PLANNING FOR MOSCOW

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 January 1938, Page 10

PLANNING FOR MOSCOW

AN OVERCROWDED PLACE. Inch by inch it is the aim of the Soviet Government of Russia to make Moscow a model city and an example to other countries rd' what Communism can accomplish, says a viitei in the Melbourne ••Age." A vast townplanning scheme has been prepared, and. steps will be taken to carry it cut in the near future- The outstanding architectural feature of the model city will be the Palace of the Soviets, which will be the largest, tallest, and most expensive building in the worldIt will be 1350 feet high, and will be surmounted by a. statue ol Lenin measuring 260 feet. It was announced from Moscow in

March last that work in connection with the erection of this great Palace cf the Soviets bad commenced. The object of the Communists is to erect a monumental building near the Kremlin, the ancient palace of the< Tsars, which will he representative of the new Russia. In 1923 the suggestion Io erect this palace was officially sanctioned by the Russian AllUnions Congress, hut it. was not until 1931 that a. Government commission authorised to select a suitable site chose that of the Cathedral of the Redeemer. Tim cathedral was pulled down, and a. world-wide, competition for architectural designs for the Pal-

ace of the Soviets was announced. The competitors who submitted de-| signs numbered 172, and three ol them—two Russians, and an American, named Hector Hamilton—were awarded prizes, but none of the designs was regarded by the committee of judges as entirely satisfactory. Boris Yofan. one of the Russian architects whose design had been awarded a prize, was commissioned to prepare a design combining the best, features of the three which had won prizes-

The palace is to be regarded as a monument to Lenin, and it is described as a. “pedestal building'’ for the statue. The. foundations will cover 2-1 acres. The grand hall, which will be- circular in shape, will be the chief feature of the interior of the building, and' will provide seating accommodation for 20.000 people. The hall will be completely free from columns, and the central part will be so constructed that it can be cleared of scats and converted into a raised central stage. In this vast hall, the dome of which will be 300 feet above the floor, mass meetings and mass' spectacles will be held. 1

The palace will be a tiered struc- ■ tore, something like a. vast wedding cake, cf twelve layers of varying heights, surmounted, by the statue for which it is a pedestal. On the ground floor there will he cloak rooms, general offices, service rooms, and meeting rooms for the use of committees. Above the grand hall there will he a huge panorama of the Russian Revolution, and the upper floor rooms will be used as museums. Each of the twelve tiers will be decorated with large sculptural groups. 'There has been a good deal of opposition in Russia, to the proposal to build this vast palace in view of the shortage of housing accommodation in Moscow, and the conditions of overcrowding in which many thousands live. It has been contended that the materials and labour required to build the. palace would be hotter employed in building flats for the people.

Moscow, like most of the old' world cities of Europe, has grown in a haphazard fashion in the. course of centuries, and now presents some diffi-

cult problems in town-planning. Motcow, which lor many centuries had developed in chaotic, fashion, reflected even in the best years of its development. the barbaric character of Russian capitalism." writes Sir E. DSimon, in “Moscow in the Making. NORMAL LIFE IMPEDED.

“The narrow and crooked streets, the districts intersected by multitudes cl lanes and blind alleys, the uneven distribution of buildings between the centre and the outskirts oi the ciij, the centre encumbered with warehouses ami small enterprises, the low decrepit houses huddled together, the haphazard distribution of the industrial enterprises, railroads, and other blanches of economy and public service, hinder the normal life ol the raipdly-developing ejity, . particularly in respect of traffic, and make imperative a radical and planned reconstruction- “

But Moscow offers two great advantages in town-planning which | make the task much less difficult than the town-planning of any other European capital. The first of these advantages is that private property in land ami buildings in Moscow does not. exist. Land and buildings belong to the State, and town-planning schemes can be carried out on a vast, scale without, a penny having to be paid for compensation, and without any opposition from vested interests. Compensation and vested interests are the great stumbling blocks in the way of town-planning schemes of the chief cities of Europe, except those of Russia. Another advantage that Moscow enjoys is that there is no opposition Io the town-pl ann i n g sche in e s lai d down by the responsible authorities. In political and municipal life in Russia there is only one party, and the authorities representing that party can go ahead' with their schemes without. fear of being hampered in any way.

