Travel to Moscow. The "Anti_Athenas Charter"

During the six weeks that the trip took, a draft was drawn up with the urbanistic principles that determined the architecture of Eastern Germany during the following 20 years. 

The idea of taking as reference the city of Moscow arises in autumn of 1949.

In the issue of Bauplanung und Bautechnik in November of that year , the city building director, Heinrich Starck, suggested that the urban model to be followed by the GDR was the one carried out by his colleagues in the Soviet Union. Those who in a relatively short time, from the 1930s to the end of World War II, had created over 400 new cities and rebuilt a large number of them largely damaged during World War II.

The period suggested by H. Starck is decisive in the development of Soviet architecture. In 1930, it breaks with the Avant-garde, to lead to a more traditional and vernacular architecture.

 

 

In 1930, Soviet architecture was already declared, before the International Congresses of Modern Architecture of Athens, in 1933, as an anti-Modern Movement and specially anti-Constructivism or anti-Avant-garde.

In the early 1950s, an article in the Bauplanung und Bautechnik magazine by Kurt Liebknecht said that the study of Soviet architecture would entail "major changes." In a short time, urbanism, industry, homes, culture, or social housing would be linked to these new guidelines, which would imply that they all worked on a new "urbanistic theory" to be developed. So architects would have to "review their criteria".(3)

The SED (4), discussed different lists of candidates to be part of the delegation that made the trip. Finally on April 4, 1950, the names of the six representatives were known: on the part of the Ministry of Housing Lothar Bolz (director of the delegation); the architects Walter Pisternik and Kurt Liebknecht; as municipal representative Edmund Collein; The Dresden city planning director Kurt Leucht; And Waldemar Alder of the Ministry of Industry.
 
During the six weeks of the trip, they held discussions and debates with high officials and representatives of the Ministry of Town Planning and the Academy of Architects of the Soviet Union. They referred to the learning process they had during the 1930s and led them, for ideological, economic and sociological reasons, to move away from the meaning of the Athens Charter.(5)

Different topics were proposed to be developed during the trip:
They visited the cities of Kiew, Stalingrad and Leningrad; Construction works, buildings and construction fairs. The Germans described Moscow as a "radiant metropolis" with grand squares, wide boulevards and an architecture that "fascinated" them. They were amazed not only by the monumentality of architecture, but also by the constructive systems.

On April 28, 1950, the Soviet representatives developed a draft law in Russian, which was discussed during the following days.
 
The delegation returned to Berlin with a draft the 16 Principles, which was discussed in numerous seminars, conferences and exhibitions between architects, urbanist, and
politicians. And finally on July 27 of 1950 settled the 16 Principles that defined the architecture of the German Democratic Republic.
 
The following is a list of the 16 Principles of Urban Design with regard to the Athens Charter, to study their differences and similarities. As the main difference it can be pointed out that while the Athens Charter is a reflection, a manifesto, the 16 Principles were law.

Since the Athens Charter with its 95 points is considerably more extensive than the 16 Principles of Urban Design, I have proceeded to select in it and in some cases to summarize those points that I consider to be related to the 16 Principles.
 

