BME K350, March 10., Tuesday 16.15
Monotowns and global trends: the role of grassroots initiatives  in shaping new urban narratives

The 20th century saw rapid urbanization in developed and developing countries, including the rise of monotowns – urban settlements centered around a single industry-defining enterprise, their primary reason for existence. The lifecycle of monotowns was directly tied to that of the enterprises they were built around, typically high-tech and aligned with state strategic goals. The urban environment for them was designed to incorporate the latest urban ideas and narratives of their time. One striking example is the monotown of Visaginas in Lithuania, built in the 1970s for employees of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant. This ambitious, model Soviet monotown was designed to be a showcase and initially housed a multiethnic community, as its residents came from various Soviet republics. It also embodied contemporary urban ideas, including eco-friendliness and pedestrian accessibility, and featured bicycle lanes. After the USSR’s collapse and the nuclear power plant’s closure, Visaginas, like many other monotowns, has faced and continues to face various challenges: socio-demographic issues, an authority–resident gap, a lack of deep history, contested identity, and ethnic-cultural diversity, as well as the devaluation of local heritage and its partial loss. In recent decades, Visaginas has sought to form a new identity and urban narratives for sustainable urbanism, driven by active grassroots initiatives. The lecture will focus on the challenges and the grassroots initiatives addressing them.

Kateryna DIDENKO PhD, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Architecture, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania / member of DOCOMOMO International