#suburbanizedshore

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Togliatty Engineered Shores

Scheme of Togliatti coastline

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Real Estate Terrorism

In Astrakhan, there are many old houses made of wood. In general, they are in poor condition, but they are quite beautiful and often they are still inhabited. Meanwhile, forces of urbanism and politics are hard at work, and the result is the construction of new high-rise apartment buildings. This is partly an effort to accommodate a population said to be growing, to show development and progress as world leaders meet in Astrakhan, the "Capital of the Caspian," and partly the kind of land speculation common all over the world.

To build these new towers, the land must be purchased from its owners and the existing houses must be cleared. This process is violent. In the pre-dawn hours, especially in spring, the people of the old wooden neighborhoods are woken by the smell of smoke, the sounds of fire. Their neighbors are burning. Firefighters eventually arrive, but sometimes the fire spreads to other houses. Everyone lives in fear of fire, and the contracts offered by the developers are unfair and they exploit this fear.

Meanwhile, the typical, anonymous, and crude version of Russian urbanism destroys the true heritage of old Astrakhan.    

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Water system -master plan- today-1909-1876-1820 

in 1909 along the banks of the Volga were located fisheries and cooperage establishments where manufactured barrels for storing fish. Construction proceeded along the banks of the Volga River and canals. In Soviet times, banks were engaged in production of that isolated from the rest of the coast of the city. However, according to the plans of the general plan for future development along the shores of high-rise buildings will be followed by low buildings will follow that isolates the shore again from the rest of the city

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Togliatti case: the river and the city disintegration

The main point about the Volga in Togliatti - the river is not incorporated into the urban space, it is speared from all other urban space and activities. Embankments are perceived as elements of nature inside the city. It can be considered as one of possible models of river and city coexistence: in Samara the situation is opposite, all embankments of the Volga in Samara is occurred as a part of the city architect system. 

The Volga in Togliatti is not the part of city space

In terms of Volga in Togliatti it should be noticed the local urban context which was defined as ‘city for cars’. All streets and blocks in this city were designed with the expectation of motorists not pedestrians. You won’t find walking street in this city moreover even existing boulevards are not as popular (according to local who were talking to us). 

Togliatti accessibility for pedestrians is really very low (that’s what all locals confirmed) and it’s districts are almost disconnected due to undeveloped public transport (it can be a real problem to get from one side of the city to another without a car). This causes that that all local routines are strongly related with cars.

As a result of particular city planning the Volga has been disconnected from the city and citizens. It’s even not as easy to get by foot there, the main city streets and districts are not related with embankments. Both city planing and  car oriented transport system create border between the city and the river. 

Fencing embankment with AvtoVAZ symbol

Borders seem to be the main thing about the Volga banks in Togliatti  and about Togliatti in general.  This city is a center of endless borders producing, reproducing and demolishing (what leads to the first stage of the cycle). 

Togliatti embankment looks empty. 

New Togliatti embankment looks quit modest comparing to many embankments in other Russian cities. 

Housing in water preserving area (150 meters in front of water edge) is not only Togliatti problem

In Togliatti case the river shore is half urbanised and half stays rural (we can not say ‘wild’ because it has been already touched by human). It’s used for leisure activities like bicycling (in areas were embankment was constructed) and it’s very attractive for private housing building (in its ‘empty’ areas). The Volga shore at the moment can become  city development driver as a public space for common leisure activities or may cause troubles reaped with illegal housing. Time will show.

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ULYANOVSK/VOLGA SHORE

One of the main problems of developing the river bank are the landslides. Because of that there isn't much happening on the shore. 

Although in the soviet times there was a program to deal with that problem:

Land was given to people to plant gardens with trees, but people started planting tomatoes and potatoes and that didn't really help to reinforce the slope.There are still some dachas left...

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Highly Surveyed Shore

On the other shore of the Volga in Ulyanovsk it is prohibited to take pictures or to walk. Or this we were told by the uniformed guard of the shore.

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ULYANOVSK/SIMBIRKA vs. VOLGA

The Volga shore in Ulyanovsk is a gap between the two parts of the city. And at the same time it isn’t used. On one shore it is a deserted bank with some dachas and wild dogs. It is not used because the slope is very steep and is not reinforced. So the landslides are a big issue. The opposite shore is cut off from the city by a wall. To be exact a long territory surrounded by walls. With nothing but small 2x2m buildings.

The Simbirka river though is interacting more with the city. It now mostly works as a park and has 2 activation points (the university and the shopping mall on opposite shores) Also the city has great plans to develop that area

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KAZAN/ KAZANKA vs. VOLGA

The most developed embankment in the city is the bank of Kazanka river. It has a historical part which attracts tourists. Further on it turns into a construction site with a lot of modern buildings facing the river. The Millenium bridge, which is very hard to reach, takes us to a new developed shore with shopping malls and housing blocks facing the sand shores of the embankment which are soon to be developed.

It is interesting that the people don’t associate their city with the Volga.

The Volga shore is very hard to see. There is only one part of it which is visible, and it  is located in the port which is behind walls. The rest of the Volga shore consists of many other walls. Which mostly hide the industrial zones that took nearly all of  shore.