The northern capital does not need to expand its borders, believes Mikhail Kondiain, a member of the city planning council of St. Petersburg, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Building Sciences. He spoke about this at the round tablePetersburg of the future: what a metropolis should be like in order to want to live in it”, which was held at the media center “On the Field of Mars”.
“Petersburg does not need to grow. It can be structurally changed, improved, developed, but not expanded. Otherwise, new territories will be built up – those where we are used to relaxing, where there are dachas, cottages, and so on. We do not want St. Petersburg to turn into Hong Kong or Tokyo with their multi-million population, where you can live comfortably only in terms of the design of a small surrounding space,” said Mikhail Kondiain.
According to a member of the city planning council of St. Petersburg, attention should be paid to the small cities of Europe, in which 300-500 thousand people live. These cities are organized compactly and ecologically, surrounded by recreation areas and parks. Their residents have a place to work and recuperate.
“If we talk about the ideology of urban planning as a system of values, then it seems to me that today we need to think about a polycentric system of settlement. The ideology of polycentrism involves the transformation of each satellite city and remote areas of megacities into full-fledged centers of civilization, where residents can satisfy all their needs, including work,” Kondiain said.
Source: Rosbalt
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