezzanines)

School CommunityComplex

I 23

are necessary. The system of mezzanines assures ahigher level of comfort and privacy than do corridors.

In practice, many variations of the mezzanineconcept are possible. Our diagram indicates only thegeneral location of elevators and stairs and assumesthat the details would depend on the specific con-struction plan. The first floor of housing is raisedabove ground level to make the building independentof terrain and to avoid blocking pedestrian traffic.

Consumer services can be provided wherever de-sired on the lower floors of the residential structure.

In planning the apartments we have taken accountof the auxiliary areas. Elevators, stairs, bathroomfacilities, and kitchens for two apartments form asingle compact module. By locating all the mechani-cal services in one area, installation and repairs aremade much easier. All apartments (except those onthe mezzanine floors) have a bilateral orientation.

Within the two-apartment module, housing can becarved out for three, four, or five persons. Apart-ments for one and two persons are placed on themezzanines; those for six or more persons in pent-

houses. Hence our residential unit can include a rangeof apartments, based on the prevailing norm of about100 square feet per person for private living area,and in line with the demographic composition of ourpopulation. In our plan of a typical apartment layout,we have kept in mind how it can be modified for dif-ferent area ratios or in relation to eventual changesin demand.

Our present system allows us to house up to 1,750persons in one high-rise building. If the space allow-ance per person increases while the system of publiceducation continues to expand, the number of perma-nent residents occupying the same building area willdecrease to perhaps 1,000 adults, and this process ofdecongestion will increase the space per resident.

Primary schools with dormitories will have a gen-

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Academic CenterShopping Center

Secondary-SchoolCommunity

eral service area with dining room and kitchen, gymand classroom space, administrative and teachers'offices, and first aid station. The children's dormi-tories are to be built around this central service unit.Each dormitory will be self-contained and will haveits own access to the garden. The dormitories will belinked, however, to each other and to the centralservice unit. Bathrooms, auxiliary facilities, play-rooms, and bedrooms must be planned in each sepa-rate dormitory.

As the system of public education grows, newbuildings will be needed. The preschool and elemen-tary-school population in each primary residentialcomplex will eventually require twelve dormitories.

Two basic components are required by theseschools: classroom buildings and dormitories. For thesecondary-school community we propose a circular

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three-story structure surrounding a large courtyard.On the ground floor: classrooms, recreation rooms,living rooms with easy access to the street. On theupper floors: dormitories and communal rooms forliving. In the first phase of construction the second-and third-floor recreation rooms with separate en-trances can be used for classrooms. The circular con-tinuum of this scholastic building is broken at twoplaces: ( I ) the open passageway into the courtyard;(2) an area of small sports facilities and teachers'rooms. By placing these two breaks where there isleast sunlight, sun in the classrooms can be maximized.

The main educational building is a long structurethree stories high. Along its facades, we locate lab-oratories, bathrooms, classrooms, and recreationalrooms. In the center, illuminated by skylights, are thelibrary and four large auditoriums. On the first floorare the entrance halls with closets and the special

Community Center of NUS

125

laboratories. The whole building (because of shiftingtimes of use by different groups) can serve 3,000persons.

The Proposed This center of the residential sector is composedConsumer Service of pavilions surrounding an elevated plaza. AreasCenter under this platform are reserved for storage rooms,

workshops, and auxiliary facilities, all served by a cen-tralized delivery, shipping, and waste-disposal system.Based upon projections of future services, two pavil-ions are planned for shops, while another four aredesignated respectively for a cinema to seat 800, arestaurant, the sector administration unit, and com-munity services.

The construction of the center can be planned instages. Our diagrammatic plan indicates additionalsports facilities, including an outdoor swimming pooland an indoor stadium. These functions are intendedto develop along with others in the community center,like the general clinic and other medical institutions.All of these represent components that would even-tually create a unified system of public facilities andservices for the residential area.

Proposed Social and This center occupies a special place in the socialCultural Center for and physical plan of NUS. It appears in our sketchesthe Whole Community as a building with three levels. The ground floor

contains only the courtyard with its public access.The second level above the courtyard is an opensquare, the sides designed as two narrow bands con-taining a variety of facilities. The exterior bandincludes two-story galleries alternating with single-story studios, seminar rooms, and classrooms, whilethe interior band overlooking the courtyard wouldcontain reading rooms, archives, small individualstudios, and labs.