16 Principles of Urban Design (7) 1. The city as a form of settlement did not arise by chance. The city is the richest economic and cultural form of community settlement, proven by centuries of experience. The city is in its structural and architectural design an expression of the political life and the national consciousness of the people.	Athens Charter (8) 1. The city is only one element within an economic, social, and political complex which constitutes the region. The laying out of the political territory of cities has been allowed to be arbitrary, either from the outset or later on, when, because of their growth, major agglomerations have met and then swallowed up other townships.
2. The goal of urban planning is the harmonious fulfillments of man's basic rights to employment, housing , culture and recreation. The methodological principles of urban planning are based on the natural condition, on the social and economic foundations of the state, on the highest achievements of science, technology and art, on the needs of the economy, and on the use of progressive elements of the cultural heritage of the people.	77. The keys to urbanism are to be found in the four functions: inhabiting, working, recreation (in leisure time), and circulation. Urbanism expresses the condition of an era… urbanism is the outcome of a way of thinking, integrated into public life by means of a technique for action.
3. Cities, per se, do not arise and do not exist. To a significant extent, cities are built by industry for industry. The growth of the city, the population, and the area are determined by city-forming factors, that is, from industry, governing bodies, and cultural sites, insofar as they have more than local significance. In the capital, industry as an urbanization factor is of secondary importance to administrative bodies and cultural sites. The precise discernment and codification of cityforming factors is a matter determined by government.	7. Hence the rationale governing the development of cities is subject to continual change. The growth or decrease of a population, the prosperity or decline of the city, the bursting of fortified walls that become stifling enclosures, the new means of communication…the beneficial or harmful effects of a policy of choice or submission, the advent of machinism, all of this is just movement… 50. The business city, devoted to public and private administration, must be assured of good communications with the residential quarters… The business center must be located at the confluence of the traffic channels that serve the various sectors of the city: habitation, industry and craft workshops, public administration…
4. The growth of the city must be subordinate to efficacy and remain within certain limits. An overgrown city, its population, and its area lead to difficulties in eliminating  tangles in their structure, lead to entanglements in the organization of cultural life and the daily care of the population, and lead to administrative complications, both in business and in the development of industry.	76. The dimensions of all elements within the urban system can only be governed by human proportions. The natural measurements of man himself must serve as a basis for all the scales that will be consonant with the life and diverse functions of the human being: a scale of measurements applying to areas and distances, a scale of distances that will be considered in relation to the natural walking pace of man, a time scale that must be determined according to the daily course of the sun.
5. Urban planning must be based on the principles of organicism, and the consideration of a city's historical structure in eliminating that city's shortcomings.	65. Architectural assets must be protected, whether found in isolated buildings or in urban aggregations. The life of a city is a continuous event that is expressed through the centuries by material works…They are precious witnesses of the past which will be respected, first for their historical or sentimental value, and second, because certain of them convey a plastic virtue in which the utmost intensity of human genius has been incorporated. They form a part of the human heritage…
6. The center forms the veritable core of the city. The center of the city is the political center for its population. In the city center are the most important political, administrative and cultural sites. On the squares in the city center one might find political demonstrations, marches andpopular celebrations held on festival days. The center of the city shall be composed of the most important and monumental buildings, dominating the architectural composition of the city plan and determining the architectural silhouette of the city.	23. Henceforth, residential districts must occupy the best locations within the urban space, using the topography to advantage, taking the climate into account, and having the best exposure to sunshine with accessible verdant areas at their disposal. …The problem of the dwelling, of habitation, takes precedence over all others. The best locations in the city must be reserved for it…  88. The initial nucleus of urbanism is a cell for living — a dwelling — and its insertion into a group forming a habitation unit of efficient size. 89. With this dwelling unit as the starting point, relationships within the urban space will be established between habitation, work places, and the facilities set aside for leisure.
7. In cities that lie on a river, the river and its embankments shall be one of the main arteries and architectural axes of the city.	3. These biological and psychological constants are subject to the influence of their environment —the geographical and topographical condition, the economic circumstances, the political situation. In the first place they are influenced by the geographical and topographical condition, the constitution of the elements, land and water, nature, soil, climate…Geography and topography play a considerable role in the destiny of men. …Plains, hills, and mountains likewise intermediate, to shape a sensibility and to give rise to a mentality.
8. Traffic circulation has to serve the city and its population. It should neither divide the city nor be cumbersome to the general public. Through traffic should be removed from the center and central district and rerouted outside its borders or to an outer ring. Equipment for the carriage of goods, such as rail- and canal-ways, should also be kept away from the central district of the city. Determining locations for main roads must take into account the coherence and tranquility of residential districts. In determining the width of main roads, it is important to note that the width of these main thoroughfares is not of crucial importance to urban transportation, but rather as an outlet for crossroads in order to appropriately ease the demands of traffic flow.	59. The whole of city and regional traffic circulation must be closely analyzed on the basis of accurate statistics — an exercise that will reveal the traffic channels and their flow capacities.  60. Traffic channels must be classified according to type and constructed in terms of the vehicles and speeds they are intended to accommodate. 62. The pedestrian must be able to follow other paths than the automobile network. 63. Roads must be differentiated according to their purposes: residential roads, promenades, throughways, principal thoroughfares.
9. The visage of the city-that is, its individual artistic form-shall be defined by squares, main streets, and prominent buildings in the center of the city (in those largest cities containing skyscrapers). Squares and plazas shall serve as the structural basis for the planning of the city and for its overall architectural composition.	84. Once the city is defined as a functional unit, it should grow harmoniously in each of its parts, having at hand the spaces and intercommunications within which the stages of its development may be inscribed with equilibrium.
10. Residential areas shall consist of housing districts, the cores of which shall be district centers. For the sake of the residents of these housing districts, in them shall be all necessary cultural, utility, and social services. The second aspect in the structuring of residential areas shall be the residential complex, which is formed by grouping together four housing structures, where there shall be located a central park, schools, kindergartens, and nurseries that serve the daily needs of the population. Urban transport must not be allowed within these residential areas, but neither the residential districts nor the residential complexes should be isolated entities in and of themselves. Latent in their structure and design are the demands of the city on a whole. The housing structures themselves function as a third aspect in the importance of complexes in planning and design.	24. The selection of residential zones must be dictated by considerations of public health. 25. Reasonable population densities must be imposed, according to the forms of habitation suggested by the nature of the terrain itself. 26. A minimum number of hours of exposure to the sun must be determined for each dwelling.  27. The alignment of dwellings a long transportation routes must be prohibited.
11. Access to light and air are not the only determining factors for healthy and peaceful living conditions, but also population density and orientations, as well as the development of transportation systems.	12. …The first obligation of urbanism is to come into accord with the fundamental needs of men. The health of every person depends to a great extent on his submission to the “conditions of nature.” The sun, which governs all growth, should penetrate the interior of every dwelling, there to diffuse its rays, without which life withers and fades. The air, whose quality is assured by the presence of vegetation, should be pure and free from both inert dust particles and noxious gases. Lastly, space should be generously dispensed. …The Fourth Congress of the CIAM, held in Athens, has proceeded from this postulate: sun, vegetation, and space are the three raw materials of urbanism.
12. It is impossible to transform a city into a garden. Of course, care must be taken to provide sufficient greenery, but the principle not to overturn is that in the city one lives urbanistically, whereas on the outskirts or outside the city one lives rurally.	30. Open spaces are generally inadequate. 32. The remoteness of the outlying open spaces does not lend itself to better living conditions in the congested inner zones of the city. 35. Hereafter, every residential district must include the green area necessary…the urban fabric will have to change its texture; the urban population centers will tend to become green cities. Contrary to what takes place in the “garden cities,” the verdant areas will not be divided into small unit lots for private use but, instead, dedicated to the launching of the various communal activities that form the extensions of the dwelling. Kitchen gardening, the usefulness of which is actually the principal argument in favor of the garden cities, might very well be considered here: a percentage of the available ground will be allocated to it and divided into multiple individual plots, but  certain collective gardening arrangements, such as tilling, irrigating, and watering, can lighten the labor and increase the yield. 36. Unsanitary blocks of houses must be demolished and replaced by green areas: the adjacent housing quarters will thus become more sanitary. 83. The city must be studied within the whole of its region of influence. A regional plan will replace the simple municipal plan. The limit of the agglomeration will be Expressed in terms of the radius of its economic action.
13. The many storey high-rise is more economical than a one- or two-storey design. It also reflects the character of the metropolis.	29. High buildings, set far apart from one another, must free the ground for broad verdant areas. 82. Urbanism is a three-dimensional, not a twodimensional, science. Introducing the element of height will solve the problems of modern traffic and leisure by utilizing the open spaces thus created.
14. Urban planning is the basis of architectural design. Central to urban planning and architectural design of a city is the creation of an individual and unique visage for that city. The architecture must embody both the progressive traditions as well as the past experiences of the people. 15. For urban planning, as for architectural design, there shall be no abstract scheme. Crucial are only the summarization of essential architectural factors and the demands of daily life. 16. Simultaneously and in accordance with the work on a city plan shall be completed designs for the planning and development of specific neighborhoods, as well as plazas and main street with neatly organized housing blocks, whose construction will be completed first.	79. The cycle of daily functions — inhabiting, working, recreation (recuperation) — will be regulated by urbanism with the strictest emphasis on time saving, the dwelling being regarded as the very center of urbanistic concern and the focal point for every measure of distance.
First prize project in the contest for the design of Stalinallee Strasse, Berlin. 1951	Plan Voisin, Paris. 1925. © FLC/ADAGP

