Reglamentation of Urban Planning Activities in St. Petersburg in the 18th – 19th Centuries and its Technical Consequences

The technical aspects of the history of the urban development of St. Petersburg are considered, which make it possible to form a general idea of the features and patterns of historical development, which is necessary for assessing the state and deformation behavior of residential buildings erected in the 18th - 19th centuries. On the basis of the works of well-known researchers of the formation of the historical center of the Northern capital, it is demonstrated that the planning of the quarters of the urban environment, the development of individual households was subject to strict regulation in terms of layout, building dimensions in terms of plan and height, which led to the emergence of buildings with certain ratios of facade length to height and width in cross section. For the construction of the capital of the Russian Empire and other historical cities, “exemplary” projects, albums of “exemplary” facades were used, which should have been guided during construction, and a typical division of quarters into separate sections was recommended. Perimeter (“firewall”) development of plots led to the formation of a characteristic type of building with a two-span front structure along the red line of the street and predominantly single-span courtyard buildings forming closed courtyards. At the same time, the front structures, due to the presence of a system of longitudinal and transverse walls, turned out to have significantly greater spatial rigidity than the courtyard ones. It is shown that the urban development of the capital was characterized by a gradual increase in the number of storeys and compaction of building sites, which led to the mutual influence of buildings of a later construction on the previously erected ones.

A.G. SHASHKIN, Doctor of Sciences (Geology and Mineralogy) (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.),
V.A. SHASHKIN, Candidate of Sciences (Engineering) (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Institute “Georeconstruction” (4, Izmaylovskiy pr. Saint-Petersburg, 190005. Russian Federation)

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