Between these two bands, larger units, such asassembly halls, two theaters, a planetarium, a large

1 26 gymnasium, and a swimming pool could be freely

Residential building Microsector City

Wholly built-up zone

Suburb

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Built-upzone j L Zone of intensive expansion

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units

I I

Residentialsectors

NUS Urbanized districtof nuclear settlements

Present and future structureof the urban environment.The elements of thefunctional structureare quite preciselydifferentiated in thepresent urban environment.Among these the dominantone is the residentialbuilding, hence themicrosector (that is, asector of about 30,000 to40,000 population), and thecity itself, with a populationrange of 10,000 to severalmillion. Under existingconditions, the microsectorand even the city appearas uninterrupted built-upareas with small greenpatches. This kind ofdevelopment inagglomerations of over100,000 populationproduces unsatisfactoryliving conditions. Theaccompanying table showsthe significance of ourproposal. The elements ofthe functional structure are

clearly distinguished:primary residential unit andurbanized unit, replacingrespectively the residentialbuilding and themicrosector of a population,whatever its size. NUS,with a population of100,000, constitutes anucleus of the city. Anagglomeration of any sizecan be restructured in thisway, with the totalpopulation distributed inresidential units and NUS.Conversely, areas ofuninterrupted naturalexpanse can contain nomore than one NUS.Instead of gigantic cities,here is the urban districtorganized by nuclei andlinked to a system ofindustrial production. Thetables given here showclearly the difference inprinciple between thecontinuous structure of theexisting environment andthe discontinuous structure

of the urban environmentof the future.In the existing environmentthe fundamental unit ofgrowth is the microsector;but this is a unit without aconstant size and oftenshaped by the accidentalpressures of localconditions. In theanticipated structure thefundamental unit of growthis NUS, a clearly definedsocial and spatial complex.

located. These could be connected where convenientto the working spaces in the parallel bands. Oursketch of this building designates each side of thesquare for one of the four fundamental fields ofcultural activity: science and technology, crafts, thearts, and sports. Since planning and constructionneeds will vary, however, the form obviously must beflexible, and it certainly is not easy to foresee howthis community and social center would be affectedby voluntary associations and the pursuit of individualinterests. New economic possibilities undoubtedlywill affect the center's outcome, too.

Our diagrams should be sufficient, however, toshow that we can really create an urban environmentthat meets individual and social needs, even whileworking within the present phase of transition to com-munism, and that we can base our building plans onthe existing economic infrastructure. Thus this proto-type design could be realized today merely by takingadvantage of the technical possibilities and func-tional organization of contemporary architecture.

I 28

The new architecturerepresents an inevitableand innovative evolution outof past building traditions.The rationality of thisarchitecture and its use ofspace derive from thebasic "plastic" reality ofthe surrounding world.The physical planning ofthe new city reflects theharmony and integratedcharacter of its socialstructure.A unified planningapproach assigns to eachelement a role in theformation of humanenvironments. The futurebelongs to an architecturethat is permeated with thespirit of organic synthesis.

THE PHYSICAL UNITY OF THE NUS

(NEW UNIT OF SETTLEMENT)

129

This chapter attempts to show how the new plan- The Logic of Changening science, which is based on sociospatial conceptsof the urban environment, influences architecture, ormore precisely, the language of architecture. Duringthe past several decades, planners have been tryingto arrive at a master plan for environments, whichcould handle all the contingencies of unplannedgrowth. Now a spatial system that corresponds withand satisfies the needs of all men is being sought. Thissearch, unique to our time, has assigned a new roleto architecture and new tasks that cannot be accom-plished by older methods. Neither the possibilitiesnor the limitations of new methods were at all clearat first, but after persistent attempts to apply them,planners have begun to recognize their usefulness andcan now discuss them on the basis of experience oras familiar ideas.

The work of an architect can be called contem-porary only if he understands how and why in histime the goals and techniques of architecture havechanged. Changes have not come by chance. Wemay come to understand the logic of the process ifwe examine the basic stages by which traditionalEuropean architecture has evolved. Even very unusualaspects of the new architecture are transitionalevents in an unceasing evolution. Attempts to ob-struct this process of change must yield to the reali-zation of its inevitability and to an understanding ofthe way in which change is radically reshaping pasttraditions.

Initially, the building activities of man grew out ofthe need to shelter human life by abstracting a suit- i 33

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The faceted mass of thetemple sparkling in the sunstands out against thebackground of nature. Assoon as it can be seen froma great distance, itattracts full attention, likea sail on the horizon, like agleaming jewel. Thelandscape slowly opens up,like the palm of a handholding a white crystal.The temple comes intoview. The varied surface ofits façades becomes morevisible; details assumerelief and show theircomplex and rhythmicstructure. Finally, there is amoment when the buildingfills the whole visual fieldwith a complex play oflines and forms.

able artificial space from the world of nature. Ac-cordingly, one of the first achievements of architec-ture was its ability to enclose human existence in aspace, the limits of which were determined by thefunctions taking place in that space.

This concept of space has evolved continually sincethe first clear architectural expression was given toit in ancient Greece. The temple was the first publicbuilding of antiquity to reflect a fully conscious archi-tectural typology. As a building form it expresses afew simple and widely accepted functional principles.These principles subordinate a whole group of spacesto a single comprehensive structural order.

As a visual form the temple appears in reliefagainst the city and stands clearly distinct from therest of the environment. The sea, the sky, and themountains serve as its backdrop. Whether it tops thenatural line of a hill or sets the scale of a valley the

Greek temple relates to, but is set apart from, nature.By its severe geometry it expresses man's capacity tocreate a rational human order.

