#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. For example, in the 1960s, there was an idea to reduce the cost of polar houses – to create construction bases in Krasnoyarsk, where the northern rise in prices would not affect products. And they even wanted to use airships to transport structures from there to the North.
They also put forward ideas for the use of unexpected building materials. In particular, it was planned to build experimental residential buildings from plastic and aluminum.
It was also proposed to use plastic for the construction of domes over the city. Yards-complexes – to make from the courtyards of Zavenyagin street, which was a testing ground for urban planning innovations. Arches with gates were supposed to keep warm inside the yards and protect them from the outside world.
The idea of all-weather residential areas has come back more than once. For example, they wanted to make the Zapolyarnik stadium covered – under an inflatable or tarpaulin dome. Or turn a half of Leninsky prospect into the Norilsk Arbat: demolish the old houses, make low-rise buildings and cover the pedestrian zone with domes. As for winter gardens under glass, architects dreamed of them since the very birth of the city.
The town-planning community of Norilsk waged a long dispute on this issue. Some said that it was not necessary to create hothouse conditions for people: “A person in the North must become tempered, and not languish under a cap”. Others answered: “Why turn a bread-and-butter trip in 50-degree frost into hardening and sports?”
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we told that they wanted to make the Norilsk Nickel combine office look like Moscow skyscrapers – with a tower and a spire.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
