Identity as a project resource: How real estate companies and associated professional groups use the concept of “identity” in contemporary urban development

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which the concept of “identity” is used and interpreted in contemporary Russian real estate development. Drawing on expert semistructured interviews with developers, architects, marketing and branding specialists, urbanists, anthropologists, and urban researchers, as well as a discourse analysis of industry and academic sources, the study demonstrates that identity in development is formed and applied primarily as a managed project resource. It is used to frame and interpret design decisions, legitimate economic advantage, and establish product distinctiveness. However, it is often stabilized at early stages of the project, and is rarely sustained beyond the active marketing phase. The article describes the methodology and empirical basis of the study and examines the initiation of identity, identity as a source of added value and market differentiation, locality and heritage, the limits of symbolic gestures, the translation of identity across professional roles, and identity as both a process and a boundary of manageability. The article offers an analytical distinction between place identity and architectural identity as categories of experience and professional reflection, on the one hand, and project identity as a tool for managing the development cycle, on the other. Whereas in theoretical works identity is associated with lived experience, memory, and everyday practices, in development practice it often becomes a preliminary project framework that must subsequently be confirmed through architecture, the product, communication, and activation during the operational phase. The study shows that professional groups converge in recognizing the value of identity for project differentiation, but diverge in their understanding of its sources, the limits of manageability, and the ways of implementation in the product, the environment, and operational phase.