At'hough the temple is planned to relate to itssurroundings, it clearly contrasts with them. By beinga focal element in the landscape, it dominates theentire spatial composition. Not only does the templesubordinate surrounding spatial relationships; it alsogives an orientation to all views to the world outsideas well.

Man's ability to perceive spatial impressions is notunlimited; he can take in only a limited number ofdiverse elements simultaneously without fatigue. Thistolerance sets his maximum perceptual intake.

If a building's complexity does not exceed thislimit, its composition can be perceived as a whole.Otherwise, its visual identity becomes lost in a fluxof diverse, unrelated impressions.

In the same way, a mass of details can spoil apainting. We instinctively move away from thecanvas to create conditions for better perception.As our awareness of details diminishes, we are ableto experience the painting's total impact.

Actually, many distinct elements can be compre-hended with maximum perception, provided that theelements are grouped in rhythmic sequences. TheGreek temple is such a structure, perceivable as anintegrated composition from several interrelated ref-erence points.

The monolithic stone architecture of the Greeks,combined with their highly developed craftsmanshipin its detailing, enabled the artisans to give the simplegeometrical space a rich complexity. This makes theprocess of perception a varied and profound experi-ence, never disrupting, however, the force andbeauty of the total composition.

Alternating the elements of the Greek orders(capitols, columns, metopes, etc.) produced harmoni- 135

ous spatial rhythms. Completing and reinforcing eachother, they make up a visual language that can whollyarticulate the building's elemental mass.

ArchitecturalTypologies

136

From the demonstrated increase in material re-sources through history and the experience of socialand political change, architecture has come to in-clude an ever greater number of typologies.

Architecture was called upon to create models forthe daily existence of a feudal elite and later of adominant bourgeoisie. A luxurious kind of building de-veloped, centering on palaces and mansions. Workingfor his patron's excessive individual needs, however,the architect was forced to isolate heterogeneousspaces to the point where they could no longer beintegrated within one environmental system. Build-ings, for the most part, became totally unrelated toeach other and to their own interior functions.

The medieval city is an exciting agglomerate ofbuildings. It was not meant to be perceived throughthe unfolding rhythms of classical Greek architecture.Man experienced the city as a set of broken spatialfragments, each requiring separate acts of percep-tion. The cathedral or palace became the dominantelement that was needed to tie these fragmentstogether.

The architects of classical antiquity tried to placetheir monumental structures on open sites in orderto make them visible from all sides and therefore per-ceivable in an integrated spatial composition. Renais-sance architects made particular use of perspectivescreated by giving direction to narrow and enclosedviews. Powerful cornices also gave an ordered rhythmto street facades.

The building methods and uses of materials thatwere harmoniously related in the monumental Greekarchitecture became diffused during the medieval

Rhythm is a creative meansin composition. In the twophotographs shown herethe number of objects isthe same: above, chaos,undifferentiatedagglomeration; below, thefundamental rhythmicelements of a compositionare clearly displayed.

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period. The structure of buildings and their facadeswere designed separately.

During the neoclassic era, gigantic palaces devel-oped, and even whole building systems were orga-nized on the basis of a rigorous architectural andplanning hierarchy. The architect was seeking to unifya complex composition by using a single visual con- 137

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The medieval town appearsas the combination of aninfinite number of differentarchitectural compositions.Verticality, dominating thetown, focuses this varietyof scenes and orients thespace as a whole.

138

cept, and this demanded a maximum use of percep-tual powers. Spatial rhythms were created not bysingle elements but by articulating entire facades.Varying the design of facades by making progressivechanges in architectural orders, from Renaissance toneoclassic, became the major esthetic concern ofarchitecture.

Throughout this period the bearing wall remainedthe fundamental structural principle. In the earlyRenaissance the bearing-wall concept combined theneed for a barrier against climate and the needfor social separation. Many expressive innovationsdeveloped in the use of materials and methods ofconstruction. In time, though, the wall developed intoa screen to hide the building and came to have,therefore, only a decorative function.

Despite its lace of structural function, the deco-rated facade, with its ordered elements, continued tomaintain esthetic prominence as long as architectureand planning focused all attention on a few monu-mental building types.

As building demands have expanded, however, tomeet the needs of greater numbers of people, thecontradiction between highly individuated buildingand a rigid canon of spatial esthetics has grown everclearer and more irreconcilable. But without materialssuperior to stone and brick, architecture was held tocompromise solutions.

A critical period came at the beginning of thetwentieth century. Building expansion and technologi-cal innovations introduced industrial processes intoconstruction. Architecture changed its emphasis tofunctional solutions and logical procedures. Steel andreinforced concrete became generally used. Efficientinsulating materials were developed. Variations ofcolor and form in the façade no longer dependedupon the building's structural system.

