Nikolai Alexeyev, "Building in the Yakutia Region of Russia"
Nikolai Alexeyev, President of the Directorate of Yakutia Architects; Vice-Director of the Architecture, Construction and Reconstruction Yakutsk municipal region, Russia
Summary: Mr. Alexeyev discussed the Yakutia region in Russia, its climate, geography and culture. He presented how Yakutia developed an innovative plan to develop new communities to meet the growing populations housing needs that incorporated traditional design elements, environmental concerns, new building technology, and smaller, compact spaces.
Mr. Alexeyev gave a brief overview of the mineral rich territory of Yakutia, Russia: It has an area of app. 3,103 sq. km, 2/5 of which is located beyond the Arctic Circle. It is mostly mountainous with 1/3 of the area flatland and about 1 million in population. It has continuous and old permafrost underlying the soil that in most places is 300-400 meters, or 1000 feet to 1 mile deep, the thickest permafrost in the world. The climate can range from -64 °C (-70 °F) to 38 °C (95 °F) with fog and ice fog being a problem due to car emissions, smoke and smog.
Mr. Alexeyev then discussed the dwellings of nomadic reindeer herders who traditionally lived in Yurts, also known as a chum or Yaranga (or in American, the teepee or wigwam). Herders move from pasture to pasture and need mobile dwellings such as the Yurt. All Yurt materials were found in nature such as reindeer hides and no other structure has been found that is warmer, cheaper or more convenient. Russia attempted to convince herders to use space materials but they didn’t take long to disintegrate completely. The nomadic people had to partially settle in villages and build schools as education is required for their children. The problem with building schools following regulations is that they turn out enormous and expensive. So Yakutia has a program called “Good Deeds” where the government provides the materials and the locals build the school as they see fit. In some cases unfortunately, they were built poorly. In central Yakutia, people were more sedentary, living a lifestyle of raising cattle, horse breeding, fishing and hunting. They traditionally lived in “kystyk” (winter homes) and “saiylyk” (summer homes.) The winter homes would often house several families to save fuel. Many people continue to live this traditional lifestyle and city dwellers often spend the summer at a datcha (a very simple 18’x18’ log summer dwelling with a loft.)
This traditional lifestyle was reflected in the General Plan of the city of Yakutsk, where the presence of the datchas was included in the planning. Yakutsk is growing in population and needs housing desperately. They decided the way to control the growth of the city population is by developing adjacent settlements, and they wanted well thought-out plans for the social and economic development of these settlements. The plan consists of developing new smaller, compact cities within the Yakutia region with populations not exceeding 35,000 to 50,000 people to save on energy, heat, and utility infrastructure.
The capital city of Yakutsk is the largest city in the circumpolar north with a population of over 300,000. It was built in a low-lying “swampy” basin on the banks of the Lena River, one of the ten largest rivers on earth. The river tends to flood portions of the city annually particularly during “break-up” when the thick river ice breaks apart. In 2001, the city was nearly inundated by flood. They experimented in the 1980’s while developing “micro-district number 202” within Yakutsk, building it on compacted layers of sand and gravel dredged out of the river and built-up higher than city level. This district was the only area that survived the devastating flood of 2001. They discovered benefits to building on this type of soil as opposed to building on permafrost which requires building on pile foundations with a ventilated underground (pilings are concrete pillars driven down to the permafrost layer.) This can be expensive, increasing structural costs by as much as one third. Building on sand and gravel allows the use of underground space for parking, basements, conduits for communication lines and heated pedestrian passages. This method is included in the planning for district number 203 currently under development. The micro-district #203 plans include several U-shaped “blocks” with the northern sections having six floors and the southern sections have four floors to allow for natural lighting and wind protection. Each block will have underground parking and community gardens in the central courtyard. The ground floor will have commercial and child care areas with apartments above. In the winter, people can live in their apartments and go to their datcha’s in the summer.
Mr. Alexeyev urged architects, planners and builders to pay attention to environmental impact concerns to find ways of reducing toxic emissions into the atmosphere, and preserving water and forest resources. Russia is composed of 45% forest as well as many lakes and swamps. While Europe has lost 2/3 of their forests, Russia has lost approximately 1/3 to industrial development. In conclusion, he encouraged replication of the Yakutia plan that steers away from increasing the size of existing cities and focus instead on developing new towns that offer a minimum choice of amenities and include an economic plan for some form of industrial production.