The Deliberate Lack of Walkability in Soviet Designed Cities

When the Soviet Union found itself in power, it not only took over some vibrant cities in its territories, it also quickly worked to create brand new ones to suit needs of the planned economies and regional administration.  Villages are expanded into cities based on a consistent set of designs that adhere to Soviet philosophies of how cities should look like and function.  Based on the set of designs, many similar cities are created in the Soviet sphere of influence.

Ulaanbaatar and Almaty are two of the cities designed by the Soviets.  Both used to be small villages in the middle of nowhere practically built up to serve respectively as political centers for the new Kazakh and Mongolian Soviet republics.  Despite being thousands of miles away from one another, the two look very similar.  Both contain large straight boulevards arranged in rectangular grid patterns.  Street blocks are filled with concrete apartment buildings of standard designs and many Monumental buildings.

The end result is one of consistency at the expense of pedestrians.  Monumental buildings stand out as landmarks but the streets are so wide and buildings so far apart from each other that people cannot easily get from one to the other without significant legwalk.  The kind of shopping streets lined with streetside stalls is considered too crammed and not fitting with the Soviet concept of cities being centrally organized.  Better put all the shopping in large department stores that looks the part.

The idea of "open" cities with wide streets, big city squares, and far apart buildings are not unique to Soviet philosophy.  Nazi Germany attempted to redesign the "imperial" capital of Berlin with the same concept in mind, with strong emphasis on ability of the political authorities to create order, thereby accentuating the strength of Nazi strength.  Again, like the Soviets, pedestrian friendliness is sacrificed for the political goal of building the orderly city.

Lack of attention to pedestrians is starting to bite in the capitalist era.  Because central department stores can no longer serve the needs of people for immediate services and purchase of products, bottom floors of residential apartment buildings are being turned into shops, restaurants, and various other shop fronts.  In a very ad hoc fashion, the entrepreneurs of post-capitalist economies like Kazakhstan and Mongolia are creating pedestrian shopping streets that Soviet central planners frowned upon.

But ad hoc has its limits.  Because apartment blocks are designed to be separated, with wide and not easily crossed boulevards, into different residential areas, new shopping streets cannot easily rely on economy of scale even within its immediate area.  Individual businesses suffer from the fact that desired customers living nearby have to walk inconveniently across massive streets and beyond equally massive buildings just to get to the shops.  Driving does not help much given distinct lack of parking.

The solution to the problem might be a technical one.  Instead of getting people to come to shops, shop owners are likely to move much faster to online retail and offline mass deliveries.  Interestingly, due to the systematic congregation of apartment blocks, deliveries can be easily made because buildings are so easy to find.  One essential characteristic of Soviet city organization has proven itself to be inadvertently valuable in the Internet shopping Era.

Such of e-commerce is already visible in China, where cities are also designed partially in the Soviet way.  Yet, as people become richer, they are demanding their physical living space to become like Soviet like, so to speak.  New kind of neighborhoods are emerging that are much more bottom-up and organic than anything designed by Soviet central planners.  As the Soviet city breaks down in the near future, perhaps pedestrians will have better time walking around.