At last, construction methods no longer limit the

The new building, astructure made of lightand green.

freedom and independence of architectural expres-sion. Traditional canons and formalistic approachesno longer apply. The road is wide open. Severaldecades of experience, moreover, have given con-temporary architecture the capacity to articulateclearly, if not to answer completely, the major newproblems. I 39

Ornament has no functionin the facade of thecontemporary building.It reappears in theimmediate area of publicvisibility, along thesidewalk, where the humanscale dominates.

Geometry and Design After the excessive mannerism of the nineteenthcentury, an architecture based on concrete and glass,with a simplicity and ascetic rigor, has developed.Representing a revolutionary phase in the history ofarchitecture, it demonstrates a new relationship totechnology. Now construction becomes a branch ofindustrial production. Unity and the repetition ofhomogeneous elements are demanded both by newvisual conditions and the urgent need for mass-pro-duced housing. The new concept of housing concen-trates upon light and open spaces; the courtyard withits well no longer blocks out open horizons. Instead of

façades on the street, or monumental piazzas, wenow open our residential buildings to panoramicviews.

Previously, full visual attention was concentratedon a single building. Now it is given to the wholevisual field that a viewer experiences. That field takes

140

in the whole urban environment.

The single building relates to an elaborate spatialcomplex, as a column relates to an ancient temple. Itbecomes part of a whole, a rhythmic element, a notein a harmony.

Facades can be seen in their totality only from agreat distance. Therefore, detailed ornamentationis superfluous, even harmful, since it tends to pro-duce confusion and break up fundamental buildingrhythms.

The visual simplicity of facades and the rhythmicmassing of identical elements are both basic preoccu-pations of the new architecture. Within its framework

30-40 11

individual buildings take their place in the anonymousweb of urban structures.

A new visual world is being generated from theseabstract forms. Rationally planned, it is a world thatrepresents a victory over material shortcomings andsymbolizes liberty, as well as the power of technology.It is a world both attractive and disturbing, for it

Zones of near and distantviewing. The dimensions ofthe near zone are definedby the possibility ofdetailed perception ofplastic variety—color andshape—in objects. Inpractice, the zone ofimmediate perception islimited by a height ofthirty feet and a distanceof not more than 100 feetto 150 feet. Beyond thatdistance objects areconventionally consideredas being viewed from afar.

141

-

In the course of centuriesarchitecture has producedvaried and seeminglyincompatible works. In allof them the millenialcontradiction between theepic dimension of socialreality and the lyricdimension of personalreality is manifested,between rational andirrational, geometry anddesign, straight line andcurve.

represents human intelligence, although the individualno longer is dominant. Ornamentation also has ceasedto be featured in the design of facades. This scale ofsculptural and pictorial decoration is now indepen-dent of a single function or building; it can be seenin the design of roads and walkways, in small openspaces and green areas, and in the refinement ofminor structures. Panoramic architecture, with itsnobility and its expressive force, creates a new large-scale plasticity that is extremely different from thearchitecture in which scale and dimension were con-ceived in relation to the individual. Where one canlook closely and touch with one's hands (the architec-ture along streets, or at the base of buildings), onesenses an acute need for ornamented detail andvariation.

The architect now is chiefly responsible for the

total organization of space, not only the spaces in abuilding but the open spaces between buildings. Nolonger is space interpreted mechanically, but as anorganic method of architectural composition. A newworld arises, a world of curved humanistic lines. Lightand landscape penetrate into areas where until re-cently darkness and bleakness ruled. Buildings growhigher. Sun and gardens surround them on all sides.They stand free of the soil, leaving the land to man.

Rather than emphasizing the facades of buildings,contemporary architecture stresses the plastic andpanoramic view and takes in the whole perceptualfield. Although architecture has at its disposal anarsenal of means, it still has not fulfilled its estheticpotential. One step still must be taken before thesepossibilities can materialize and create a new kind oftotal space, before we leave behind negation andnovelty and arrive at a harmonious unity of rationaland emotional elements, geometry and human design.

Will architecture be able to create a varied es- Standardization andthetic space, a unique environment based on the Multiform Constructioninherent standardization of mass production?

We have not reflected enough upon the very im-portant fact that construction has now become a partof industrial production. Many consider the resultingstandardization to be primitive or repressive, notcorresponding to the complex nature of man. Manypeople view the industrialization of construction (andof other human activities also) as the sickness of ourcentury,'' for which we absolutely must find a cure.

The potentialities of mass production, however, areundeniable; the prospects for its development areunlimited. Furthermore, principles of mass productioncontain nothing intrinsically new; standardization andthe creation of fixed types are facts of nature andalways have been.

This undeniably is one of the fundamental phe- 143

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nomena of this world, which no new discovery willalter. Atomism, in its broadest meaning, or massproduction as practised by nature, is the deepestscientific truth." 15

What is new is that human beings in relativelyrecent times have recognized the principle of stan-dardization and have undertaken to apply it to theirown activities, particularly to the field of construc-tion. Whatever people may say about the anonymityand monotony of contemporary architecture, everynew spatial conception must work with large-scalecomplexes composed of repetitive building types.

