BAKHMUT NEW TOOLS FOR PRESERVING AND STUDYING HISTORY
люETAMISTO SHID
люETAMISTO: SHID
BAKHMUT NEW TOOLS FOR PRESERVING AND STUDYING HISTORY 9-13 february 2017 city exploration
Bakhmut doesn’t share its secrets when you first come and see it. You need something more than professional interest of a researcher and urbanist architect. What you can say for sure is that this city is something special, and it differs from the rest of the Donetsk region cities in the nearby frontline zone, and from the rest of the cities of the METACITY_EAST project in particular. There is no heavy industry in Bakhmut, unlike in other 5 cities of the project: Kostiantynivka, Dobropillia, Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk and Pokrovsk. Founded in 1571, this is the oldest city in the Donetsk region, that has interesting historical architecture, which, in comparison with Lysychansk (founded in 1710), is better preserved and better used.
Because of its difference from the other cities of the project and the peculiarities of its historical, social and architectural-urban layers, we chose a rather original strategy of temporary transformations for this city.
Historical layer
This year the city turns 447. The morphology of the central part of the city is still preserved with its districts and narrow streets, and particularly central square, which is still the most lively place of urban life, as it once was.
Social layer
The nature of the frontline fortress city, as we felt, has a special meaning here. You cannot definitely say that Bakhmut is closed to aliens. It feels easy and relatively nice to stay there. On the other hand, while talking to locals, you realize that there is so much more than lies on the surface. Perhaps the collective consciousness of the Bakhmut citizens worked out a feeling of difference compared to the neighboring cities. In addition, due to their profound history, they don’t miss the Soviet past: they easily got the city its old name back and painlessly dismantled the monuments to Lenin and Artem at the central square.
“… the city of Bakhmut is an iceberg city” (local activist)
Architectural-urban layer
The abandoned valuable architectural buildings are a spatial reserve not only for architectural transformations under new functions: coworkings, hubs, urban workshops, but also for the expansion of the existing institutions and facilities. For example, it can work as a reserve for the local music school, which, according to locals, has long needed the e[pansion of the area. But this historical reserve is not only opportunities – it’is the responsibilities of preservation and reconstruction of the monuments. The situation in the city is complicated by the lack of dialogue with some owners, particularly with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, which owns some of the most valuable objects: the District Court in Nyzhniy Park and the Azov-Don Bank in the Independence street. According to the representatives of the local administration, they have been writing the official
photo by Tw1npeaks
photo. Bakhmut, February 2017
letters asking to move these buildings onto their balance sheet, in order to save them from destruction. Apart from this, the experience of the ‘Ancient Bakhmut/Starovinniy Bakhmut’’ project has revealed that not all owners of the buildings that can be attributed to the architectural and historical heritage, agree to place an appropriate plate about the value of objects on their facades.
“… a middle-aged intelligentsia representative, dressed in old clothes with lapels, but neat… rather, works at the watch-repairing workshop (a local)” - an answer to the question, how would you describe your city as a living being?” During 5 days, February 9-13, according to the locals’ advice, we explored not only old buildings, but also open spaces: parks, squares, abandoned houses of culture, plants’ ruins that could become places for transformation. Apart from this we had meetings with the city’s active citizens: ‘City’s workshop’ (‘Maysternya Mista’), director of the Museum of Local History, employees of the department of architecture and NGO ‘Ancient Bakmut’ (‘Starovinniy Bakhmut’). Together with the activists we chose 10 locations, most suitable according to the criteria of the project METAMISTO: SHID, for more thorough analysis.*
* BASIC CRITERIA WHEN CHOOSING A LOCATION:
• • • •
presence of local people interested in development of this location possibility to make part of the transformation at least for the amount of 20 000 UAH importance for the city, district or impact on the city/district possibility of realization of the first stage during 1 week compliance with the project METAMISTO: SHID ideas
scheme 1 - 10 chosen locations
1
Remains of the monuments to Lenin and Artyom at Toptalivka (historical name of main city street)
2
The yard of the Museum of Local History
3
House of Culture ‘Mashinobudivnykiv’ (Machine-builders)
4
Creek-crossing near school #5
5
Transformer station at the crossing of
6
Mariupolska Street and Myru Street Abandoned karting drome
7 8 9
Dam Employment Centre/former kindergarten Catamaran station
10 Distillery ruins
We continued the further work on the analysis of the locations in Kyiv by creating a ‘weather map’ that revealed the places whose transformation would make a bigger impact on the city. Among the most effective ones in this sense would be the transformations at the following locations: the remains of the monuments to Lenin and Artyom at Toptalivka (1), the yard of the Museum of Local History (2), ‘Mashinobudivnykiv’ ‘(Machine-builders’) House of Culture (3) and the Employment Centre/former kindergarten near school #12 (8). By combining SWOT analysis of the locations, “weather map” and project objectives, we realized that concentrating on a single point would be ineffective and risky. Among the main reasons for that are: 1. the existing risks that may arise and the disadvantages of these territories that cannot be covered within the framework of the METACITY EAST project, by making an architectural transformation 2. a small chance to have a stable effect in case of choosing ‘not top’ location (according to “weather map”) 3. inhibition of the research process, which we really must and want to continue in the ‘mysterious’ Bakhmut That is why we propose to combine several points with one idea and choose a strategy for temporal transformations of ‘claim’ (‘claim’ is the original name according to the study of temporal transformations by Urban Catalyst) and to add the research element to the experimental part of the next stage
of METAMISTO: SHID We suggest an approach rather than a solution, a proposal based on our research rather than a template, we propose to invent rather than duplicate. There are several artistic and architectural tools for achieving the chosen strategy: artistic appropriations, pedestrian (or cycling) excursions, installations, mobile objects that can travel freely around the city. The events should be accompanied by a powerful information campaign, which is extremely important for this strategy, since it’s effective only when the majority of the locals around join it.
