Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:01:01the first region, the first in everything, how many smart
00:01:04gadgets are needed, right, to say that the city has become smart, I
00:01:08live in my neighborhood, this is my house, there's my store, some kind of
00:01:12resort-like message, I already imagine myself,
00:01:15honestly, this is not Kobrin, this is not Pinsk, this is Mikashevichi,
00:01:19this is expensive, in our area they don't call, but they call, paraphrasing
00:01:22the classics, a culture of construction appears, something very
00:01:25architectural was said, the budget is not unlimited,
00:01:28what was that? A lot of material has accumulated.
00:01:51Hello, you're watching Palitra, a program about people whose ideas are born before
00:01:54our eyes, to become part of the creative economy. Today in
00:01:58our studio is Nikolai Vlasyuk, an expert in urban planning,
00:02:01who knows how to turn a city into a brand, Nikolai Nikolaevich.
00:02:05Glad to see you. Good day. Nikolai
00:02:08Vlasyuk, chief architect of Brest region, professor of
00:02:12Brest State Technical University. He was the first in Belarus
00:02:15to develop a turnkey concept for spatial urban development. According to his
00:02:19ideas, by 2050 Brest will be transformed into a GARDEN city at the intersection
00:02:23of nature and technology. His experience is applied in other countries. An adherent
00:02:27of the theory in practice that space shapes
00:02:30people, he believes that every settlement in Belarus needs
00:02:33its own unique identity.
00:02:37Nikolai Nikolaevich, it's no accident that the color scheme of our studio today is green, because
00:02:41we will talk a lot with you about how to harmoniously connect
00:02:44nature, technology, I really hope that you, as
00:02:48an expert in urban planning
00:02:50and an expert in the smart approach as well, will reveal this
00:02:54topic, but I suggest we start with such an important block called
00:02:58"The Path", you as... An architect will understand, this is
00:03:01the foundation, mhm, so let's go straight to this
00:03:03block.
00:03:07Nikolai Nikolaevich, today your knowledge, your experience, your ideas
00:03:10are implemented not only in Belarus, but in Russia, in Kazakhstan.
00:03:13A unique fate from the point of view that even your paths
00:03:17in architecture could have been different, I mean even
00:03:20geographical ones. You became the youngest architect of the city of
00:03:23Minsk at one time, yes, you had the opportunity to remain
00:03:27in Minsk, but you chose Brest and... that is,
00:03:30you returned to your native Brest, we remember that you are a third-generation
00:03:33Brest resident already, so what was
00:03:36it, because everyone always strives for Minsk one way or another, yes, everyone
00:03:39thinks that Minsk is the peak of a career, but
00:03:43you did otherwise, that is also the uniqueness of your choice, you know,
00:03:47probably, well, how it happened, a good theoretical
00:03:49base was formed, that is, working at the Institute of Urban Planning
00:03:53allowed me to have an understanding of modern
00:03:57trends in urban planning, in urbanism.
00:04:00And I assumed that working in Minsk would allow
00:04:04to quickly implement some approaches, modern
00:04:07trends, but after working in
00:04:10the city, I realized that in
00:04:14a small city or in a regional center, in my hometown,
00:04:17to implement my ideas and approaches would
00:04:21not be easier, you see, the link between the mayor of the city
00:04:25and the chief architect is very important,
00:04:28so when... I received an offer from the mayor of
00:04:32Brest to come to Brest to work as a single team
00:04:35on the fact that the city was preparing for its millennium,
00:04:39I was given a carte blanche to try to implement
00:04:43those ideas that exist,
00:04:47using Brest as an example, I took advantage of this opportunity and
00:04:50returned to my hometown, if you even look today
00:04:53at approaches, well, in the same Europe, not all Germans
00:04:57strive to move to Berlin to live, right, there are
00:05:01many cities, there's Dresden, there's
00:05:04Leipzig and so on and so forth, which
00:05:07have their own peculiarities, their own features, for example, in
00:05:10Dresden...
