Alexandra Machrovskaya

Alexandra Viktorovna Makhrovska ( Александра Викторовна Махровская ; 21 [O.S. 1917] 12 December, Strugi Krasnye - 18 August 1997 Saint Petersburg ) was a Soviet - Russian architect , urban planner and urban designer .

She was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honour.

Life

Makhrovskaya attended secondary school in Leningrad and, under her father's influence, began studying in 1936 at the Saint Petersburg Repin Academy of Fine Arts (LIShSA), which had evolved from the Imperial Academy of Arts, in Architecture . In 1937, she also began correspondence studies at the Institute of Foreign Languages in the German department. Her studies were interrupted by the first winter of the Siege of Leningrad after the outbreak of World War II . In July 1942, she was evacuated with her parents and her daughter Olga (born 1941) and arrived in Samarkand , where most of the evacuated LIShSA was located. There she met her future husband, Viktor Ilyich Kochedamov. The Makhrovskaya family returned to Leningrad in 1944. In 1945, Makhrovskaya defended her diploma project for an exhibition palace, completed in Igor Ivanovich Fomin's workshop, with distinction for her degree as an architect-artist. She completed her foreign language studies as a translator.

After graduating, Makhrovskaya worked at the Leningrad Institute of Urban Planning (Lengiprogor) . There, an urban planning school had just been established, led by V.P. Yakovlev, Vladimir Albertovich Gaikovich , D.D. Baragin, N.A. Solofnenko, and Yuri Mikhailovich Kilovatov. Under its direction, Makhrovskaya collaborated on the design for the reconstruction and restoration of the historic center of Petrozavodsk . The project won second prize in the All-Union competition in 1947. Another of Makhrovskaya's successes was the design for the center of Simferopol , which demonstrated her analytical architectural and urban planning skills.

In 1951, Makhrovskaya began her postgraduate studies under Vladimir Alexandrovich Vitman at the Leningrad branch of the Moscow Academy of Construction and Architecture of the USSR . In 1955, she defended her doctoral dissertation there on the development and design of the Neva riverbanks and became a senior research associate at the Leningrad branch. Her research focused on the processes of designing large and small urban districts with historic buildings. She authored numerous scholarly articles and monographs on the problems of restoring historic urban districts and creating modern, comfortable housing. She co-authored a book with Alexander Ivanovich Naumov, one on urban planning and the other on residential districts.

In 1964, Makhrovskaya became head of the Urban Regeneration Department of the Scientific Department of the Leningrad Research Institute for Urban Planning. She specialized in the design of new cities in Kazakhstan , Siberia , and the Far East.  She developed model projects for settlement and urban development in the northern regions of the country. She studied the historical and architectural heritage of small settlements in the Vologda Oblast and the Komi Republic. In particular, she developed a concept for the regeneration of the center of Syktyvkar. At the same time, Makhrovskaya's department focused on urban development processes in Leningrad and later St. Petersburg. She personally oversaw the regeneration of historic city districts and the preservation of cultural and architectural heritage. She participated in architectural competitions with designs for the centers of Reval, Kazan, and a central square in San Francisco. Under her leadership, projects for the reconstruction of historic building complexes were developed, in East Germany, and in Hungary.

Makhrovskaya was elected a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering (RAASN) in 1995. She was not a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU ). From 1967 to 1972, she was a deputy of the Leningrad City Soviet . In 1991, she became a member of the St. Petersburg City Planning Council. In her later years, Makhrovskaya worked on her book about St. Petersburg's gateway to the sea, to document her lifelong experience studying the problems of restoring a modern city. The book remained unfinished.

Makhrovskaya was buried in the Bogoslovskoye Cemetery in St. Petersburg .

Family

Makhrovskaya's grandfather was Archpriest Gennady Ivanovich Makhrovsky of the Trinity Cathedral in Saratov . Her father, Viktor Gennadyevich Makhrovsky, was a metrologist and taught at the Bogolyubov Art School in Saratov, and later at Kazan Federal University and the Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology. Her mother, Alexandra Ivanovna Makhrovskaya, was from St. Petersburg and had completed the Higher Commercial Courses for Women there.

Makhrovskaya's daughter , Olga Alexandrovna Biantovskaya , became a graphic artist .

Works

• Makhrovskaya, Alexandra Viktorovna (1977). Leningradskaya sistema rasseleniya [Leningrad system of resettlement]. Saint Petersburg. Retrieved 2026-05-26.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Makhrovskaya, Alexandra Viktorovna (1980). Puti razvitiya Leningrada [Pathways of Leningrad's development by].
• Makhrovskaya, Alexandra Viktorovna (1974). Rekonstruktsiya zhilykh rayonov Leningrada [Reconstruction of residential areas of Leningrad]. Retrieved 2026-05-26.