ABSTRACT
Over the past 100 years, there have been many global, radical political turns and economic crises in Russia. These transformations have greatly influenced contemporary Russian spatial principles of urban design and development. There are two principal phenomena which now set the stage for developments toward Open Building in Russia.
The first is the “free plan apartment.” This approach operates at the level of the real estate investment in buildings. This is a trend to build essentially empty residential buildings in which decisions about apartment layouts and equipment are made separately, in a second stage. This part of the chapter discusses the advantages, limitations and legal obstacles using real projects to illustrate the issues. The second phenomenon is the “free plan neighborhood.” This operates at the level of urban design and involves developers filling-in empty or “left-over” spaces left in the typical 20th century urban residential development schemes. With no clarity about how to steer development at this level of intervention, many problems are occurring while the process of land surveying and illegal invasions by developers is taking place. This chapter discusses both phenomena and suggests broad remedies.