In most of the points there is no confrontation of ideas, but discrepancy in priorities.

The ideas about what should be the nucleous of the city, from which urbanism must develop, are the most divergent. While in the Athens Charter the core of urbanism is the room cell, in the socialist city, industry is prioritized. The big capitals have to focus on the administrative centers, but it is the industry that marks the development and growth of the city. This disagreement about which of the uses must be the generator of urbanism, results in cities with different images.

Point 12 of the Principles of Urban Design, on the need to differentiate between city and countryside, is clear and gives a message of what "can not be done". This message is not intended as much for the defenders of the Athens Charter as for some of the Soviet avant-garde of the 1920s. In particular, the antiurbanists.

Having studied both texts, one can see how the Soviet architecture was somehow part of the Modern Movement. Politics and ideology marked the differences between one current and another. Politics, because communism, eliminates the problem of the soil, as there is no private property. And ideological, as a consequence of the policy of having a single party; Because it is the taste, or the lack of it, of the leaders of the moment that defines the architecture built during this period.Thus the Charter of Athens remains in a manifesto of ideas, while the 16 Principles of Urban Design were law.

Jane Jacobs, wrote in 1961 the book Death and life of the great cities. In it she makes a critique of the American architecture of the 1950s. It is interesting to read the four
conditions for proper urban development that she establishes in the book, because after analyzing the two models I think they can be applied to Soviet cities as much as The american: 

NOTES.-