Presentation for Urban Design Strategies course in KU Leuven, 2013

1. URBAN FORESTS IN
MOSCOW
UDS – STeDe 2013 – K.Mazur

2. General Plan 1935 (V. Semenov et
al)
http://www.alyoshin.ru/Files/publika/khan_archi/khan_archi_2_058.html
Outline of General Plan
(1930)
Correct principles of city
growth (Howard, 1902)
Howard E. (1902) Garden Cities of To-morrow [Online]
http://www.library.cornell.edu/Reps/DOCS/howard.htm
Accessed May 5, 2013

3. Sokol Garden City (1923)
http://openmoscow.ru/sokol-posyolok.php

4. New vs. old housing for
proletariat
http://www.alyoshin.ru/Files/publika/khan_archi

5. Panorama of Stalin Park
(Izmailovo)
http://www.alyoshin.ru/Files/publika/khan_archi

6. Linking of urban forests by green
avenues
http://www.alyoshin.ru/Files/publika/khan_archi

7. The influence of trees on buildings
typologies
Altitudinal
layering
Moscow University
http://www.alyoshin.ru/Files_ph/publika/belousov/56.ht
ml
http://metliar.ucoz.ru/photo/priroda/lesa_verkhushki_v_tumane/3-0-43
Spruce forest
Wambecq, W. (2013) Forest Urbanism: Towards a Sustainable Territory of Dispersion.
Presentation given on the14/03/2013 in KU Leuven

8. What is a greenbelt?
 “Narrow strip of parkland
more or less encircling
part of a built-up
metropolitan or large
urban area” (Osborn, F.J.,
1969)
 “A zone of land around the
city where building
development is severely
restricted” (Amati, M.,
Yokohari, M., 2006) http://www.etomesto.ru/karta141/

9. MOSCOW GREENBELT AS
PALIMPSEST
Historical rhythms: evidence of former uses:
 Natural virgin forest
 Hunting land for nobility
 Agricultural use for peasants
 Manor parks
 Recreation
 After-war recovery (voids filled-in with pine
plantings)
 Fragmentation and destruction (suburban
sprawl, roads bisecting the forest, dachas,
retail and warehouses, peat bog fires 2010)
It seems to me that equal attention should be paid to the
geographical nature of the site and to the components that bring to
mind history.

10. Reading the underlying layer

11. Structural Function of
Greenbelt:
1935 2013
Extension of the city,
inclusion of new territories,
Limit to city’s growth, too
tight borders
CONTINUOUS BELT+WEDGES FRAGMENTATION;
REMNANTS
http://www.etomesto.ru/karta141/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2013/jun/11/sat
ellite-eye-in-pictures

12. Functions of Moscow green belt
 Ecological
 Economic
 Social
 Structural
Ecological corridor, space of
decompression, climate improvement,
water and soil protection, air quality
improvement
Proximity of forest increases land value –
growth of housing and dachas near forests
– fragmentation of forest – decrease of land
value
Recreation, forests as places of worship for
pagans, space of decompression
Controlled readable space in contrast to rural-
urban fringe often lacking interrelation
between actual city and rural area, lacking
determination, status, they often serve as
sieves for pollution, disdain and
undermaintenance; limit to growth

13. Greenbelt failures
 High pressures and hunger
for urban land
 High maintenance costs vs.
falling public budgets
 Ageing forests
 Diseases (e.g. bark beetle)
 Poor legislation
 Political decisions
http://www.daff.gov.au/aqis/quarantine/pests-diseases/forests-timber/bark-beetle

14. Fragmentation
• Illegal construction of
housing and dachas
• Large retail complexes +
warehouses
• Roads and infrastructure
(e.g. highway in Khimki)
• Peat bog fires 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2013/jun/11/satellite-eye-in-pictures
http://www.vedomosti.ru/tnews/news/30
32/kartashema_lesoparkovogo_zaschitn
ogo_kompleksa_moskvy

15. Lyubertsy and Mytischi district
forest loss during 1991-2001
• Losses of forested land from 17 to 29% (not incl.new trees
growth)
• Conversion of urban forest into housing and commercial uses
14,6%

16. Traditional Russian Izba
http://rosswolfe.wordpress.com/#jp-carousel-5133

17. B.Pasternak’s Dacha in
Peredelkino
http://www.svoboda.org/content/article/24713789.html

18. Dacha today
 Orchards
 Vegetable
patches
 Greenhouses
http://komikz.ru/news/society/?id=3130

19. Scale of fragmentation