Construction by industrial methods means that awhole range of architectural needs must be met bystandard types of buildings that, in turn, incorporatestandardized structural elements. In principle, theseprocedures are the appropriate result of standard-ized project planning. The projects thus produced,however, usually present an intolerably rigid appear-ance. They are the outcome of a series of dimensionaland formal assumptions that leave no room for theintervention of creativity.

In these projects any required updating, or evenminor changes, involves new standardized planning.

144

15 J Ti9mpson, Previews of the Future (Moscow, 1960), p. 37.

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A great number ofstandard forms areincorporated incontemporary building,but the spatial solutionsarrived at differ very little.The result is a depressinguniformity.

What finally results is a vast number of standardizedprojects that may differ in detail but are all of onegeneral type.

The standardized project, furthermore, does notallow the planner any latitude even within prescribedlimits. Because creativity is reduced to a minimum,the outcome is a depressing monotony.

Clearly, then, the ways in which buildings are stan-dardized and assembled must be changed.

No more than general plans and the most basicfunctional relationships should be pre-established fora project.

The organization grid statesonly the construction planand the solution ofprincipal functionalquestions for each type ofstructure. The facade, theshape of the building, itsplacing on the site and itsmass are worked outcreatively and specificallyby the urbanist architect.

145

The modular grid is a well-defined means for desig-nating the interdependence of various spaces. Mod-ules are designed to suit their structural and economicfunctions. A modular plan provides a system for plan-ning the open and closed parts of the shell, theposition of stairs, the service and access areas. Onthe one hand, it is able to guarantee a certain func-tional relationship (how the mechanical cores, ele-vators, and stairs will be incorporated in the structureand how the apartments will be arranged), but on theother hand, it gives the architect freedom to designwithin its limits. The modular grid, therefore, is thearchitect's indispensable tool for creating an individ-ual composition on the basis of standardization. Itallows him to arrive at diverse and flexible designsolutions and to make use of both general industrial-ized and local craft procedures.

Variation in theFloor Plan

Variation in theProfile View

146

A building's spatial character and mass determineits floor plan. A building, as a point in space, concen-trates space; as a straight line, it divides space; as acurve, it partially encloses space. The more this curvecloses on itself, the more space the building encloses.In this way whole sections of open space are absorbedby the interior. The flexibility of the site plan deter-mines building design, for it provides the rhythmicelements that compose an urban complex.

In contemporary architecture scattered buildingsare being replaced by comprehensively plannedprojects. Even using a single standardized type ofbuilding, one can obtain variety through skillful siteplanning.

Building types differ in height, which makes theirprofile views important in architecture today. Suchheight variations will tend to transform the silhouetteinto a new design element of the total urban complex.This means that spatial relationships not only are

important in a building's floor plans but also deter-mine the configuration of its upper stories.

Buildings also can be made different from each Variation in the Façadeother by varying their facades, that is, by differingthe spatial transition from indoors to outdoors. Asharp line of demarcation can be drawn between abuilding's interior and exterior, but it is also possibleto merge the two. This decision will determine howthe facade is delineated.

The choice is independent of engineering. Thearchitect should be entirely free in his creativeinquiry. Using the grid as his basic means of planning,he can work with an inexhaustible variety of facadesfor one basic plan.

The possibility of variation does not mean thatinfinite variety is necessary. Contemporary architec-ture should work with a relatively small number ofprototypes, each serving a specific functional pur-pose. In order to make genuine rather than trivialdifferences among them, the architect ought to beaware of essential distinctions.

We are not concerned here with the great varietyof building types available for construction. If, forexample, we follow the inherent austerity of contem-porary architecture and the current ways of usingmaterials, it will be difficult in practice to avoid uni-formity and to obtain significant contrasts in the useof space.

In any particular instance, one must distinguishaccurately among the building types available, sothat architectural variations reflect true functionaland technological differences. These should be clari-fied and used to modify the design of floor plans,facades, and profile views.

Thus the simplicity and expressive logic of eachfundamental architectural conception can be mani-fested in different types of building. Opportunities I 47

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Architecture has gonebeyond the traditionalformal types of buildingunits, each of which fills arelatively small space. It isworking more and morewith whole complexbuilding systems. Thebuilding ceases to be asmall island in oceans ofunconfined space: it readilyarticulates that space, fillsit out, and is open to it.

I 48

for variation and uniqueness in making spatial solu-tions can be provided through a small number ofclearly distinguished basic types of building.

A critical phase in the further development of con-struction was reached when industrial methods beganto be used in construction. At one time the resultingproblems seemed insoluble. Today we are convincedthat solutions exist, even if the architecture of thetwentieth century has not yet been able to test themout in practice.

We have behind us a half century of experiencewith the new architecture. It has found its own expres-sive means, its own language. Why has it not man-aged to realize its full potential?

