The possibilities of improving the quality of living environment in the new residential areas Uuselamupiirkondade elukeskkonna kvaliteedi parandamise võimalused

Abstract

The article introduces the study of “The possibilities of improving the quality of living environments in three new residential areas in Tartu County”, a master’s thesis in the Landscape Architecture Department in the Estonian University of Life Sciences. The aim of the thesis was to analyse the shortcomings in planning and building and offer advice how to ‘correct the mistakes’.
The thesis departs from the views of the theorists Hall and Turner that, instead of making prescriptions, people’s wishes should be taken into account. For that reason the attitudes, problems and suggestions how to improve things of the people involved – the planning specialists and the inhabitants – were closely examined.
The results of the study show that although there are many problems in the new residential areas, it is possible to solve them. They are mostly questions of physical environment. The greatest need is for public spaces and bicycle tracks which would offer the residents various opportunities for leisure and sports.
The responses to the survey show that the inhabitants expect local governments to deal with their problems. The inhabitants care about their environment and want to help improve it. It seems that the vision of the inhabitants of apartment blocks of ‘a big house and a small home’ is being replaced by a vision of ‘a big home and a small house’, in which ‘home’ might denote the whole area or the street where they live. It can definitely be claimed that people need a living environment of high quality, even if it is not valued at first.
The ideal type of suburbanisation is possibly a compact settlement at the edge of the city. Only then is it possible to provide all the possible services – schools and kindergartens, running water, sewage and heating, and public transport – and to build roads and keep them in order. While planning new residential areas, the planners should see to it that there were enough facilities for leisure activities and that valuable recreation areas were not lost for the public.