The hidden potential of the dvor Reshaping semi-private spaces in Moscow

Abstract

The research explores the semi private spaces between the housing units in the Moscow periphery called dvor. The work is focusing on the model of open space generated by the specific architectural conditions during the Soviet standard housing period. The dvor has become an outcome of the mass construction, shaping a unique open space environment whose contrasting characteristics generated distinctive fusion between public and private, with no precise boundaries.

The goal of the work is to establish the study of a dvor as an architectural typology fulfilling the knowledge gap in the research of the public space. The design driven approach is based on a variety of utopian projects enabling to simulate contrasting social and physical relations of dvor and its liquid space characteristics. These imaginary scenarios raise a number of questions acknowledging the problems and fragilities of the dvor typology in a hypertrophied form as under the magnifying glass.

Keywords: Semi-private space, liquid space, dvor