This is one of the leading graduate training Chairs at the Academy. It trains town planners and landscape architects. Graduates of this Chair practice as chief architects of cities and towns in municipal architectural departments, design institutes and firms.

The Chair has a 12-strong staff, of which two are honorary architects of Russia, two professors, six ‘candidate’ degree holders, Chief Architect for Sverdlovsk Oblast.

The Chair is headed by Professor V.A.Kolyasnikov. The Chair conducts research in the following areas: sustainable development of settlements; ecologicalrehabilitation of environment, conservation and re-use of monuments of history and culture, landscape design, development of transport networks.

The staff of the Chair collaborate with institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences, design master plans for cities and towns, detailed plans for city centres and districts, improvement and landscaping projects. The Chair is a centre of the Ural region for studies focusing on the historic art heritage of the region, design of architectural historic maps and conservation zones for historic sites. Recently the staff of the Chair have been involved in new types of work such as economic, planning and ecological zoning projects, elaboration of planning and land use codes, design of sustainable urban development models. Work is under way to create new types of urban projects such as technopolyses, ecological technoparks, sites of sustainable development.

The staff of the Chair conduct research under major federal and inter-university programmes such as “Radioactive Rehabilitation of the Ural Region”; “Peoples of Russia – Revival and Development”; “Architecture and Building Construction”. Together with the Institute of Industrial Ecology of the Ural Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences a comprehensive ecological assessment of the city of Kamensk-Uralsky was carried out; a city planning regulation project has been mplemented, and a concept for a new master plan designed. Considering ecological and economic conditions, revitalisation planning projects have been drawn up for Ekaterinburg, Pervouralsk, Revda, Chelyabinsk, Orsk, Specialists of the Chair took part in the design of a district zoning plan for Ekaterinburg and a Building Code for Sverdlovsk Oblast.

The wealth of experience accumulated by the staff of the Chair in the training of urban planners has been implemented in the manuals “Ecological approach to the design of town planning compositions” and “Regional Features of Town Planning in the Urals”, which were awarded mentions at Russian competitions “Architecture’94” and “Architecture’96”.