ABSTRACT
Soviet industrial growth led to the massive expansion of Tbilisi. This had to be supported by the provision of housing. Thus, Tbilisi embarked on massive territorial growth. Gldani, a mass-housing district on the northern outskirts of Tbilisi, designed by architect Temur Bochorishvili, was one of the areas developed by the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic since the late 1960s to meet the city's growing population. Bochorishvili's plan included creative and experimental elements that did not fit the Soviet-wide requirements for planning residential areas. Among many ideas, he was interested in incorporating social spaces along the central axis of the district with a system of mobility levels where pedestrians were separated from vehicle transport and other traffic by a network of bridges and paths. While the project had some original features, it was also a typical example of Soviet urban planning, developed according to strict standards. The ambitious plans of Bochorishvili for Gldani were crushed in the realisation process. While the residential buildings in the district were completed by the end of the 1970s, other sections such as public halls and the vertical axis were not fully realised. The failure was due to a lack of funding, the political prioritisation of Soviet building standards and the chaos of post-Soviet planning. This chapter examines the reasons for the partial failure of the Gldani project and discusses its implications.