00:06:42keep up with the times, well, if we talk about specific examples,
00:06:46China is developing very actively in this regard, they
00:06:50already have over 500 cities operating under the
00:06:53Smart Approach system, and moreover, it formed the basis of
00:06:57China's state program, here at our level
00:07:00we could certainly do something, we also, of course,
00:07:03have the topic of smart cities, a state program for the development of
00:07:07smart cities, a lot has been done at different
00:07:10levels, but I sometimes joke.
00:08:12those places that need to be preserved, in red color, those places that
00:08:16need to be corrected, and this was generally such a marker for
00:08:20the city hall, for the city administration, to
00:08:23see in what priority to place
00:08:26urban planning policy to build. Local residents started saying
00:08:29that we want more bike paths, we want it to be
00:08:33a green city, we want to have more parks, that
00:08:36we have a concert hall, we want, that is, this, this
00:08:40demand of residents, all this... strategy formed the basis of the city's master
00:08:44plan, and the city's master plan secured with its regulations
00:08:47already, which have legal status and was
00:08:51approved by the head of state and is mandatory
00:08:54for execution.
00:08:57Our next block, the author, begins in the most correct way, because the author
00:09:01is sitting opposite me, Nikolay Nikolaevich Vlasyuk, the author of this
00:09:05scientific work, I'm not afraid of the word, quite weighty, and this is
00:09:09the Brest strategy, the city garden. Why exactly...
00:09:12Brest, why, what were the indications for it to become a Garden
00:09:16City? It is probably the only, or a very rare
00:09:20city in Belarus that was moved to a new
00:09:23location during the construction of the fortress, a thousand-year-old city in the middle of
00:09:27the 19th century was moved 1.5 km to the east,
00:09:30and a block development was formed by military
00:09:34engineers, where city boulevards alternate with
00:09:37streets, and they did this when it wasn't yet mainstream,
00:09:41as they say, but it worked out so that this grid
00:09:44of streets very much resembled the concept of a garden
00:09:48city, an ideal city that was developed in
00:09:51England at the end of the 19th century, that is, 50 years later
00:09:54than Brest, the same central park, today it is a fortress,
00:09:58and radial block development with a comfortable
00:10:01scale radiates outwards, so this somehow inspired
00:10:05the theme of the garden city, this is, of course, no longer the same
00:10:08garden city in the understanding of the Middle Ages or the 19th
00:10:12century, this is a garden city in the modern understanding at
00:10:15a new stage, well, it turns out that, in general, the Mukhavets River
00:10:19becomes the main superstar of this
00:10:21project,
00:10:55regulates the presence and percentage of green
00:10:58zones in the city. Today, for the Brest region, we have developed,
00:11:02we have developed over 5 years for all
00:11:05district centers these schemes of separate territories, if I'm not
00:11:09mistaken, there is even such a world standard, it is clear that not all countries
00:11:13can afford it, but I think that Belarus is among them, when you know,
00:11:16a person has 10 minutes to the park, there is a
00:11:19concept of a fifteen-minute pedestrian city or a
00:11:23ten-minute one, and we...
00:11:25are also striving for this, we generally have all the
00:11:28prerequisites, the Soviet school, despite the fact that
00:11:31there is criticism, but the system of
00:11:34services itself was built quite competently, and the radii
00:11:38of accessibility were, well, correctly selected in the zone of pedestrian
00:11:42accessibility, schools, kindergartens, polyclinics,
00:11:45shops, today we only need to, well, just give
00:11:48polish and comfort, quality to this environment,
00:11:52which we inherited, well, everything new that is built.