It was proposed to leave the present. city of Moscow intact as a museum-city, and to build a new city outside it, but this proposal was rejected. and also one for demolishing the present city and building a new one on the site on a. different plan. The authorities decided, after long consideration, to retain the historical outlines of the city, but to replace it radically by co-ordinating the network of its streets and' squares. The replanning of the city provides for an increased population up to a maximum of 5,1)00,000. Beyond that limit the city will not be allowed to grow.

CHECKS ON GROWTH

An effective check on. its growth will be maintained by control of fac--1 tones, and by a passport system. No j new factories, will be built in Mosj cow, except those which are necessary for the production of goods for the population of the city, and which for reasons of transport cannot economically he made elsewhere. A passport system has been in operation since 1332; no one can live in Moscow without a special passport authorising him or her to do so. The present area of Moscow is about 50,000 acres; it is intended to extend the area to 150,000 acres. This will provide for an average population of 33 per acre, when the city reaches its limit of 5.000,000. The present population of Moscow is about 3,600,000. In residential areas in the replanned city, the buildings will cover from 20 to 22 per cent, of the land; in works areas from 30 to 40 per cent. There will be no cottages in the city; all the houses will be buildings of not fewer than six storeys, and “at such points of the

city as call for the most effective and imposing architecture” they will contain ten to fourteen storeys. It is hoped to provide, in this way lor a

■ population of s,oi'v.(•(<<■ in a city with • a radius of about eight, miles, ir. which nevertheless there will Lie an ample provision of open spaces. There- will be a forest belt three to six miles deep right round the cpy. ’ and this belt will be kept almost eu- ’ tirely free from buildings. The Mossoviet, as the Moscow City Council is called, hopes that, the re- ■ planning of the city will be. carried ’ cut. within ten years, but it will probably take longer than that to provide J the existing population of the. city ■ with decent housing accommodationMoscow is the most overcrowded city in Europe, due mainly to the fact that its population has more than doubled 'in a. few years. This rapid' increase in population followed the transfer of the capital of Russia from St. Petersburg to Moscow after the Bolshevik Revolution. “The overcrowding in Moscow is appalling.’’ writes Sir E. D. Simon in “Moscow in the Making,” which is a very sympathetic study of the city government of Moscow and the replanning proposals. “By far the biggest. task facing the Mossoviet is the building of [lie houses necessary to provide reasonable living accommodation tor the people, it is difficult. for cue accustomed to the- housing standards of a successful and old-estab-lished country like England to apnre-• ciate the conditions which prevail in Moscow. . . Walking along the streets in the lower parts of the town in the evening one could see something of the conditions in lighted basements, which were clearly very bad. I saw one barracks lor workers, in which about, twenty beds completely filled ! the two sides of the room. .1 heard , man> stories; of a. washerwoman who ( shared a large room with twenty-eight ] other people; of a. gardener who had It to give tip his job, which was outside Moscow, because to keep it would t have meant, giving uj> his right to a 1 bed in a corner of a. medium-sized £ room shared with six other people f and if he had given up that bed he c would have lost his passport giving 1 him the right to live in Moscow. But I 1 it did not. seem importtint, to find on.ti 1 particulars of specially bad cases. If I 1 halt the residents of Moscow are liv- ’ ing in an average of three square metres per head of space, this means ( 30 square feet each, which might be filled by a Led 6 feet by 3 feet, having f a passage 6 feet by 2 feet. Apart from r their, small share of a kitchen, cor- n rtdor, and lavatory, that is the whole n

space that these unfortunate people b=lvo- in which to sleep and eat and lite. M hat life must be like under xUch conditions is difficult to imagineHew it is possible for people to keep their temper and health under the constant irritation of such close quarters, how brain workers can show anything approaching their full efficiency, i s -m insoluble riddle to the Englishman.'’