COMMUNAL TOWNS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 25, 22 September 1931, Page 5

COMMUNAL TOWNS

SOVIET'S PLANS PLAY GRQUND S PLANNED BY . AMERICAN ARCHITECT LAYING OUT CITIES MOSCOW An American arehiteet and expert in city planning, Mr. J. L. Crane Jr., of Chicago, recently visited Moscow in his capaeity as corisultant to the Giprogor, a Soviet organization which supervises the building of new "Socialist cities." A considerable number of these cities are projected and some are under construction in various parts of the Soviet Union. Mr. Crane has been studying the* blue printg prepared by the Giprogor and Offering technieal advice, and "expects to return to Russia from time to time in the future to continue this work. He has been studying the plans for the new building on the outskirts of Leningrad and Tiflis for the construction of a new town, or group of towns, in the immediate neighbourhood of Stalingrad. Large Playgrounds. "One impressive feature of the plans," he said, "is the large allotment of space for playgrounds. A seeond feature is the theoretical order and symmetry of the new towns, which centre around a group of public buildings, ,such as the headqnaters of the lqcal Soviet, and the theatre. One is struck also by the number of communal institutions in the new towns. "Such things as eommop club rooms, reading rooms, dining rooms, occupy a prominent place in the plans, and there is even a suggestion for | group ownership of automobiles, j though how this will be worked out i has not been deflnitely decided. j There will be no individual stnall j houses in the new towns, and the j inhabitants will live in large apart- j ment housek." j Mistakes Sometimes Made Mr. Crane remarked that there j was sometbing of a gap between j paper projeets and achievements in i the building of new cities and observ- j ed that technieal experience sometimes j led to such mistakes as the building i of houses at one end and of canaliza- | tion works at the opposite end of the 1 town, with the result that neither could be used. However, he expressed the belief that time and experience would tend to correct these deficiencies and declared that the city planner has a houndless field in Russia. The movement to build new towns along entirely'new lines is an interesting and important part of the Five-Year-Plan and as it proeeeds it seem3 likely to modify very considerably the character and habits of the people. Not that there is any intention of tearing down and rebuilding old Russian cities; the shortage of building materials would make any such project impracticable. But the Giprogor has plenty of work on its hands in the planning of new housing construction, because some cities, such as Magnitogorsk, the site of the huge new steel plant in the Urals, are growing up on what was an empty space a few years ago, while other towns such as Stalingrad, and Gheliabinsk, are expanding so rapidly as a result of the establisjbment of hu£e new plants that genuine new. towns are growing up on their outskirts. No Churches Included These new town3l are being constructed in such fashion as to discourage, if not destroy old conceptions of religion and family life. No churches, for instance, will he built in them. There will be little if any opportunity for a family to have a house to itself; and most of the article3 which describe the projected new cities will emphasize the point that every effort will be made to persuade parents to place their children, from a very young age, in nurseries and kindergartens, where they will be given a social, rather than a family training.

This, it is argued, will free mother3 not only for work — in view of the present labour shortage there is a strong tendency to draw women into factory and office work — but also for study and recreation in leisure time. The new socialist town is usually envisaged not as a vast metropolis, but as a town of some 50,000 or 100,000 inhabitants. In Stalingrad, where besides the large new tractor plant, there are a new electrical station, a new canning plant, a big sawmill, to say nothing of some enlarged pre-war enterprises, it is planned to build five aelf-eontained towns, instead of lumping all the expected growth of population in one huge unit. A liberal use of motor transport is anticipated, so the new town3, are planned with liberal spaeing between the apartment houses.