Signs, bus stops, street furniture, and façade design in Gomel will gradually be brought into a unified style. Why the city needed a design code, which areas will be transformed first, and who will oversee its implementation was explained by Larisa Kovaleva, head of the Architecture and Urban Planning Department of the Gomel City Executive Committee.

• Larisa Vitalyevna, why did the need for such a document arise now?

– There were prerequisites for this even earlier. We studied the experience of other cities, looked at what had been developed. We decided to take a more systematic approach to the appearance of the regional center. Gomel is a historic and tourist city, the second largest in the country. We have many beautiful buildings, but owners and tenants change, and each starts to design the object to their own taste: one likes red, another likes green. Gradually this creates chaos.

– The same applies to street furniture, bus stops, and advertising structures. There are many of them, they are different, often not related to each other. We want to put everything in its place so that the city gains a recognizable face, so that a person arriving at the train station immediately understands: this is Gomel.

• Where will the practical implementation of the design code begin? Which territories will be prioritized?

– First of all, the focus will be on the city center and its streets. Entrances are also important, for example, from Rechitsky Prospekt. Courtyard areas will be brought in gradually.

• Who will monitor that the new approaches are applied?

– In Gomel there are four district administrations, and the main control will lie with them as local executive bodies. If a new building owner applies for permission for reconstruction or other changes, the administration will first work with them jointly with the Architecture and Urban Planning Department. There are also municipal organizations that carry out major repairs and are responsible for their territories.

– Will the new requirements apply only during reconstruction and major repairs, or will they affect existing objects as well?

– Everything will happen in parallel. Somewhere reconstruction is underway, somewhere major repairs are being done, somewhere it is simply necessary to replace an advertising sign on the façade. We will not wait for a full reconstruction of a building to start putting it