Irregular Areas Urban Model: Genesis — Evolution — Application — Influence

Abstract

The article considers the irregular areas model of urban spatial organization, by Alexander Vysokovsky. The model was “the focusing lens” of his professional views, through which the reformation of all aspects of urban planning was performed—in theory, practice, and education. The purpose of the article is to follow the evolution of the irregular areas model and the urban design instruments it proposed in its development in transforming socio-economic conditions. This perspective allows us to define the genesis of the irregular areas model and trace it to the Gutnov carcass-fabric urban model. First, the article reproduces the basic theoretical thesis of the irregular areas urban model and evaluates the original postulates of the irregular-areas-based spatial development projects that reacted to Soviet urban planning traditions. These postulates include current land-use-based design, polycentricity, and connectivity elements. Then, the article brings out the stages of the model’s evolution in transforming the formulation of urban planning. The stages are as follows: an instrument for the spatial extrapolation of inertial urban development; the irregular areas model as carcass-fabric urban model thesis evolution; the development of the algorithmic-mathematical model; and the transition to the vernacular urban model. Special emphasis is placed on the contribution of the irregular areas urban model in the development of Russian urban zoning practice. Its application in “generalized zoning” allowed the prompt preparation of new zoning ordinances. Finally, the article evaluates the model’s influence on the logic of the legal regulation of urban planning implied in the Russian Urban Planning Code of 2004—not only on the zoning ordinances, but on territorial planning and urban planning standards as well.