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Urban Studies
Reference:

Features of the wooden buildings of Chita in the pre-revolutionary period

Semushina Irina Sergeevna

Postgraduate student, Department of Architecture and Urbanistics, Pacific National University

680035, Russia, Khabarovsk region, Khabarovsk, ul. Pacific, 136

semushinai@mail.ru
Bazilevich Mikhail Evgenevich

PhD in Architecture

Associate Professor of the Department of Architecture and Urbanistics, Pacific National University

680035, Russia, Khabarovsk Krai, Khabarovsk, ul. Pacific, 136

mikhailbazilevich@gmail.com
Other publications by this author
 

 
Bazilevich Evgenii Mikhailovich

PhD in Psychology

Associate Professor of the Department of Architecture and Urbanistics, Pacific National University

680035, Russia, Khabarovsk Krai, Khabarovsk, ul. Pacific, 136

apelsin157@mail.ru

DOI:

10.7256/2310-8673.2023.3.43556

EDN:

SOHWZF

Received:

09-07-2023


Published:

16-07-2023


Abstract: The article reflects the intermediate results of a study conducted within the framework of the scientific project "Architects and engineers of the eastern outskirts of Russia (second half of the 19th - early 20th century)". Within the framework of this publication, the authors raise the question of the need to study and comprehend the unique layer of regional architecture - the preserved wooden buildings of the capital of the Trans-Baikal Territory, the city of Chita. Based on data from field surveys, the study of scientific literature and Internet resources, as well as data obtained in the course of work in the State Archives of the Trans-Baikal Territory, a systematic picture of the historical evolution of the wooden building of the city from the moment it was founded to the events of the October Revolution and the Civil War is presented for the first time. Particular attention is paid to the problems of developing the planning structure of the city and the ratio of wooden and stone buildings at different stages of its development. The features of the space-planning organization of buildings and structures of various typologies, the transformation of methods of decorative design of street facades and their dependence on the location of objects in the structure of the urban fabric are considered. Data are given on the creative and professional activities of a number of architects, engineers and other masters of architectural and construction art who worked in Chita in the period under review and who had a significant impact on the formation and development of the city's wooden buildings, as well as the spread of various architectural styles.


Keywords:

Transbaikalia, Chita, history, architecture, wooden buildings, heritage, architects, engineers, building art, designs

This article is automatically translated.

Introduction

The preserved monuments of wooden architecture of Chita have an important historical and cultural significance and still play a key role in shaping the architectural landscape of the city. The use of wood as the main building material was a traditional practice in the cities of Eastern Siberia, due to the natural climatic features of the region, and allowed for the rapid construction of a large number of objects for various purposes. The wooden architectural heritage of the city reflects the main milestones of its historical development. The settlement was founded in the middle of the XVII century. at the confluence of the Chitinka and Igoda rivers, the construction of the Chita winter quarters, a cemetery and a prison belong to this period. For a long time, Chita served as an intermediate platform for the promotion of the Russian state to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. In 1851, the settlement received the status of a city, and by the beginning of the XX century, with the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway, it turned into one of the most important military-administrative centers of the east of the Russian Empire, which contributed to the development of its architecture.

The basis for this study was the work of predecessors – historians and architects who considered various aspects of the historical and architectural development of the capital of Transbaikalia, including monuments of wooden architecture. The works of Chita historians V. F. Nemerov [1, 2] and V. G. Lobanov [3] are devoted to general issues of the history of the city's development. The description of a number of architectural monuments is contained in the publications of S. V. Salmina [4, 5], P. V. Baklysky [6], as well as a number of the authors' own works [7-9]. Nevertheless, despite the existing works on this topic, the preserved wooden architecture of Chita of the pre-revolutionary period still remains insufficiently investigated, as a result of which the problem deserves special attention and systematic study.

The purpose of this publication is to identify the features of the wooden building of Chita in the pre-revolutionary period. To achieve the desired result, the authors propose to study the process of formation of this layer of historical and architectural heritage at the level of planning, volumetric and decorative solutions.

