Abstract
Abstract Like many other Central and Eastern European countries Lithuania has been experiencing significant socio-spatial transformations since the 1990s. One of the most prominent of these transformations is associated with the residential suburbanization of its major cities. The suburbs are the only areas in Lithuania where the population has been growing in recent decades, while the country has lost almost one quarter of its population. Although, extensive urban growth is a common feature for all large Lithuanian cities, it is more noticeable in Vilnius. Due to its historical and geographical context, Vilnius, and the region surrounding it, is in an area where rural-urban transformation also means transformation of the social, ethnic, and political landscape. The aim of this article is to obtain more insight into the recent process of the fast, but weakly controlled, residential suburbanization of Vilnius. The focus is on understanding the scale of suburbanization and its impact on the social and physical environment. In this study, we use quantitative data on population and residential constructions as well as presenting some visual material. Our results show that the new suburban-style settlements are spatially dispersed. New residential areas have emerged within the city limits, along its administrative boundary as well as in the most peripheral parts of the Vilnius metropolitan region. In terms of the morphology and physiognomy, a great suburban diversity exists in and around Vilnius, and different building styles are mixed creating a rather chaotic landscape, with little interference from urban planners and no clear vision for the future.
Highlights
Research on suburbanization – its impact both and often lead to social segregation (BRUEGMANN, on the suburbs themselves and on the city as a 2001)
What makes the suburbanization follows: In Section 2, we present how the overall of Vilnius unusual is that the city is situated residential patterns are changing in Lithuania and within a region where rural residents with a show that suburbanization plays an important role
While Lithuania has experienced extreme population decline, the metropolitan area of Vilnius has faced a contrasting trend of population growth, especially in suburban areas
Summary
Research on suburbanization – its impact both and often lead to social segregation (BRUEGMANN, on the suburbs themselves and on the city as a 2001). Most of these countries is declining, the proportion The focus is on understanding the scale of subof people living in the suburbs is increasing. It can urbanization and its impact on the social and be stated that the suburbs of major cities are physical environment. CEE countries; It is noteworthy that the geography of of the weakly planned and controlled urban sprawl cities of the Western countries has started to show a processes, which often take place on lands of a reverse pattern where centres are rich and suburbs non-urban destination, and where the majority of are poor (VAN HAM ET AL., 2021). We combine statistical those related to social inequality and segregation, data and cartographic techniques to explore the are likely to occur
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