The best features of contemporary architecture

The plastic formation offacades no longer dependson making externallyexplicit the function of thebearing structure.Architecture today is freeto discover an unlimitedvariety of formal solutions:from a neutral surface ofopaque plasticity tosculptural depth createdby projecting panels.

and the new qualifies of architectural space can berealized only on the scale of comprehensive urbanplans.

A World Belonging to Without co-ordinated planning neither the singleAll and to Each prototype building nor standardized projects can be

given enough flexibility in their basic characteristicsto enable the architect to make creative and varieddesign solutions.

Up to now twentieth-century architecture has notbeen able to take the step from experimentation withnew materials to their application on the vast scaleof the new urbanism.

The desire to demonstrate his originality drives thecontemporary architect in capitalist society to turnhis energies away from the basic problems of massconstruction. Even where the option exists for plan-ning a relatively large and independent group ofbuildings, he seldom uses it to put his professionalideas into action. He must take into account thenarrow interests of those who commission him (land-lords, local agencies, and developers). Most bindingof all, he must adapt his work to profound socialinequalities.

In the typical environments created by bourgeoissociety, modern architecture cannot apply its princi-ples in a logical manner. To do this it would have toestablish a practical urban plan, a clear social pro-gram for the whole community, in short, interpret theindividual building within its given spatial context inthe contemporary city.

In substance, the contemporary architect under-stands space on a much broader scale than the Ren-aissance architect. To the latter the classical conceptof the autonomous building was immutable. Yet, eventoday, a city's space is interpreted in this ancient way.Buildings are conceived as architectural "frames" set

150 side by side. Space is deprived of direction, expan-

sion takes place in a confused way, and so the urbanenvironments gradually lose the charm and unity ofthe medieval town.

Up to this point we have pointed out that contem-porary architecture uses present-day methods andbuilding materials and employs universal proceduresderived from all the technical and material resourcesof our time to arrive at functional building solutions.Actually, however, architectural procedures varywith different social systems, and so in the twentiethcentury there exist two architectures, one socialistand the other bourgeois. The external resemblance oftheir technical and expressive procedures concealsprofound differences.

Social problems have always been the central con-cern of Soviet architecture. Architectural practicehas been inspired, therefore, by the valid convictionthat a socialist society creates new methods and newpossibilities for solving its social problems. Yet onlytoo often this belief has been used as a substitute forthe detailed and scientific study that these problemsrequire.

The amount of building in our country increasesevery year. Hence, more and more, the materials andmethods of industrial production are being used inactual construction. In spite of rapid growth, how-ever, mass building had not reached the level of effi-ciency of other industrial operations until recently.The quality of Soviet construction definitely laggedin comparison with the rest of the world. But greatimprovements have come about recently in this field:the sociospatial structure of environments has beenthoroughly studied, and actual physical plans havebeen proposed that are in accord with the socialneeds of the environment. Assuming its present socialbasis, Western architecture in the twentieth centuryis not in any condition to realize a comparableprogram.

The development of an urban environment madeup of standardized residential units is of paramountimportance for the building program of communism.

Once a single residential building has been com-pleted and its structure rationally worked out, itcannot be easily extended in length, width, or height.The most that can be done is to add another similarunit next to it. Similarly, the microsector, which canvary on the large or small side, cannot be extendedonce it has been planned because its proportions(radius and volume of services, outdoor area, etc.) arelikely to be disturbed. The microsector has become,therefore, like the residential unit, a spatial entityrelated only to internal needs and services.

In principle, the planning of residential settlementstoday should be changed in the same way that thesingle residential unit was changed. The environmentwould then cease to be a chaotic agglomeration ofbuildings. It would become an organic whole, withall elements interrelated. An applicable type of resi-dential unit, however, cannot be planned without alsoproviding for a school unit. Changes of this kind inthe services needed by communities must also be

152 reflected in residential planning.

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Functionalism neverdefined the role of singlebuildings in total urbanspace. This space, rollingover many miles, loses alltraditional points ofreference and cannot beperceived as a whole,appearing rather as anunending and accidentalcontinuity of spatialevents, incoherent andlacking expressivesignificance.

153

Space in theNew Community

I 54

The new unit of settlement (NUS) may be com-pared to a living organism, having both a brain and aheart. Functional connections can be fully realized.Space in this new kind of city reflects the harmonyand rationality of the social and economic structure.

This is not an outside world arbitrarily created, analien entity seen from the windows of each house. Itis a natural context directly connecting each individ-ual cell of the society with existential purposes. Herethe larger environment of nature surrounds the socialorganism, which is a real organism, one that includesthe human collectivity. Such an environment, in short,is a place to live, where every man experiences iden-tity as an effective member of a family, or as amember of a community in his residential unit. Thenew city is a world belonging to each and all, a worldbased upon reason and respect for the individual.

