Regulating architectural and civil engineering process in Russia in the 18th – the beginning of the 20th century

Abstract

The establishment and development of authorities regulating and controlling the architectural and civil engineering practice are governed by a variety of components that include not only artistic and aesthetic ones, but also political and economic, social, legal and other aspects in the 21st century. The scientific novelty of the study is as follows: results of a comprehensive research of the system for control and regulation of the architectural and civil engineering process in Russia from the 18th century till the beginning of the 20th century as a part of central, industry-specific, territorial and local authorities are given. It is demonstrated that qualitative changes in the centralized system regulating the architectural and civil engineering process manifested in the needs of relevant stages of social and economic as well as political development of the country (transformations during the rule of Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Alexander I, and Nicholas I; accelerated development of capitalism after the abolition of serfdom, drastic increase in the rate and scale of rental housing construction in cities). Development of operation of various authorities governing and regulating (central, industry-specific, territorial, local) architectural and civil engineering activities is shown.

Space-planning development of high-rise dominating structures in the historical center (case study of St. Petersburg)

“…These factors changed the nature of many avenues and streets in St. Petersburg. At the end of the 19 th -beginning of the 20 th century, the means of architectural expression used in the system of dominating structures changed as well [6]. A shift away from the classicism with its universalism and transition to the freedom of form-making created new compositional strategies.…”

“…Such dominating microstructures mainly laid emphasis on the intersections of streets. They included towers, projecting bay windows, rounded corners of buildings topped with various domed forms [8].…”