Poles of Russia

After Yuri Gagarin’s spaceflight on 12 April 1961, the Soviet Union became the world’s leading space power, and space themes quickly became embedded in Soviet architecture, design, and even everyday life. Space, with its unsupported environment so unlike that of Earth, imposed fundamentally new requirements on how living and working spaces were organised. The world’s first space architect was Galina Balashova, who designed interiors for Soviet spacecraft.

In 1971, Salyut-1, the world’s first crewed orbital station, was launched, followed in 1986 by Mir, the first multi-module orbital station in history. Experience gained in space became a powerful source of innovation on Earth — particularly in construction under extreme conditions and in the development of the Far North.

However, architectural solutions for Arctic cities had emerged even earlier. In February 1960, the leading Soviet architectural journal "Architecture of the USSR" published an article titled "Residential Complex for the Arctic Coast," in which architect Konstantin Agafonov proposed a new type of settlement for the Arctic. The project broke sharply with previous urban planning practices in the Soviet North, where city layouts had been chaotic and buildings were often wooden, lacking sewerage and running water.

Agafonov proposed concentrating the entire settlement within four large five-storey circular buildings, interconnected by covered walkways. The round form helped reduce heat loss and prevented heavy snowdrifts from piling up near the walls. The heated passages allowed residents to move comfortably throughout the complex without having to go outdoors in −50 or −60°C temperatures, and also served as conduits for engineering systems, significantly reducing the cost of construction in permafrost conditions.

Projects involving controlled microclimates (i.e., residential complexes in which all buildings were linked by enclosed galleries) were among the most radical proposals put forward by Leningrad architects in the 1960s. In the mid-1960s, several similar projects were approved by the USSR State Committee for Construction for implementation in the Yakut ASSR, but none of them were ever realised for various reasons.

Still, even unbuilt, these projects sparked important changes in policies concerning the development of remote regions. The vision of new, comfortable cities in extreme environments entered not only the professional discourse but also the popular imagination — offering a fresh perspective on how both construction and community life could be organised.