Merchant estates in Tomsk planning structure late in the 19th and early 20th centuries

The article deals with wooden merchant estate buildings of Tomsk late in the 19th and early 20th centuries. At the turn of the 19–20th centuries, the wooden construction, is the fundamental planning in the architectural and town-planning structures in Siberian cities. The relevance of the study is determined by the problems of preserving the integrity of historical urban estates in Tomsk, in particular household buildings of which there are currently very few left.Purpose: A comprehensive analysis of three most interesting estates of Tomsk merchants, namely G.M. Golovanov, A.F. Zelenevskaya, and the Kukhterins and the planning structure and functional zoning of merchant estates, architecture and planning of buildings, and preservation of estate complexes.Methodology/approach: Historical, archival and bibliographic documents; field research conducted by the authors in 2022; methods of the data identification, comprehensive, systematic and comparative analyses.Research findings: Collected and analyzed materials on wooden merchant estates in Tomsk. The high urban significance of the historical buildings is determined, the rational zoning and multifunctionality of merchant estates is identified.Originality/value:  The  comprehensive  analysis  of three  merchant  wooden  estates  of the 19–20th centuries, justification of their value as the main elements of the spatial planning structure of the Tomsk city.