Principles of Town Planning in the Soviet Union: Volume IV (Paperback)

Volume 4 of the monograph is dedicated to the architectural and aesthetic problems of town development. The first chapter reveals the essence of architectural and aesthetic problems and their place among the other town planning problems dealt within the preceding volumes. The second chapter analyses such basic notions of town development as traditions, continuity and innovation. These notions are analysed by means of concrete examples of towns. The authors reveal the regularity factor characterizing the shaping of internal spaces, sky-lines and panoramas of towns. The third, fourth and fifth chapters deal with principles of architectural composition, with rules and devices contributing to the shaping of ensembles. Various examples of comprehensive development and of creating parks and gardens are analyzed here. Special attention is paid to the problem of integrating architectural monuments into modern development. The sixth chapter is devoted to questions concerning numerous and various engineering facilities within the town borders, and analyzes the aesthetic value of engineering structures. A special section of the chapter deals with the so-called "small forms" and their utilization in the town amenity. The last, seventh, chapter analyzes the question of synthesis of arts in town planning, gives characteristics of monumental sculpture and painting and describes methods of integrating monuments and memorial structures into the town ensembles. In the closing section of the volume one finds the summing up of the problems investigated and analyzed in volume 4 and taken in connection with the subjects of the preceding volumes. The monograph is intended for architects, town planners, scientific workers, teachers and students of architectural and building institutes, workers of the City Soviet of Working People's Deputies. The book acquaints foreign readers with numerous questions concerning the theory and the practice of the Soviet town planning.