00:11:55to form in a new quality, how did you
00:11:58feel that Brest could be made a brand? Well,
00:12:01you know, there are still prerequisites, returning to Brest, you
00:12:05feel a comfortable environment,
00:12:08large-scale development of the historical center, there is
00:12:12a river, a lot of greenery, boulevards,
00:12:15you come to Sochi or Odessa, yes, some kind of
00:12:19resort-like message, and we
00:12:22analyzed this concept of the Southern capital, that
00:12:26Brest is located in the same climatic zone as Prague,
00:12:29that, well, practically Southern Europe,
00:12:33and if you look at the vegetation, we have very,
00:12:36well, quite sparse vegetation, we have very little
00:12:40vertical landscaping, the same ivy, glycines,
00:12:43there, you know, virgin grapes, a lot of
00:12:46plants that could be a symbol of the city, like the chestnut for
00:12:50Brest, there is a medal, you know, a thousand years of Brest
00:12:54symbol, a logo, you know, it's a chestnut leaf,
00:12:57uh-huh, for example, the embankment could have been decorated, and we have already
00:13:01started decorating it with Crimean pines, these are pines with
00:13:04large needles, or, for example, we planted an alley
00:13:08of magnolias, where in Belarus else is there an alley of magnolias or an alley
00:13:11of plane trees, plane trees are generally somewhere, it seems like Italy,
00:13:15but we have them growing here, with these shaggy cones,
00:13:19you know, with bare bark, a whole
00:13:22alley, in the city there is a forty-year-old...
00:13:55think like a businessman, to understand what will be
00:13:58profitable and what will not be so much, and so on, when you design
00:14:01at this stage? I would not emphasize
00:14:04my own personality, it's still a team
00:14:08effort, the more we know about the city, the more we can
00:14:11predict and predict correctly, and if we
00:14:14see some promising investment sites that
00:14:18will be interesting for the developer, of course, the more correctly we
00:14:22formulate the terms of reference for the design or.
00:15:25some progress has been made, if we talk about the historical
00:15:28center, then, you know,
00:15:32between the fortress and the city there was an esplanade territory, this is a territory
00:15:35that was not built up and... in the Soviet period, this
00:15:38formed an industrial zone,
00:15:42there was a river port, there was a thermal power plant, there was
00:15:45transshipment, there were some warehouse areas, and, you know,
00:15:49today there is an active transformation of this territory into a public space,
00:15:53the theme of renovation is also actively present here, in our former industrial
00:15:56territory today there is
00:16:00an embankment, there is a museum of locomotives, public
00:16:03buildings are currently being designed, we want to link today.
00:16:07the city center and the park area with the fortress within walking
00:16:11distance, so that it would be a single network.
00:16:15Further, if we talk about the historical center, regulations
00:16:18on height were defined, we realized what was important
00:16:22to preserve, which blocks were the most
00:16:25authentic and what was valuable there, which
00:16:28blocks had already lost their authenticity,
00:16:32but it was important to preserve the environment, well, this is a global practice, by the way, because we
00:16:35remember the same
00:18:07children's playground, parking, and some other things, maybe we'll analyze them
00:18:11with you using specific examples. Well, if
00:18:14we talk initially, the Soviet period - this is
00:18:17modernism, this is rigid functional zoning,
00:18:20home, work, home, uh, two places,
00:18:23so, the third appears, now we're talking
00:18:27about, yes, about the approach, a humane approach,
00:18:30when a third place appears, a public space, when there is home,
00:18:34work and there is a third place where we can relax. or
00:18:37meet or after work, so, do
00:18:40sports, so today's trends are not rigid functional
00:18:44zoning, but a mixture of all territories, all zones, and not to make
00:18:47this mono-function of this sleeping bag, this
00:18:51sleeping micro-district that also creates
00:18:54pendulum migration, so the idea of
00:18:58identity was proposed, each residential area must have its own face, each new
00:19:01block must have its own toponymy or some kind of
00:19:05place memory, right? Even such
00:19:08a, well, perhaps a somewhat naive approach, but even without knowing
00:19:11the address, hypothetically I get into a taxi and can tell, so, the taxi driver,
00:19:15to take me to the house where the Brest
00:19:19fortress is painted or, for example, butterflies are painted or some
00:19:22mural, right, and or we, for example, have
00:19:26a shop on the swamp, near this shop we made a house with reeds, that
00:19:30is, the theme, so, on the swamp went or
00:19:32for example
00:19:35and the partnership called itself so, right. They called themselves this
00:19:39partnership of owners. There are examples of interesting renovation
00:19:42of a Soviet residential area, where we developed
00:19:46a water system, a water channel, made a reservoir,
00:19:49moved back there at the expense of the private sector and made such a
00:19:53recreation area, in the old residential area, built a new
00:19:56block with public space, we tried
00:20:00to play with the number of floors, to lower the number of floors, so that it would be
00:20:03a building of variable height, and here, you know,
00:20:06Brestzhilstroy. our house-building plant met us
00:20:09halfway and developed specialized
00:20:12series of corner sections, so that it would be possible to form block
00:20:16development and such city houses, single-entrance
00:20:19buildings, towers also, so that there was variability,
00:20:23uh-huh, but industrial housing construction has
00:20:27many advantages, but it lacks simply
00:20:30the variability of puzzles that can be
00:20:33assembled into various interpretations to create this
00:20:36environment. Different in height, different in architecture, like building
00:20:40this environment from blocks, besides identity and navigation,
00:20:44the topic of a barrier-free environment, yes, is very important, by the way, we also, one way or
00:20:48another, still revolve around those...
