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kasachstanprojekt.de |
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| Shevchenko/Aktau The heritage of an ideal socialist city | |||||||
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Download Poster: Historic Urban Development (PDF, 600 kb) Download Poster: Architecture and Urban Design (PDF, 600 kb) Download Poster: Microdistricts and the city centre (PDF, 600 kb) |
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Thesis work The assumption that efforts to conserve the socialist heritage of Aktau are justified by its outstanding position in the system of Soviet urban planning has been the starting point of writing the thesis. In the city (until 1991 called Shevchenko) elementary thoughts and concepts of the Soviet post-war city-planning and design were implemented in an ideal way. Certain basic characteristics, but also structural details of a socialist model-city can be found until today. But reflecting the conditions of build-up structures of the previous Shevchenko with the reconstructions due to the post-Soviet period of transformation, an endangering of the characteristics of the socialist city becomes apparent. Moderate changes after 1991 in result of the economic downturn were recently followed by increasing fundamental reconstructions, causing impacts on the city-appearance in its whole. In Shevchenko, traditional and industrial types of construction were combined in an exceptional way. Moreover, regional-type building-elements have been integrated in the egalitarian modernist language of architecture. Besides the various single buildings, the ensemble of the city-centre as well as the urban structure of the residential areas (microdistricts) are of importance for the historic value. The Soviet new-town Shevchenko represents a unique built document of socialistic planning ideals. Therefore the preservation of these culturally valuable structures should be held dear. The thesis regards the issue of city-development in Aktau in connection to historical preservation and building maintenance. Contact: Henning Büchler/Ingo Zasada Mail: aktau@kasachstanprojekt.de |
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The city centre (1980s) |
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4th microdistrict (Early 1990s) |
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High-rise buildings with arcades |
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School building |