Housing Estates in the Baltic Countries

The Legacy of Central Planning in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

Daniel Baldwin Hess editor Tiit Tammaru editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Published:6th Sep '19

Should be back in stock very soon

This hardback is available in another edition too:

Housing Estates in the Baltic Countries cover

This open access book focuses on the formation and later socio-spatial trajectories of large housing estates in the Baltic countries—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. It also explores claims that a distinctly “westward-looking orientation” in their design produced housing estates that were superior in design to those produced elsewhere in the Soviet Union (between 1944 and 1991, Estonia was a member republic of the USSR).  The first two parts of the book provide contextual material to help readers understand the vision behind housing estates in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. These sections present the background of housing estates in the Baltic Republics as well as challenges and debates concerning their formation, evolution, and present condition and importance. Subsequent parts of the book consist of:

  • demographic analyses of the socioeconomic characteristics and ethnicity of housing estate residents (pastand present) in the three Baltic capital cities, 
  • case studies of people and places related to housing estates in the Baltic countries, and 
  • chapters exploring relevant special topics and themes.

This book will be of interest to students, scholars, and advocates interested in understanding the past, present, and future importance of housing estates in the Baltic countries.

“This is a useful book that addresses the breadth and depth of issues related to housing estate revitalization across Europe and should meet students’ and academics’ appetites for more detailed excavations of housing estates development today. It presents substantial progress in understanding urban issues like ethnic-spatial segregation, inner city revitalization, limiting urban sprawl, and social cohesion, and generates fresh ideas for potential collaboration, among many other things.” (Marcela Mele, Eurasian Geography and Economics, May 8, 2023)
“This much-needed book pays great attention to explaining the historical context of the birth of this sort of housing, the use of standardized types and projects versus innovative planning principles … and the architect’s aspiration towards novelty and original solutions in developing housing estates for the Soviet man.” (Triin Ojari, European Planning Studies, Vol. 28 (6), 2020)
“I strongly recommend [this book] to housing scholars and practitioners on both sides of the Atlantic. The editors and the pub­lisher, Springer Open, deserve credit for publishing two attractive and useful books that address the breadth and depth of issues related to housing estate revitalization across Europe. The numerous photographs (color as well as black-white) throughout the book helped me to understand changes in the design of European housing estates—the good as well as the bad.” (David P. Varady, Geography Research Forum, Vol. 39, 2019)

ISBN: 9783030233914

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

383 pages

1st ed. 2019