The Soviet city as a landscape in the making: planning, building and appropriating Samarkand,c.1960s–80s

Self-help building, not state projects, proved more effective in addressing the temporalities of Samarkand's landscape during the Soviet era (1960s–80s). This approach sustained traditional Central Asian neighborhoods, countering Soviet planners' intentions to eradicate them. The study examines planning, construction, and appropriation practices on a practical level, relating them to factors like inhabitants' life cycles, seasonal changes, and material decay. It reveals that self-help building contributed to the expansion and diversification of Samarkand's cityscape rather than its homogenization.

van der Straeten, J., & Petrova, M. (2022). The Soviet city as a landscape in the making: planning, building and appropriating Samarkand,c.1960s–80s. Central Asian Survey, 41(2), 297–321. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2022.2060937