00:21:20this means an additional opportunity, so that the elevator also
00:21:23drops half a floor lower to zero with
00:21:26the entrance, we solved the problem of this
00:21:29inviting half-floor landing, which completely
00:21:32now the elevator completely solves the problems of
00:21:36barrier-free access in multi-apartment buildings, you indirectly
00:21:39touched on the topic, let's still go over it, because now we will talk about
00:21:43bike paths, which is also a proven fact of efficiency and economy,
00:21:47including when you build fewer parking lots.
00:22:20city, of course, priority should be given to pedestrians, cyclists, but
00:22:23the idea is to get from one area to
00:22:27another, preferably along a green area, along a green
00:22:30corridor, along a boulevard, along a bike path along
00:22:33the embankment, ideally even without crossing transport
00:22:36communications, you left your yard and
00:22:40rode to work through the park, well, that's a great story, actually, and with
00:22:44a picturesque view, and I think it's very important here, perhaps, to
00:22:47adjust some programs that we have today. in the Ministry of
00:22:51Architecture, Construction, when we measure our
00:22:54growth only by quantitative indicators, when
00:22:57the city
00:22:59needs to build so many thousands of square meters next year, and
00:23:03the city needs next year, we allocate funds for the construction of so many
00:23:07kilometers of roads, but we don't talk about quality,
00:23:10will these square meters be comfortable, will these
00:23:14roads solve the problems of city connectivity, so
00:23:17today there are not enough quality criteria in...
00:24:20is called ideas and here, of course, I cannot but remember
00:24:23starting this block with your quote that cities, like
00:24:27people, are all different and each should have its own
00:24:31highlight, and we are finally approaching your very
00:24:34responsible mission that you are currently engaged in, probably all your not only
00:24:38working but also free time, this is the development of small cities,
00:24:41let's discuss with you using Mikashevichi as an example, let's
00:24:45take an unconventional approach, what is the highlight of Mikashevichi, the year
00:24:48before last we held... a harvest festival in the city
00:24:51and
00:24:54what makes Mikashevichi special is that it's a mono-city,
00:24:58the city has a specialized enterprise, it's
00:25:00granite, which extracts, right near
00:25:04the city, there's a large quarry the size,
00:25:07imagine, a pit the size of a city, where there are waterfalls,
00:25:10you know, separate excursions, tourists come, this is such
00:25:14industrial tourism to see, we will meet them here, we are waiting for them with
00:25:17an architectural solution, when the task was. for example, for the harvest festival, to make
00:25:21a city concept, streets, what did we take
00:25:24as a basis? We took these stones, granite, of which they have
00:25:28a lot, they, of course, are all tired of this granite, but
00:25:31when tourists come, they are interested in seeing, and we made
00:25:35small architectural forms, we made gabions, benches, even there
00:25:38construction equipment on, you know, the ends of buildings, this
00:25:42industrial industry of this city, it
00:25:45well, somehow designates it, that
00:25:49it's a unique city, and this is not Kobrin, this is
00:25:52not Pinsk, this is Mikashevichi, they are recognizable, wherever you
00:25:56take a photo, you know, everyone will understand that it's Mikashevichi,
00:26:00the residents and administration also didn't understand at first. They were tired of these
00:26:03stones, but when we did it, the theme
00:26:06was liked, we made a park, we made these facade ends,
00:26:10we landscaped the street, on the actual quarry we made another observation
00:26:14deck, a new modern platform in the form of a pavilion,
00:26:17we even wanted to make a panorama over the quarry,
00:26:20you know, well, we moved back a bit for
00:26:23safety reasons, but nevertheless, we
00:26:27defined our identity in the city, and
00:26:30today we are saying that, you know, occupying...
