The purpose of the article is to identify the peculiarities of urban development in Kyiv through the study of residential areas built in the modernist era and the possibility of taking them into account in the interests of post-war reconstruction of Ukrainian cities and Kyiv's development in the future. Methods. The planning features of the three socialist-era residential areas of Kyiv selected by the authors were assessed using a matrix of criteria developed on the principle of a comprehensive assessment of the territory in terms of three main functional zones. The results of the assessment served as data for building models in the form of petal diagrams that reflect the level of planning features of residential areas in the context of each zone. Results. The article reveals the peculiarities of mass housing construction in the capital of Ukraine in the second half of the twentieth century as a consequence of the adaptation of the Ukrainian urban planning scientific school and practice to the realities of Soviet ideology in urban planning. The article analyses the change in the urban face of Kyiv in the modernist era, the formation of various trends in the capital's urban planning, forms of implementation and trends in urban planning during the period of its Soviet ideologisation. Kyiv became an arena of struggle in urban development and redevelopment in the post-World War II period against the backdrop of rapid urbanisation, changes in housing requirements and acute manifestations of colonialism. A comparative analysis of three cases of housing construction, which recorded the progress in housing construction in terms of urban planning at different stages of post-war development of Kyiv - the residential areas "Berezniaky", "Syneozernyi" and "Teremky 1" - was carried out, which can better reveal the urban planning context in which the construction of a "European" and/or "Soviet" city is confronted. Scientific novelty. The tested methodology of field research of architectural and urban planning compositions, arrangement of urban spaces of different types, microzoning in order to compare residential areas and establish their user properties is the author's development. It has been established that despite the colonial policy, which had a significant impact on urban planning in Ukraine during the Soviet era, Ukrainian urban planners under the pressure of the Soviet ideological machine attracted the best European experience in planning and designing in the interests of the residents of the capital of Ukraine. Practical significance. The proposed methodology and the results obtained can be used in the planning and organisation of urban space. Mass housing construction will remain an urgent task in Ukraine and requires comprehension of negative experience and the use of the best practices of Kyiv's development in the modernist era.
