Smartization in Gatchina: A Case of a Russian Town

Introduction

Smart City is not a strength of Russia: the level of implementation of technological innovations and orientation towards the citizens cannot compare to Smart City leaders. However, nowadays the Russian government is taking measures to narrow the gap: national programs on digitalization are being launched and the standard requirements for Smart Cities are being published. Russian leaders of smartization usually include the largest cities of the country (first, Moscow, the capital) and so-called “monotowns,” which are settlements with strong backbone enterprises that can spend money on social issues. At the same time, other types of cities have little resources and opportunities to meet the requirements of the Ministry of Construction, which are the same for any type of settlements and are not adjusted according to the number of population, historical background, and geographical and financial conditions.

In the paper, a case of the non-privileged Russian town Gatchina is examined. On the one hand, Gatchina has little funding to implement innovations; on the other, the historical background of the town prevents standard solutions. Consequently, the main research question of the following project is how to combine international Smart City practice with Russian governmental requirements for a Russian town, considering cultural heritage preservation, human-oriented approach, and the shortage of resources. The project is one of the first attempts of Smart City implementation in an “average” Russian town.

The research is focused on democratic urban design of a public space in a residential area, which aims to adjust the redevelopment to the real needs of people and make a step towards a comfortable human-oriented town. The process included the following stages: qualitative and quantitative research; three project sessions with local inhabitants; and preparation of an architectural draft project, based on the collected data.

The goal of the article is to present the Gatchina project as a step for developing a general strategy of smartization of a medium-sized Russian town. In the Smart City development in Russia section, the general background of Smart City implementation in Russia is described. The Case of Gatchina town includes the historical and Smart City background of Gatchina. In the Methodology section, democratic urban design principles and their implementation in Russia are presented, along with the methodological aspects of the current research. In the Analysis section, the implementation and main results of the research and democratic design sessions are given, and the main problems revealed are described. The Conclusion section highlights further perspective of Smart City implementation and particularly of democratic urban design in historical medium-sized Russian towns.