00:27:32which has not yet been fully revealed, somewhere we
00:27:35heard, Herodotus' sea, you know, a lot of festivals
00:27:39are appearing now, now a bridge is being built
00:27:42between Luninets and Stolin, and today we are also
00:27:45discussing how the territory where there used to be a ferry,
00:27:48a ferry crossing across the Pripyat, could be a point
00:27:52of attraction, where the administration of the reserve could be,
00:27:55where there could be eco-trails, where there could be agro-estates, such a, well,
00:27:58also a unique place that would be interesting for tourists. Well,
00:28:02and you really went further, this is not, we are not just discussing with you here, but
00:28:06for our viewers, I explain, you really have now given instructions
00:28:09to develop a design code for each, yes, of these, we
00:28:13waited a long time for cities to
00:28:16themselves, you know, take the initiative, intercept it, yes,
00:28:19intercept it, but we realized that city administrations were used
00:28:23to being told what to do and we unobtrusively
00:28:26pointed it out, so, with the signature of the deputy governor,
00:28:30you know, we sent a letter that... everyone
00:28:32should develop their own design code, submit it to
00:28:36the urban planning council, consider it and approve it by
00:28:39the beginning of next year, that is, a single
00:28:42city concept, the central part of the city, how
00:28:46advertising will be placed, what will be on the signs, what
00:28:49will be on, you know, on the display windows, maybe some small architectural
00:28:53forms, and small architectural forms of Pinsk will differ from
00:28:56small architectural forms of Kobrin or
00:29:00Kamenets, yes, well, that's how it should be.
00:29:43that's the point, and why else is this interesting? It's interesting because it should
00:29:46attract people, that is, this creative economy, and your
00:29:50broadcast, it also talks about this, that today I
00:29:54observe even in Brest, when Russians come, they
00:29:56say: cool, we are ready to live here,
00:30:00rent housing, it's inexpensive here, it's comfortable to work here, the internet
00:30:04allows it, there are good people here, there are all conditions, and
00:30:07we, well, these are human resources, we can develop
00:30:10industry, 100% important,
00:30:13an important element, and we can develop a creative
00:30:16economy and invite people this way, this is also
00:30:20a quality environment - it's a driver of urban development and a driver
00:30:24of economic development,
00:30:26underestimated,
00:30:30well, what, in your opinion, hinders making it fully functional for now?
00:30:33We talked about Pinsk, also an interesting story, yes, I believe that
00:30:36at the level of, perhaps, state
00:30:39policy, more attention should be paid to urban planning and
00:30:42urbanism, I will even
00:30:46give an example of the urban forum that took place in Baku, where
00:30:50188 countries participated, including Belarus,
00:30:53by the way,
00:30:56there was a report, Belarus is in the trend of all directions,
00:31:00we have something to be proud of, it is accessible.