Planning development of the building

The conducted research showed that up to the beginning of the XX century, wooden structures accounted for more than 90% of the total volume of urban development. The formation of city blocks was carried out by the transformation of the original peasant land plots, the formation of a regular grid of streets. The front of the building was formed mainly by single-storey residential buildings made according to standard designs, with rare "inclusions" of two-storey buildings. Depending on the geometry of the plots, the Chita blocks were divided into standard rectangular 120x60 fathoms (255x127.5 m.), square and trapezoidal, formed by bending the street grid (along Voroshilov Street). Over time, the functional and planning organization of the adjacent territories became more and more diverse. In the state archive of the Trans-Baikal Territory, petitions of citizens dating from the middle of the XIX century have been preserved, containing requests for the allocation of additional space for the arrangement of gardens and vegetable gardens. The appearance of the first stone buildings built for administrative and public needs dates back to the same time (Fig. 1).

 

Figure 1. Chita building scheme for 1869 (Compiled by Semushina I. S.)

 

The development of handicraft and industrial production, as well as trade and economic relations, gave impetus to the organization of new types of households in the city and the appearance of additional buildings on the sites, such as warehouses, craft workshops and shops. At the same time, population growth contributed to the expansion of development and the allocation of new construction sites. This stage in the development of the city's planning structure is associated with the activities of civil engineer S. L. Byshevsky, who worked in 1873-1878 at the disposal of the military governor of the Trans-Baikal region, first as an architectural assistant, and then as a city architect of Chita (Fig. 2). The study showed that initially, when the city administration allocated plots for individual construction, the principle of dividing blocks was used along the longitudinal axis into two equal parts, further divided into smaller sections depending on the size of the block and the needs of the household. The most common land plots are 25x5, 25x10, 15x5 and 25x15 fathoms. Nevertheless, over time, the functional and planning organization of the house space became more and more diverse.

 

Figure 2. Chita building scheme for 1885 (Compiled by Semushina I. S.)

 

At the turn of the XIX–XX centuries, the city noted the construction of a large number of two and three-storey public stone buildings that formed the street facades of the central quarters of the city (Fig. 3). The flourishing of trade and entrepreneurship contributed to the emergence of design by private order. This stage is marked by the work in the city of such masters of architectural and construction art as I. V. Taranov, A. G. Prosyannikov, M. Yu. Arnolnod, G. V. Nikitin, F. E. Ponomarev, L. I. Korganov and G. I. Zubkov, who carried out projects for large entrepreneurs. Working mainly in stone, Chita architects, nevertheless, created their works in wood, leaving behind a number of outstanding structures included today in the registers of historical and cultural monuments of the peoples of the Russian Federation of regional and federal significance (Fig. 4).

Ordinary residential buildings also underwent changes. Based on the analysis, the authors identified three main types of organization of the territories of Chita households: open, covered and transitional courtyards. The first type is represented by plots with a perimeter arrangement of outbuildings that are separated from the house at a certain distance. The indoor type is characterized by the placement of utility rooms under one roof or a shade canopy in two rows parallel or perpendicular to the residential building. There are also options for joining the volumes of technical and residential buildings at right angles, which it is advisable to attribute to the third, transitional type of development. It should be noted that, regardless of the nature of the location of the buildings, the traditional division of the plot into ceremonial and economic zones was preserved in all households.

 

Figure 3. Chita building scheme for 1922 (Compiled by Semushina I. S.)

 

Figure 4. Layout of the key objects of wooden architecture of Chita

(Compiled by Semushina I. S.)

 

Space-planning and decorative solutions

There are certain patterns in the variety of architectural solutions of residential and public buildings that make up the wooden residential development of Chita. First of all, the nature of the space-planning composition of the structures depended on their location on the site (face-to-face or along the street). So, in the XIX century, rectangular residential buildings with a symmetrical axial main facade and single-storey houses on a stone foundation, stretched along the main front of the building in the form of an extended parallelepiped, completed with a hip, and having five or seven windows along the street facade, became widespread. In the decorative design of facades up to the beginning of the XX century, the influence of classicism architecture is traced, manifested at the level of profiled sandricks, pilaster porticos of the Doric order, corner rust and cornice belts of the classical profile. Examples are the houses of Lyakhova, Stein and Bayborodin, which differ in characteristic decorative elements and a pattern of sawn carving.

For a long time, the most common types of planning structure of residential buildings were enfilade and single-chamber ("five-wall" or "six-wall)" schemes associated with the structural features of buildings erected mainly from a log cabin. In the future, the beginning of the use of internal load-bearing brick walls and self-supporting wooden partitions contributed to the complexity and variety of internal layouts.

