We increase the requirements for the quality of the urban environment: Gomel has an urban design code.
The idea of developing your own visual style is not new for Belarusian cities, but Gomel decided to go further and were the first in the country to give the design code legal validity.
The document was officially approved by the city authorities, and the process has already begun to rid the streets of the chaos of the signs, the toxic colors and the visual noise.
One of the authors of the concept, the head of the department of architecture and urban planning in the executive committee of Gomel municipality, Larisa Kovaleva, immediately explains: "The design code divides Gomel into four distinct areas: the historical part, the central streets, the courtyard areas and other spaces. The main principle here is gradualism. The closer the requirements are to the historical core, the stricter they are."