Balcony in the Post-Soviet City: Private and Public in the Legal Perspective

Abstract

The article deals with the balcony as a borderland between private and public everyday life of post-Soviet cities’ inhabitants in the legal perspective. For finding out the differences between usual practices of balconies arrangement and current legislation, an analysis of numerous legal documents related to urban development activities was conducted. In particular, a number of important documents, such as valid state building regulations, the Instruction on the procedure for conducting a technical inventory of real estate objects, the Rules for the maintenance of residential buildings and adjoining territories, etc., were analyzed. Also, the research includes the results of processing media materials and the Unified State Register of court decisions. As a result of the study, it was found that current norms allow glazing of balconies and loggias if this is not related to the reconstruction of the dwelling, does not contradict the rules of fire safety, and does not interfere with insolation and ventilation. However, nowadays the legislation prohibits complex reconstruction of the house’s façade with typical glazing of all summer premises. At the same time, after the reconstruction, residents of all apartments have the right to make glazing of their balcony or loggia. Along with that, such a practice only modulates chaotic glazing and in no way contributes to the safety and comfort of living in multi-apartment buildings. There are a lot of similar paradoxical legal situations in the everyday lives of Ukrainian townspeople. In addition, excessively restrictive norms do not contribute to the integrity of their observance, while some of the current rules are obsolete and impede the dynamic transformation of urban development. City dwellers have formed their own norms of the balconies’ glazing and rebuilding. Such practices became possible due to the economic instability and weakness of state control bodies (in particular, through corruption schemes). As a result, every year Ukrainian cities look even more bizarre, while practices of parasitic architecture create a new cultural landscape of the Ukrainian urban environment.