КОНСТРУИРОВАНИЕ «ГОРОДА-ЛЕСА» НОВОСИБИРСКОГО АКАДЕМГОРОДКА ЭКСПЕРТНЫМИ СООБЩЕСТВАМИ (1957–1959 гг.)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the Novosibirsk Akademgorodok project and its relationship with the environment. The tradition of immersing scientific cities in forests dates back to the 1930s, but it was rethought in the 1950s and became part of the improvement of scientists’ settlements, which had to provide an increased standard of living, including landscaping. Based on the materials of the projects of GIPRONII (the main projecting, scientific and research institute of the USSR Science Academy) and Novosibgorproekt (the Novosibirsk city architectural bureau), as well as the reports of the Forest-Protection Experimental Station (Lesozashchitnaia opytnaia stantsiia, LOS), it is shown that nature was conceptualized by projectors and foresters as a special kind of arrangement (infrastructure). These two expert communities assigned several functions to the forest: recreational, architectural, zoning and nature-strengthening. The functionality fixed in this way made it possible to evaluate the effectiveness of different types of landscape. As a result, meadows, clearings, and former arable lands were considered as the least valuable types of territories used for building and planting trees. However, the existing forests did not always meet the requirements of experts and required improvements to fulfill the tasks assigned to them. As a result, the use of both productivist and environmental discourses created a “forest city” immersed in greenery. The expert discourse formed by the LOS considered the environmental changes as part of the conservation of natural forests. The ambivalence of wildlife and urban infrastructure laid down by foresters became one of the factors that influenced the rethinking of the concept of nature in Novosibirsk Akademgorodok and the development of environmental ideas in the Soviet Union.