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Microdistrict, or micro raion (russian: микрорайо́н, ''mikrorajón''), is a residential complex—a primary structural element of the
residential area A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family resid ...
construction in the Soviet Union and in some
post-Soviet The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...
and former Socialist states. Residential districts in most of the cities and towns in Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union were built in accordance with this concept. According to the Construction Rules and Regulations of the Soviet Union, a typical microdistrict covered the area of 10–60  hectares (30–160 acres), up to but not exceeding 80 hectares (200 acres) in some cases, and comprised residential dwellings (usually multi-story apartment buildings) and public service buildings. As a general rule, major motor roads, greenways, and natural obstacles served as boundaries between microdistricts, allowing an overall reduction in city road construction and maintenance costs and emphasizing
public transportation Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typica ...
. Major motor roads or through streets were not to cross microdistricts' territories. The entrances to a microdistrict's territory were to be located no further than 300 meters (1000 ft) apart. Standards also regulated the accessibility of the public service buildings (excluding schools and pre-school facilities) by imposing a 500-meter (1,500–foot) limit as the farthest distance from any residential dwelling. Unlike Western countries, the Soviet Union did not redevelop existing residential or commercial areas, microdistricts were always built further and further out from old parts of cities, so planning of local services, and transportation to employment in old parts of the city were critical. One of the city-planners' tasks was to ensure that the public buildings were built to cover the microdistrict's territory in accordance with the norms. Typical public service structures include secondary schools, pre-school establishments (usually combined kindergarten and nursery), grocery stores, personal service shops,
cafeteria A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school ...
s, clubs, playgrounds, and building maintenance offices, as well as a number of specialized shops. The exact number of buildings of each type depended on the distance requirement and the microdistrict's population density and was determined by means of certain per capita standards.


History


1920s–1950s

The history of microdistricts as an urban planning concept dates back to the 1920s, when the Soviet Union underwent rapid urbanization. Under the Soviet urban planning ideologies of the 1920s, residential complexes—compact territories with residential dwellings, schools, shops, entertainment facilities, and green spaces—started to prevail in urban planning practice, as they allowed for more careful and efficient planning of the rapid urban expansion. These complexes were seen as an opportunity to build a collective society,Ir. M.H.H. van Dijk, IsoCaRP Congress 2003, ''Planning and politics'' an environment suitable and necessary for the new way of life.Michael Gentile, Dept. of Social and Economic Geography,
Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...
, ''Urbanism and Disurbanism in the Soviet Union

/ref> In the 1930s, residential complexes grew in size, covering territories of up to five to six hectares. A system of building residential complexes was gradually replaced with a concept of a
city block A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within t ...
. Such blocks generally comprised residential buildings along the perimeter, and residential buildings intermingled with public service buildings on the interior. However, it proved unfeasible to provide all public services within every city block, due to the latter's relatively compact size; it was not unusual to have a school, a kindergarten, or a store serving the population of several blocks, which were often separated by major motor roads. The system of the city block also required a developed network of roads, thus increasing the maintenance and construction costs and complicating the organization of public transportation. The 1940s and 1950s saw further enlargement and grouping of the city blocks. However, new construction was based on the same principles as in the previous decades, and could not keep up with the increasing housing demand. Labor-intensive industrialization of the country demanded ever more workers, which was hard to achieve with housing accommodation lacking.


1950s–1990s

Soviet authorities revisited issues of urban planning in the mid-1950s. The new urban planning concept built on the concept of residential districts (with 10,000–30,000 inhabitants each), consisting of several microdistricts (with 8,000–12,000 inhabitants each), which in their turn comprised several residential complexes (with 1,000–1,500 inhabitants each). In larger cities, residential districts were grouped into urban zones, the population of which could reach one million. Each microdistrict provided the population with facilities needed on a daily basis, whereas services in lesser demand were available on the residential-district level. This concept was backed up with reorganization of the Soviet construction industry— panel-block apartment buildings became widespread as they allowed for fast, although often low-quality, construction, reduced costs, and
economies of scale In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of time. A decrease in cost per unit of output enables a ...
. The whole construction process became simplified and standardized, leading to the erection of the rows and rows of faceless grey rectangular apartment-buildings which now prevail in every city and town of the countries of the former Soviet Union. Such drastic reduction of building costs was necessary because flats in the new blocks were given to the citizens free of charge at the time. Humorous insights into the potential consequences of living in such a bland and repetitive atmosphere appear in the hugely popular Mosfilm production '' The Irony of Fate'' (1976).


China

In China, this type of neighbourhood unit is known as xiaoqu (). First built in the 1980s in Jinan, Tianjin, and Wuxi, preceding the
Chinese economic reform The Chinese economic reform or reform and opening-up (), known in the West as the opening of China, is the program of economic reforms termed "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and "socialist market economy" in the People's Republic of Ch ...
, they were very similar to the concept as known in the Soviet Union, and are considered to be an evolution of the work unit (). Xiaoqu similarly promoted a sense of community among the inhabitants. However, after the economy was opened up more for commercial real estate developers, xiaoqu continued to be built in recent decades, but evolved in several ways such as differentiation in luxury, safety and available services. The apartments are owned by the inhabitants, and the xiaoqu is often enclosed by a wall, with the
entrance gate Entrance generally refers to the place of entering like a gate, door, or road or the permission to do so. Entrance may also refer to: * ''Entrance'' (album), a 1970 album by Edgar Winter * Entrance (display manager), a login manager for the X w ...
being guarded. The xiaoqu often also have their own government representatives and property managers. The number of residents can vary greatly depending on the kind of xiaoqu, with Beijing's
Tiantongyuan Tiantongyuan () is a suburb in northern Beijing's Changping District. As of April 2008, it was said to have over 400,000 residents. As of 2019, the population of Tiantongyuan had jumped to 700,000, making it the largest Xiaoqu (housing communi ...
suburb having 420,000 residents, whereas other xiaoqu only consist of one building housing a few hundred residents. 2016 State Council guidelines called for opening up private roads in xiaoqu, and building smaller scale xiaoqu, to allow a finer road network in cities.


See also

* Falowiec * Gated community * High-rise building *
Housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex or housing development) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular throughout the United States a ...
* Neighbourhood ** Neighbourhood unit *
Panelák () is a colloquial term in Czech and Slovak for a panel building constructed of pre-fabricated, pre-stressed concrete, such as those extant in the former Czechoslovakia and elsewhere in the world. Paneláks are usually located in housing esta ...
, Panelház, Plattenbau * *


References


Sources

*'' Great Soviet Encyclopedia'', entry on
микрорайон
* "Строительные нормы и правила. Градостроительство. Планировка и застройка городских и сельских поселений", СНиП 2.07.01—89, 1989 — ''Construction Rules and Regulations. City-Planning. Planning and Development of Urban and Rural Settlements'', SNiP 2.07.01—89, 1989 * Н. С. Сапрыкина, "Основные градостроительные концепции и современные проблемы реконструкции жилой среды середины 1950-х — 1960-х гг. — N. S. Saprykina, ''Principal city-town concepts and modern problems of reconstruction of the mid-1950s—1960s residential environment

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External links



excerpts from ''The Soviet Review'', a journal of translations, Vol. 2, #4, April 1961 Human habitats Urban studies and planning terminology Public housing Architecture in the Soviet Union Neighbourhoods