00:34:15not to fall flat on your face? Of course, in your hometown, this
00:34:17reputational component is very important, and
00:34:21there are different approaches in the world, the Soviet approach was that
00:34:25the chief architect of the city could cross out
00:34:28a project brought to him and say: you need to
00:34:31draw a different facade here, I don't like it, his subjective
00:34:35opinion could prevail, let's see how it was,
00:34:38for example, there, I don't know, in the same Europe, imagine that
00:34:42Sir Norman Foster comes to the chief architect of London
00:34:45with his, you know, uh, building in
00:34:49the shape of a cucumber or with some exclusive
00:34:52interesting architecture, and the chief architect tells him: you know what, I don't
00:34:56like the window spacing you have drawn here or different
00:34:59materials, this is a completely different story, here the
00:35:02architect himself is responsible, the one who designs the volume,
00:35:06the volume architect, he is responsible with his reputation,
00:35:09with his name, for what he designs, in principle, for Belarus this
00:35:13is a possible option, and today we are on...
00:36:28but again, one should not rest on one's laurels and further
00:36:32improve, probably qualitatively improve,
00:36:36perhaps introduce new urban planning documentation, we
00:36:39officially only have general plans and
00:36:42detailed plans in urban planning documentation, in Russia and Europe
00:36:45today there is such a concept as
00:36:48a master plan or again, a spatial development strategy,
00:36:52which is more mobile,
00:36:55it responds faster to the challenges of time. Everyone understands what
00:36:58is being talked about, what vector of development this city, this settlement,
00:37:02has, it is not hidden behind these regulations,
00:37:05incomprehensible general plans, but it is understandable and publicly available, it is in
00:37:09open access, therefore, most likely,
00:37:12we need to take all the best, identify
00:37:16the potential of our small cities, our regional centers, in order
00:37:20for each of our cities to have its own unique features, to be
00:37:23comfortable and attractive, so I have a question: imagine that,
00:37:27it's clear that there's always something to work on every day, but
00:37:302050 comes, when we understand that this
00:37:34strategy, right, or rather, the concept developed by you, has
00:37:37been implemented, God willing, so it will be, you are walking, for
00:37:41example, along Sovetskaya Street, Brest,
00:37:44what do you feel at that moment, and this is the vision, in
00:37:48the strategy there is a vision, it is quite detailed,
00:37:52what I feel when I walk around the city
00:37:55in 30 years, I walk... through
00:37:58a comfortable city, where the city is pedestrian-friendly, where there are many
00:38:02terraces, where there is fresh air, where there is the smell
00:38:05of phytoncides, you know, from coniferous trees that
00:38:08grow in this city, people play sports,
00:38:12fewer clinics, more people
00:38:15run, ride bicycles,
00:38:18there is an opportunity here, if we talk about
00:38:22a creative city, it's a city, that gives people
00:38:25the opportunity to develop and... be
00:38:27needed, there are some separate topics here, growth points,
00:38:31economy, green framework, residential areas, you can
00:38:35go into details, but in general these
00:38:38are cities that help residents
00:38:41realize their potential, they have this vital potential, absolutely right,
00:38:45these are cities where you want to live, and you know, on July
00:38:4828th Brest had another birthday, we also congratulate you on that,
00:38:52that you have a direct connection, as a third-generation Brest resident,
00:38:55a representative of a very famous.
00:39:28square meters is a living organism, where a smart approach transforms technology
00:39:31into comfort, and the concept of a garden city protects our
00:39:34ecology. But the main thing is balance, which is impossible
00:39:38without people. It is the creative energy of residents that transforms modern
00:39:41spaces into centers of creative economy, which drives
00:39:44our cities forward. Design your future with
00:39:48intelligence and see you on
00:39:49air.
00:40:07Belarus - it is a very tolerant country
00:40:10and has a very high degree of energy,
00:40:14as Gumilyov said. Belarus for me is
00:40:17happiness, silence,
00:40:19cleanliness. Just the other day I went out to
00:40:22the station, looked at two
00:40:26buildings. Inside I thought, how much I love Belarus?
00:40:29Belarus for me is honor, it is conscience, it is
00:40:33beautiful traditions, the future of my children, Belarus for me
00:40:36is pride, which I am ready to carry
00:40:39throughout the world until my last breath, let them
00:40:42envy us, let them take an example from us, we have
00:40:45a generous soul, a sincere heart, and most importantly
00:40:49rich, kind, beautiful
00:40:51people.