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Geographica 30 Geographica 30 Everyday life in avant-garde housing estates A phenomenology of post-Soviet Moscow Alexander Kalyukin Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Sal IX, Universitetshuset, Biskopsgatan 3, Uppsala, Friday, 5 February 2021 at 10:15 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Faculty examiner: Professor Tim Cresswell (University of Edinburgh, School of GeoSciences). Abstract Kalyukin, A. 2020. Everyday life in avant-garde housing estates. A phenomenology of post- Soviet Moscow. Geographica 30. 224 pp. Uppsala: Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University. ISBN 978-91-506-2856-2. This thesis explores the social meaning and function of what is known as avant-garde, or constructivist, housing estates located in central Moscow. Five of these estates – Budenovsky, Dubrovka, Khavsko-Shabolovsky, Nizhnyaya Presnya and Usachevka – comprise the empirical foci of the study. Built in the late 1920s, the avant-garde estates are the architectonic expression of specific ideals about everyday life and collective living for Soviet citizens. Exploring the avant-garde housing in their current post-Soviet setting, the thesis analyses the lived and social experiences of their residents in the mundane fabric of everyday life, against the backdrop of structural societal forces and the sweep of historical changes occurring in the built environment. Theoretically, the study draws on phenomenologically informed humanistic geography scholarship as well as Henri Lefebvre’s Marxist analysis of everyday life and social space. Empirically, the analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with local residents, including walking interviews, and interviews with architecture historians and preservation activists, as well as a survey, a range of historical sources and state register data. The findings show that residents, in relation to the spatial, architectural and design features of their housing estates, make sense of their residencies as home places, thereby transcending the official historical and cultural heritage narratives. Furthermore, associated with the restructuring of housing markets in post-Soviet Moscow, the change in social (housing) relations has had a clear effect on the physical and social space of the estates, leading to novel patterns of place- based socialisation and politicisation. The thesis also demonstrates how residents rediscover the historical meanings and underpinnings of avant-garde housing in the course of their daily lives, showcasing the awareness and possibility of envisioning housing as a fundamental social right built with human needs, not profits, in mind. This study should be of special interest to those concerned with housing and urban planning, urban history, residential architecture and urban phenomenology. It is also an invitation to revisit and actualise the humanistic tradition in current human geography studies. Keywords: built environment, housing, everyday life, avant-garde architecture, humanistic geography, phenomenology, Henri Lefebvre, post-Soviet city, Moscow, Russia Alexander Kalyukin, Institute for Housing and Urban Research, Box 514, Uppsala University, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden. © Alexander Kalyukin 2020 ISSN 0431-2023 ISBN 978-91-506-2856-2 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-427671 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-427671) Acknowledgments My research was made possible by the help of many people. I am indebted to all the participants in my study who dedicated their time to meet me, told me about their houses and neighbourhoods, went for walks with me, let me in their flats, showed me photos from their family archives, put me in touch with their neighbours, and in every way guided me through their home places. Without your stories there would be no thesis! I am also grateful to Alexandra Selivanova at the Avant-Garde Centre and Museum, who put me in contact with members of the professional and activist communities as well as re- ferred me to the secondary and historical sources. Thank you to Elena Perfilova, who kindly helped me with the survey, for being an excellent field assistant. Спасибо! Undertaking this research would have not been possible without a generous and stimulating support of my supervisors, Irene Molina and Tom Mels. Irene: your enthusiasm, encouragement and belief in me have seen no limits! You have welcomed me to IBF and made me feel at home from my very first day there. Thank you for always keep- ing your door open for me, thank you for being supportive of my ideas, and thank you for always reminding me to keep fighting. Tom: you are one of the most well-read people I have ever met, and this has been a great resource for me! I am grateful for having been able to extensively discuss my ideas with you, as well as for your thought- ful and careful reading of my texts. Thank you for having me on Got- land, and thank you for showing me your Bachelardian house with a Russian stove. Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to Göran Rydén who joined the team of supervisors at the later stage of my PhD studies as the third reader. Göran: I learnt a lot from you about writing tricks (think bestämd and obestämd form) and about my own writing style, as well as about birdwatching, bandy and baroque music. Thank you for all of this, and thank you for caring. I am grateful to Maja Lagerqvist and Don Mitchell for their critical reading of the earlier draft of the manuscript. Your comments and suggestions were invaluable in finalising this project. I am also thank- ful to Roger Andersson, Mats Franzén, Terry Hartig, Peeter Maandi, Don Mitchell, and Gunnar Olsson for reading the early drafts of the thesis chapters. Many thanks to fellow PhD students Taylor Brydges, Julia De Gregorio and Marat Murzabekov for commenting on my texts at the departmental seminars. I am also grateful to Sebastian Kohl for the opportunity to work together on an article side-project: it was a great learning experience. I would like to thank all the fantastic colleagues at the Department of Social and Economic Geography who I had a pleasure to get to know over the course of my PhD studies. My special thanks go to Aida Aragao-Lagergren, Karin Beckman, Lena Dahlborg, David Jans- son, and Susanne Stenbacka who provided me with guidance throughout the PhD programme. Erik and Julia: cheers for sharing the beginning of the PhD studies with me. Dominic: thanks for all the laughs and positive mood! Marat: thanks for all the advice. To everyone at the Institute for Housing and Urban Research (IBF): thank you so much for all these years! A very special thank you to Kerstin Larsson for all the problem-solving, kindness, check-ins and encouragement, as well as for helping me developing my Swe- dish. Thank you to Irene Molina and Nils Hertting for being attentive and supporting. Lena Lubenow, Jenny Sundström, Pamela Tipman- oworn, Ulrika Wahlberg, Ann-Sofie Wigg Bodin: thanks for making things run so smooth on the administrative side. Very special thanks to all the past and present PhD colleagues for sharing these years with me at IBF, and particularly to Ann, Åse, Christoffer, Hedvig, Henrik, Kati, and last but not least Kristoffer! Special words of grati- tude go to my IBF corridor mates Madhi and Tim: thank you guys for your camaraderie and all the chit-chat and laughs during the final year of the PhD programme. To my IBF tennis partners Miguel and Tim: thanks for keeping me active! I would also like to thank the Anna Maria Lundin foundation at Smålands Nation and the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (SSAG) for generously funding my fieldworks and the conference travels. There are a few more people who I am indebted to for all their support and encouragement throughout these PhD years. Kerri: your care and support has been absolutely crucial. Thank you so much! Наконец, огромное спасибо всей моей семье. Мама, Папа, Ваня, я всегда чувствую вашу поддержку, сколько бы сотен или тысяч километров нас не разделяло. Мама, мой первый учитель, ну вот я и написал книгу на английском языке! Спасибо! Uppsala, December 2020 Contents 1 Introduction ........................................................................................... 11 Studying the contemporary housing experience .............................. 13 Aim and research questions ................................................................ 16 Disposition of thesis ............................................................................. 19 2 Theoretical perspectives on space, place and everyday lived experience .............................................................................................. 21 Humanistic geography and experiential place .................................. 21 Significance of place and lived emplacement .............................. 23 On the notion of dwelling and home ........................................... 26 Critical reflections on humanistic geography .............................. 29 Lived space and everyday life under capitalism ............................... 32 Dwelling and modernity from a Marxist vantage point ............ 33 Social space – lived space ............................................................... 36 Lefebvre’s critique of everyday life: Marxism meets phenomenology ............................................................................... 38 Placing housing: towards a synthesis ................................................. 44 3 Method and material ...........................................................................
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