ABSTRACT
Discussing spatial change and transformation of everyday life during socialism, the new city centres and the mass-housing estates have firmly established their position in the histories of post-war urban planning. Yet, the role of natural areas outside urban territories has remained somewhat peripheral to those main streams of inquiries. The peri-urban areas became increasingly important in Soviet urban planning in the 1960s after the mass-housing campaign was launched by Khrushchev and when the working week in the Soviet Union was reduced to five days. As urban parks satisfied the needs for outdoor leisure only to a small degree, these areas were intended for a richer variety of possibilities for the urban residents to spend their free time. Based on the study of the new general plan “The Project for Greater Tallinn” from the early 1960s, this chapter discusses how the emergence of the peri-urban zone was tied not just to the changing ideas of socialist urban planning but also to new urban lifestyles. It explores how the peripheries and specifically the summer house settlements operated as an extension to the everyday urban environment, as in addition to providing places for relaxation, they also became the sites for family life and domestic duties.
