STUDIO
STRELKA INSTITUTE
CITIZENS AS CUSTOMERS
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Lead: David Erixon
HYPER ISLAND - Tutors: Anastassia Smirnova, Kuba Snopek
- Year: 2010-2011
- Location: Moscow RU
- Field Trip: Rotterdam NL, Berlin DE, Warsaw PL
How to reinvent the socialist microrayon and create a new
low-cost housing paradigm? The microrayon, or micro-region, is a classic feature of suburban Soviet cityscapes.
It continues to appear in post-Soviet cities even though the technology and materials used, and indeed the very idea of creating “identikit”, mass-produced environments, are long out of date. Urban planners are still ignoring what should be the key consideration: the lifestyle expectations of residents.
This studio focused on contemporary city dwellers and their values and lifestyles, using special consumer-oriented methodologies. This research and design studio has an ambition to reinvent the notion of the microrayon, presenting ways to modernise it and, most importantly, propose a new paradigm for low-cost housing.