In the wooden buildings of the second half of the XIX century, there is a departure from the symmetrical axial composition at the level of the plan, as well as an increase in the number of facades with an even number of light axes, and the development of multi-apartment housing construction led to an increase in the size of buildings and the appearance of two-storey residential buildings. When constructing space-planning compositions of objects with an angular location in the building structure, the form of an "iron" with a cut-off angle was used. In some cases, the shape of the plan was a trapezoid, the sides of which stretched along the streets. It should be noted that in this case, the cut corner was rarely accentuated with the help of additional volumes or decorative elements.

The spread of Art Nouveau ideas among architects of the Eastern suburbs at the turn of the XIX–XX century. contributed to the search for new methods of space-planning compositions. The most striking reflection in the architecture of Chita, this phenomenon was found in the buildings of G. V. Nikitin, F. E. Ponomareva and L. I. Korganova. The departure from symmetry and complex shaping can be traced in the architecture of the mansions of photographer V. N. Konovalov, merchant's wife M. D. Ignatieva, residential and apartment buildings of D. V. Polutov, which belonged to the authorship of these outstanding masters of architectural and construction art.

In ordinary buildings erected without the participation of professional architects, there is also a movement towards asymmetry due to the allocation of one of the flanks of the facade, decorated in the form of a portal or gallery. In small single-storey houses, the asymmetry was often reinforced by the device of massive canopies on consoles. The "constructive" type of platband is widely used, which is an element made up of slotted boards superimposed on each other, completed with a forceps sandrik strongly protruding relative to the main plane of the platband on brackets resting on "hangers", as well as a half-timbered type of decor with horizontal and vertical bars forming a graphic lattice system of the facade.

Conclusion

The evolution of Chita's wooden buildings has become a reflection of the general processes of historical, cultural and socio-economic development of the city, which has gone from a small village to a large regional trade and administrative center. As a result of the study, three main stages of the development of this layer of historical and architectural heritage have been identified: 1653-1850, 1851-1896 and 1897-1922, the chronological boundaries of which are determined by the moment of the founding of the settlement, the assignment of the status of the city to Chita, the arrival of the Trans-Siberian railway to the city and the completion of the events of the October Revolution and the Civil War, which marked the transition to a new stage of development  The Russian state.

The historical architectural landscape of the capital of the Trans-Baikal Territory is unique and contains several harmoniously combined layers of cultural heritage from classicism to Art Nouveau, a significant place among which is occupied by monuments of wooden architecture, represented for the most part by single-storey residential buildings, which, as this study has shown, existed up to the beginning of the XX century. more than 90% of the total volume of urban development.

A variety of large forms and small decorative elements, intricate patterns of sawn carving and expressive silhouettes of towers and mezzanines, not only create a unique and memorable image of the city, but also reflect the ideas of the first city architects and other masters of construction art about form-making and their search for their own architectural and plastic language, which was formed under the influence of local conditions. 

References
1. Nemerov, V.F. (1994) Chita. History. Memorable places. Destinies. Chita: Chita Region Book Publishing House.
2. Nemerov, V.F. (2010) Walks in old Chita. Chita: Express Publishing House.
3. Lobanov, V.G. (2001) Old Chita. Documentary narrative. Chita: Polygraphservice.
4. Salmina, S.V. & Kudryavtsev, S.V. (Eds.) (2014) The past times stir emotions...: a short description. Ulan-Ude: Domino.
5. Salmina, S.V. & Kudryavtsev, S.V. (Eds.) (2014) The past times stir emotions...: a short description. Ulan-Ude: Domino.
6. Baklysky, P. V. (2009) Elements of modernity in the wooden architecture of Chita. Project Baikal, 20, 178-183.
7. Figol, D. D. & Bazilevich, M. E. (2022) Profitable houses of Nikitin in Chita. Urbanistics, 3, 24-35. Retrieved from https://nbpublish.com/library_read_article.php?id=38653
8. Ivanova, A. P. & Bazilevich, M. E. (2021) Justification of Nikitin. Project Baikal, 70, 179-185.
9. Semushina I. S., Bazilevich M. E. & Bazilevich E. M. (2023) Wooden buildings of Chita in the work of the first architects of the city. Urbanistics, 2, 67-75. Retrieved from https://nbpublish.com/library_read_article.php?id=4104

First Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The subject of the study, as reflected by the author in the title ("Features of the wooden building of Chita in the pre-revolutionary period"), although disclosed by the author to some extent, remains a vague problem, the solution of which is presented in the article only in part. In particular, in the conclusion, the author formulated a banal statement: "The evolution of Chita's wooden buildings has become a reflection of the general processes of historical, cultural and socio-economic development of the city, which has gone from a small village to a large regional trade and administrative center." For such a statement, there is no need to analyze the presented empirical material, since the evolution of the development of any city is "a reflection of the general processes of historical, cultural and socio-economic development." Similarly, each city is "unique and contains several harmoniously combined layers of cultural heritage," and the rest of the details given in the conclusion (wooden buildings, a variety of its "large forms and small decorative elements" in Chita, etc.) have already been given attention in the scientific literature. Thus, the main mistake of the author in presenting the results of an undoubtedly noteworthy study is the lack of concretization of his personal contribution to science. Let's consider a number of formal, practically technical mistakes in the presented text that do not allow it to be verified as a worthy contribution to urbanism. Firstly, since the author indicates a generalization of existing studies in the goal setting, it would be appropriate to assess their shortcomings by specifying the subject of the study. In particular, if the evolution of Chita's wooden buildings has not been studied or partially studied until recently, then it is she who, judging by the periodization of buildings proposed in the main part of the article, can act as such a specific subject. But such concretization also requires strengthening the final conclusion: it is necessary to briefly formulate the features of the evolution of the wooden building of Chita, arising from the invoice presented in the main part, and not be limited to a banal statement. Secondly, there is no specific indication of the novelty of the result in the presented material. Its elements, as logically follows from the generalization undertaken, include both the author's periodization of the building and the illustrations compiled by I. S. Semushina, which represent significant arguments for generalizing information. If I. S. Semushina is the author or co-author of the article, then this must be indicated, otherwise a link to the source used is necessary. The reviewer sees the need to specify the general problem and the subject of the study in the introduction and strengthen the final conclusion by characterizing the features of the evolution of Chita's wooden buildings and the novelty of the result obtained by the author. Otherwise, the presented material deserves attention, has been considered in sufficient detail and reasoned. The author does not pay attention to the research methodology, but in general, the research program is clearly visible from the structure of the presentation of the material. The planning development of the building is quite obviously generalized due to its schematization and historical periodization, and the evolution of spatial planning and decorative solutions is considered using stylistic attribution of individual elements in the context of the evolution of the building style. In general, the tools used are relevant to the tasks being solved and are based on well-known textbook works by theorists of the history of architecture, the mention of which the author considered redundant due to fairly standard methodological procedures. Although the reviewer emphasizes that pointing out the theoretical foundation of the methods used, including discussions with colleagues about their applicability (especially with foreign ones), significantly enhance the theoretical significance of any work. The relevance of considering the issue of "understanding the cultural significance of a significant layer of Chita wooden architecture of the pre-revolutionary period", according to the author, "remains open, as a result of which the problem deserves special attention and detailed study." It should be noted that the author's statement characterizing the relevance of the topic remains unfounded, not arising from any argument. And given the lack of an assessment of the "cultural significance of a significant layer" in the conclusion, it is precisely this topical issue that the article does not pay due attention to. We emphasize, in addition to tautology ("the meaning of a significant layer"), there is also a logical error in the author's judgment: cultural significance is never self-evident, it needs to be formulated (what is the meaning, i.e. what the subject under consideration means) and proved, justifying cultural (social) significance. Scientific novelty, as noted above, is not formulated in the text by the author, although some elements of novelty are obvious to specialists. The reviewer emphasizes that without the author's statement of what exactly, in his opinion, the scientific novelty of the result consists of, the presented study does not look complete, and any other "colleague" has the right to use the presented result, arguing that the scientific novelty is justified by him, and not by the author of this article. The style of the article is scientific. Although the reviewer notes that the use of the administrative and clerical style of using the initials of colleagues after the surname (Nemerova V. F., Lobanova V. G., Salmina S. V., Baklysky P. V., etc.), when using a respectful form of mentioning architects (G. V. Nikitin, F. E. Ponomarev, L. I. Korganov, etc.) looks unethical. Don't colleagues deserve to be treated with respect? The structure as a whole reflects the logic of presenting the results of scientific research, but, as noted above, it needs to strengthen the content of the introduction and conclusion. The bibliography as a whole reflects the problem area at a minimum theoretical level (there is no foreign scientific literature, theoretical foundations are not presented). A significant error in the description of paragraph 4 requires revision. Appealing to opponents is generally correct, although minimal. In the case of a small revision of the article, taking into account the comments of the reviewer, it will be of interest to the readership of the journal Urbanistics.