Samples of prototype interventions: the event ‘waiting for new users’, Zagreb (on the photo); lights installation at the former Schnapps factory, Zagreb. KOPF KINO from on/off
scheme 2 - “weather map” “ W e a t he r m a p ” is a ma p t ha t s hows wha t a mp lifies (A) a nd wha t c om p lic a t es (C) t he p o t ent ia l t r a ns f or ma t io ns in t he giv en m om e nt . A ( a m p lif ie r s): t he p resenc e o f a b a nd one d a rea s, go o d t ra nsp o rt a t ion ( m a in ly p u b lic t ra nsp o rt ), hig h d e ns it y o f yo u ng p eo p le ( e d u c a t ion a l inst it u t io ns, p la c es of g a t he r in gs o f yo u ng p eo p le), f a v or it e p la c es o f t he lo c a ls. C ( c om p lic a t o rs): p riv a t e sec t o r ( loos e b uildings), p la nned a rea s.
ind u s t r ia l a r ea s a nd fo rmer indu st r ia l a r e a s in ru ins p r iv a t e s e ct o r m ult is t or ie d a nd mix ed b u ildings area r a ilwa y r oa ds A - a m p lif iers o f p o t ent ia l t ra nsfo rm a t ions a nd int erv ent io ns C - c om p lic a t o rs o f p o t ent ia l t ra nsf or m a t ions a nd int erv ent io ns
One of the unifying ideas could be the HISTORY OF BRICK. The Bakhmut brick itself and the buildings made from this brick are special archives, storytellers of the history of the city and its dwellers. We could add the District Court in the Nyzhniy Park, made from the brick of the Tekhterev factory (which the stamped bricks on the facade clearly say) to the locations selected by locals, such as the Museum of Local History, where several types of local bricks are preserved, and the ruins of a distillery to this ‘history route’. Among the variety of other multiple interesting buildings made from this material, are for example, the Azov-Don Bank and the ruins of the plant where the fire-resistant brick by the Edmund Farke firm was once made. Scheme 3: the draft for history route of the Bakhmut brick Distillery ruins District Court
Edmund Farke firm
Museum of Local History
Azov-Don Bank
“... if you don’t know what this brick is, what its special feature is, you haven’t understood anything about Bakhmut”, - the director of the Museum of Local History says to us and smiles while we are looking at the display with bricks.
photo by Svitlana Kolodiy
You can find out a lot about the history of the city by only looking at the building of the Azov-Don Bank: 1. the former function of the building, which was the regional bank, says that Bakhmut once was a trading, borderline, rich city 2. its current function, the Coordination centre for the internally displaced people, says that this is the ‘first line’ city, only 30 km from the frontline 3. there is a recurrent fight of the municipality with the owner of the building for transferring it to the city balance sheet for proper reconstruction 4. the presence of the ‘AncienBakhmut/’Starovinniy Bakhmut’ sign on the fasade speaks of the fresh positive changes towards preservation and use of historical heritage
Azov-Don Bank
Among the benefits of this approach and the proposed idea of intervention, the following can be identified: 1. an opportunity to contribute to the preservation and spreading of the history of the city 2. the ‘soft approach’ gives more opportunities for the experiment and innovation: video-imaging on the facade, performative audio excursions, light installations, and more. While even temporary transitions require the approval of the project with the owner, which, as we have found in a short amount time, is almost impossible to make for the selected locations 3. the opportunity to plunge into the history of the city almost until the 1870’s, as around this time they started to mine clay and produce the brick
Azov-Don Bank nowadays. photo by Svitlana Kolodiy
4. exploration of European connections, since some of the owners of factories, local entrepreneurs, former house owners were Dutch and French 5. testing of a pedestrian city, which has almost no highways, and sidewalks are to a greater extent in good condition 6. possibility to connect with the other cities of the METAMISTO: SHID project where you can find Bakhmut brick. For example, in Dobropillia, where we conducted research as well, we found traces of the Bakhmut history in one of the school museums.
Resources: 1. Urban Catalyst. The power of temporary use 2. www.oldbakhmut.dn.ua 3. www.tw1npeaks.blogspot.com 4. www.onoff.cc/kopf-kino
Anastasiya Ponomaryova october 2017
Kramatorsk
Donetsk
Donetsk is now located on non-controlled area Kramatorsk in newerly center of the region