Let us discuss the unified space of the community.If you enter a theater, for example, the space in

that auditorium is a physical reality. You find itslimits, and you orient yourself within them in a clearlydefined way. You perceive your own presence in itwhether you are on the stage or seated in the last row.The unified space of the NUS (New Unit of Settle-ment) is a gigantic room under the open sky. You feelyour own presence in the NUS, whether looking outthe window of your apartment, leaving a residentialunit, going to work, or traveling to the socioculturalcenter.

The simplicity and variety of the buildings and theplasticity of their planned configurations create anenvironmental framework in which elements do notappear arbitrarily derived and related, but are indis-pensable means of organizing space. The materialprocedures and scale of mass construction are in-volved directly with the vast undertaking of design-ing a spatial and temporal system for society.

Geometry and architectural design play a role inthe harmonious framework of this unified space. Thecurves of natural surroundings interweave with theproportionate geometry and fundamental rhythms ofthis new urban architecture.

The architectural volumes contained within simplefacades are integrated with the spaces that theypartly enclose. They both become modulations thatcompose the rich sculptural qualities of the immedi-ate environment.

Variety is achieved on the basis of a minimumnumber of distinctly different prototypes.

The search for architectural purity and rationalityis fulfilled in plans for the NUS. Although our conceptsare very general here, we have outlined schematicallya system for designing each sector as part of a unifiedenvironment, including residential units with primaryschools, consumer and public services, a high schoolcommunity, and a focal point at a social and culturalcenter. Naturally, we must assume that a differentcourse of reasoning may make us modify these plansin some respects. In fact, we have been attemptingto illustrate the variations that are available to thecontemporary architect within the unified spatialsystem of the NUS.

The solution to the problem of variety does not liein individualizing the design of each microsector, letalone each individual building. The solution will comefrom designing individual compositions made up ofa number of elementary prototypes. It is important,therefore, to give to each prototype building a uniqueconfiguration.

Nonetheless, whatever contrasts are stressed in thespatial design of the NUS, a common character willpermeate the rhythmic ordering of volumes and sur-faces. Certain functional characteristics will be strongenough to give a cohesive architectural quality andspatial unity to the whole environment. A unified

155

space determines the role and the possibilities of anyindividual building (or any complex of buildings)within it, and it creates the expressive profile of theenvironment itself.

Tasks of theNew Architecture

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Functionalism has clearly shown how the spatialsolution of a building is determined by its internalstructure; and we add, not only by its internal struc-ture but also by the total environment. Indeed, abuilding's internal structure need be considered onthis design scale only to make sure that it does notcontradict the rational composition and spatial unityof the entire urban community.

The future will provide new methods and set upnew artistic standards. It is very likely that the city oftomorrow will hardly recall the NUS. Regardless of thedifferences, it will at least share certain features incommon with the NUS. We hope that its estheticqualities will express an even greater harmony ofsocial structure and functional spatial organization.

Undeniably, the future belongs to this spirit oforganic synthesis, and so we ought already to bedeeply aware of it. A unified social organization, aunified technical and industrial base, and a unifiedartistic composition are the elements that composeour urban environment.

It is the task of architecture to speak to men in thelanguage of form, color, light, and space. This lan-guage has an emotional impact on all people andcannot be discounted as a by-product of architec-tural planning. It is the authentic content of architec-ture.

Materials and methods of construction are not theculmination of the creative process. They representthe means, indispensable but purely preparatory. Atthis point, the professional training of the architect iscompleted, and the new architecture begins.

Since it is impossible to define precisely the archi-

tecture of the future, it is absurd to try to guess whatwill be created by the imagination, talent, and indi-vidual creativity of men who may not yet be born.

We can predict only on the basis of those possi-bilities that architecture at the present time seemsto offer for the future. 157

Human dimensions ofarchitecture. The glasssurfaces of residentialbuildings of great heightrise uniformly above thegreen area. Everywhere,From almost any spot, onefeels the severe andgeometric rhythm thatorients the individual inthe space of NUS. Theseare the human proportionsof the New Unit ofSettlement. There is markedcontrast between thegeometry of constructionand the picturesque varietydominating the zone ofimmediate perception.That is the dimensionwhere the individualpredominates. Restraint inthe use of structural formsand a rich plastic variety inthe ground level surfacescompose the complexwhole of the unified NUS.

Pedestrian walks are cutunder the buildings, and inthe shadow of the bearingwalls along the walks thereare bodies of water. Thewhole includes stairs,ramps, porticoes, showwindows, cafes, and open-air amphitheaters. All thisproduces a lively sequenceof architectural andspatial impressions, a richvariety of colors, forms,and light. The individualregains the pedestrianstreet with its human scale,something that has beenmissing since the MiddleAges.

The rational constructionof technically perfecthigh-rise buildings. In thesecan be seen the asceticspirit and elegance offaultless calculation.

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Schools and institutions forchildren are scatteredover the green gardens.Only the transparentenvelope of a wallsegregates the interiorspace. A step brings theindividual out into snow oramong flowers. Anotherstep—and the branches oftrees are interlaced abovehis head.