Second Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The author presented his article "Features of the wooden building of Chita in the pre-revolutionary period" to the Ubranistika magazine, in which a study of architectural wooden objects of Chita architects was conducted. The author proceeds in the study of this issue from the fact that the preserved monuments of wooden architecture of Chita have important historical and cultural significance: They reflect the main milestones of historical development and still play a key role in shaping the architectural landscape of the city. The use of wood as the main building material was a traditional practice in the cities of Eastern Siberia, due to the natural climatic features of the region, and allowed for the rapid construction of a large number of objects for various purposes. Having analyzed the scientific validity of the studied issues, the author notes the presence of works by historians and architects who considered various aspects of the historical and architectural development of the capital of Transbaikalia, including monuments of wooden architecture. However, as the author notes, the preserved wooden architecture of Chita from the pre-revolutionary period still remains insufficiently studied, as a result of which the problem deserves special attention and systematic study. The relevance of the research is due to the need to study objects of historical and cultural heritage as a means of forming cultural identity in order to preserve them for future generations. The methodological basis of the research was an integrated approach, including general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, historical and cultural method, analysis of project documentation. The theoretical basis of the research was the works of Bazilevich E.M., Baklysky P.V., Nemerov V.F. and others. The empirical base was made up of building schemes, as well as samples of preserved wooden buildings in Chita. The purpose of the study is to identify the features of the wooden buildings of Chita in the pre-revolutionary period. To achieve the desired result, the authors propose to study the process of formation of this layer of historical and architectural heritage at the level of planning, volumetric and decorative solutions. Based on the historical and cultural analysis, the author concludes that the evolution of Chita's wooden buildings has become a reflection of the general processes of historical, cultural and socio-economic development of the city, which has gone from a small village to a large regional trade and administrative center. As a result of the research, the author identified three main stages in the development of this layer of historical and architectural heritage: 1653-1850, 1851-1896 and 1897-1922, the chronological boundaries of which are determined by the moment of the founding of the settlement, the assignment of Chita city status, the arrival of the Trans-Siberian railway to the city and the completion of the events of the October Revolution and the Civil War, which marked the transition to a new stage of development of the Russian states. As the author states, the historical architectural landscape of the capital of the Trans-Baikal Territory is unique and contains several harmoniously combined layers of cultural heritage from classicism to modernity, a significant place among which is occupied by monuments of wooden architecture, represented for the most part by single-storey residential buildings, which, as this study showed, up to the beginning of the XX century, more than 90% of the total urban area buildings. The author also noted the aesthetic value of architectural objects, since the variety of large shapes and small decorative elements, intricate patterns and expressive silhouettes of towers and mezzanines not only create a unique and memorable image of the city, but also reflect the ideas of the first city architects and other masters of the art of construction about form-making and their search for their own architectural and plastic language, which was formed under the influence of local conditions. In conclusion, the author presents a conclusion on the conducted research, which contains all the key provisions of the presented material. It seems that the author in his material touched upon relevant and interesting issues for modern socio-humanitarian knowledge, choosing a topic for analysis, consideration of which in scientific research discourse will entail certain changes in the established approaches and directions of analysis of the problem addressed in the presented article. The results obtained allow us to assert that the study of objects of historical and cultural heritage of certain Russian regions, the possibilities of their protection and restoration is of undoubted theoretical and practical cultural interest and can serve as a source of further research. The material presented in the work has a clear, logically structured structure that contributes to a more complete assimilation of the material. An adequate choice of methodological base also contributes to this. However, the bibliographic list of the study consists of only 9 sources, which seems insufficient for generalization and analysis of scientific discourse on the studied problem. In addition, the text of the article needs correction. Nevertheless, the author fulfilled his goal, received certain scientific results that made it possible to summarize the material. It should be stated that the article may be of interest to readers and deserves to be published in a reputable scientific publication after these shortcomings have been eliminated.