Slavonic and East European Review

Abstract:

The article analyses the process of mansardization in St Petersburg. The development of the city's upper storeys has seen significant change to the skyline of Russia's northern capital since the reintroduction of private property rights in the post-Soviet era. The changing status of the city's upper storeys as domestic space has fundamentally altered the status of the city's attics and rooftops. By focusing on the historical associations of life in the attic space, and the social and spatial factors that have facilitated mansardization across the St Petersburg urban environment, this article explores the different axes that the course of gentrification has taken across the landscape and its impact on the city's urban forms. Moreover, this article is concerned with the politics of St Petersburg's aesthetics: it focuses on the fight between preservation and development of the city's skyline, the way in which local groups have responded to these changes and how this feeds into the debate on rights to roof space in contemporary St Petersburg.