Light and green. Aestheticvariety in the unified NUSis the result not only ofarchitectural variation.Each individual building isplaced in its own world ofsurrounding sunlight, air,and green. The contrastbetween high and lowelevation is anothersource of variety ininteriors.

The apartment, as anadult's home, is raisedabove ground level. Sunand air enter the homefrom two sides at differingangles of illumination. Theeye of the individual takesin the whole NUS, itscenter, its rational networkof streets and buildings,and going beyond theselimits, passes over theimmense surroundingspaces until it finally restson the distant horizon,where the outlines ofmountains, woods, and landare lost in mist.

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Unified spatialcomposition. The physicalunity of NUS reflectsrationality and unity in thesocial organism. Herebeauty is the naturalconsequence of theharmony of functionalstructure. Buildings taketheir place within it. On alarge open place fed bynumerous pedestrian walks,there rises the squarestructure of The communitycenter—brain and heartof NUS.

Here is the place for freerelationships among freeindividuals to develop.This is the symbol ofrational and organicstructure in the newenvironment. Here is thecenter of its integralcomposition.

The Way to Follow Until today the history of architecture has been ahistory of the planning and constructing of individualbuildings. Now, for the first time, architecture ceasesto confine itself to this task. To design the New Unitof Settlement it is not enough to know how to plan abuilding. A total unified space must be designed byusing a system in which single buildings make up avariable spatial field and form a total community.

The contemporary architect inevitably confrontsthe problem of planning a whole spatial program inwhich each sequential part must realize its maximumpotential through intensive utilization of the entireurban environment.

Each spatial unit or type derives from, and givesspecific form to, a corresponding social function thatin turn reflects a certain level of human interactionoccurring at work, in daily life, or during leisure-timeactivities.

In architectural thinking today we find that allproblems in a society are related to spatial organiza-tion. It is increasingly difficult to limit any group ofproblems simply to the field of construction. Todaythe architecture of buildings becomes part of a largercreative process, the spatial organization of society.This, in turn, is a part of the general material engi-neering of the new world, which will co-ordinate theutilization of resources for all urban settlements. Itis not surprising, therefore, that we find commonmethods employed in the solution of diverse prob-lems in spatial organization.

Conditions for spatial perception have alsochanged substantially. Whereas a single building wasonce perceived as a unique spatial composition, weare now ready to conceive a unified spatial field,which includes the entire community. The new toneand speed of life are forcing us to extend our con-cepts of unified space to a global scale. On that scale

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we visualize 1-he nuclear configurations of NUS inorganizing geographic and economic regions.

From classical architecture and painting and scien-tific research in physiology, psychology, and mathe-matics, we can begin to derive general rules of con-struction that are applicable to any spatial composi-tion, and relate them to the new conditions of spatialperception. Foundations do exist for this "architec-ture of space," and the principles need only be putin practice. We are working with a universal art thatcould make beautiful everything that men produce,everything in their surroundings.

The concept of unified space changes the verybasis for defining the architect's work. It gives theword "architecture" a new meaning. Nonetheless, themagnificent heritage of traditional architectureshould not be cast aside. Its values remain. Themethods developed by classical architecture continueto be useful within a wide range. The new theory doesnot undermine older methods but only defines thelimits of their usefulness.

"The new science never simply rejects the old, butonly transforms it, deepening and generalizing withrespect to new areas of research. If new theory liqui-dated older standards and theories, science in gen-eral could not develop. . . . Fortunately this is notwhat happens." "

The harmonious synthesis of elements in the ancienttemple and the sculptural elaboration of its volumeremain fundamentals for the design of any singlesocial building located in the midst of nature. In thesculptural variety of a narrowly circumscribed areathe forms of the medieval city are revived.

The system of unified space is not a matter ofarbitrary choice but a co-ordinated and standard

16 N. Semenov, Science Tolerates No Forms of Subjectivism, "Nauka iZizni" (Moscow, 1965), 4, p. 38. 165

procedure that modern architecture has already dis-covered and occasionally demonstrated in practice.

It is fair to say that functionalism played a revolu-tionary part in the history of architecture. In light ofwhat has been said before, however, functionalism(despite the newness of its conceptions) is in a certainsense the crowning achievement of classical architec-ture. The real revolution comes with planning a unifiedurban environment. This would be the real and pro-found revolution in architecture, the beginning of atrue architecture of space. What essentially charac-terizes this revolution is the fact that the new archi-tecture will correspond to the social process that willconsciously be reconstructing society.

NUS represents an attempt to involve the thoughtand imagination of the architect on a global scale,outside of which the search for the new is impossible.One must begin with a basic and scientific study ofthe functional structure of urban communities, thengo on from there to the creation of coherent urbanmodels, until finally one undertakes experimental con-struction. Only this procedure can enable us to findout today what the architectural solutions of thefuture will be, to study them, and even to correctthem.

The difficulties that await us have not yet beendefined, but the way before us lies open.

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