Arisen from ignoring - planning of a secret Soviet stately industrial town Sillamäe

Abstract

As the Soviet Union was in utter shortage of uranium, Sillamäe was converted from a modest settlement to an industrial town just within ten years. Planning of the town was a task for Leningrad (St Peterburg) architects from a state planning office Lengorstroyproyekt and a challenging opportunity for Estonian town planners from the Department of Architecture of the Estonian SSR. While in the beginning the planning process of the secret town at least apparently tried to follow bilaterally systematic involving pattern, the later hectic contacts between Leningrad planning office and local department paradoxically formed Sillamäe as an industrial town with central stately urban ensemble. Leningrad architects ́ variants for constructing new plan and space of Sillamäe was remodelled by local architects to stately, complex design that was to bring out and accentuate local natural circumstances, as well as implement local planning ambitions.