ZATO – Secret Soviet Cities

The Harriman Institute in New York was recently exhibiting the exhibition: ZATO – Secret Soviet Cities during the Cold War on the dynamics between politics, urbanism, and cartographic manipulation. Unfortunately we couldn’t go there, but secret cities based on the communist ideology of ‘the Party’, for sure drew our attention.

These closed cities or so called ZATO sites (Closed Administrative-Territorial Formation / Zakrytoe administrativno-territorial’noe obrazovanie) were areas for secret military or scientific research and production in the Soviet Empire. Weapons were produced there and medical experiments took place on nearly 250,000 animals to understand how radiation damages tissues and causes diseases.

Built in the remote areas of the Soviet Empire, they followed a unique architectural program – inspired by ideal cities, based on perfect geometric plans, articulated by progressive modernist architectural language, reflecting the ideology of the Party. However, these “realized utopias” were camouflaged and blurred into the environment. The cities were not to be found on official maps and those who worked there had special passes to live and leave, and were themselves hidden from public view. Most of the scientists and engineers who worked in the ZATOs were not allowed to reveal their place or purpose of employment.

Today there are still 43 ZATO on the territory of the Russian Federation. Their future is uncertain: some may survive; others may disappear as urban formations within the context of Russian suburbs.

We at Design as Politics love New Towns – urbanism rarely gets more visibly political than when governments start planning entirely new cities. Also, operating in the DMZ between policy and design ourselves, we like interdisciplinarity very much.

If you combine these two, you get a new INTI lecture series which will be held in the spring 2012 semester at both the University of Amsterdam and the TU Delft. I you’re a student of either university – or another one for that matter – and you got some (read: 10) ECTS to tackle next semester, do enroll asap: the program looks awesome, and even includes a trip to everybody’s favourite new town Milton Keynes. For a full lecture program, dates, etcetera, click here. Sounds amazing simply because it is amazing.

If you’d like to join, do two things: enroll via your own university (TU Delft course code: AR0265), and send an e-mail to s.vanginneken@newtowninstitute.org. Thanks.

 

 

Starting in February, the International New Town Institute (not to be confused with the Newton Institute) will organize an elective course for master students at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the TU Delft. Ten workshops (lectures by a number of speakers included), two excursions (to grandiose Germany and paradisiacal Poland), students of another university to cross brain-swords with – what else does the ambitious student of today need? Difficult words like, ehm, geopolitics? Academic credits? They’ve got that covered, too.

More info and a detailed description of course structure and requirements can be found here.

Community Power missing in Chinese New Towns. The Law of unforeseen planning. Cities of Zion in the American West.

Next month the International New Town Institute, in collaboration with the Han Lammers research chair (University of Amsterdam) and the chair of Design as Politics (Delft University of Technology – that would be us), is organizing a two-day conference around the notion of the New Town as a(n ultimate) political tool. Aptly named ‘New Towns & Politics‘, the conference will feature a number of established international speakers who will reflect on the global phenomenon that is the New Town and local renditions of its abstract themes: lecture titles hint towards reflections on Iranian, American, Korean, Chinese, Israeli and even Dutch New Town initiatives. Not to be missed, obviously. O, and dinner is included.

All will take place in Almere – Koolhaas’s modern-21st-century-new-city-dream-model-come-true: it’s going to be like that lecture on dinosaurs which was held inside an actual dinosaur!

Fees for the two-day event, including drinks, lunch and dinner, are EUR 300 for professionals and EUR 70 for students and PhD-researchers. More info can be found on the INTI website, here, and to register just send an e-mail to seminar@newtowninstitute.org. Do check out INTI’s New Town database too, by the way.

Reminder: the INTI Call for Papers deadline is coming up in two weeks: time to get over your writer’s block and spend some time holding a pen – or a laptop, if you’re one of those fancier types. More info here.

Wouter Vanstiphout is lecturing at the faculty of Architecture of the Delft University of Technology – scroll five posts down for more information!

April 21 at 17h – TUDelft Room S
“The (re)design of New Towns in recent years, 1970-present”

Wouter Vanstiphout is lecturing at the faculty of Architecture of the Delft University of Technology tonight – see three posts down for more information!

March 31st 2010, 19:00, Zaal F, Wouter Vanstiphout: “From the (second generation) English New Towns to Team X, 1945-1970″

Lecture series: ‘New Towns on the Frontier of Geopolitics’

As part of a collaborative lecture series for master students organized by the International New Town Institute (INTI), the Graduate School for the Social Sciences (UvA) and the Delft University of Technology, Wouter Vanstiphout will give two lectures at the faculty of Architecture in Delft:

March 31 at 19h – TUDelft Room F (update March 30th: location changed form Room S to F!)
“From the (second generation) English New Towns to Team X, 1945-1970″

April 21 at 17h – TUDelft Room S
“The (re)design of New Towns in recent years, 1970-present”

Although part of a course, everybody is welcome to attend.