Regeneration of Pozniaky Village: Giving New Life To the Hidden Heritage Through Urban Agriculture

REGENERATION OF POZNIAKY VILLAGE IN KYIV: giving new life to the hidden heritage through urban agriculture.

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REGENERATION OF POZNIAKY VILLAGE: giving new life to the hidden heritage through urban agriculture.

Author: Anna Levadna Matricola: 862353 Supervisor: Paola Nella Branduini

July, 2018

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ABSTRACT The research site is located in Kyiv, one of the oldest Eastern European cities with a rich cultural and historical heritage. However, after the Second World War and the boom of industrialization, residential architecture only served a purely functional purpose, all existing context were neglected because of high speed of design and construction of prefabricated apartments. This approach is still being carried out in the modern architecture and urban design, making prefabricated architecture with low quality of public and green spaces a common sight.

The goal of the thesis is to use urban agriculture as the main tool to improve of existing situation in post-soviet and modern neighborhoods, establish social connections and enhance the remains of landscape heritage. A profound research of the urban agriculture of Kyiv was done to evaluate existing short food supply chains and stakeholders for this proposal. A social survey was conducted to validate the respect and value that the citizens have towards locally grown food and their desire to take charge of their land. A historical analysis showed that Kyiv has many overlapping layers in urban fabric, such as massive neighborhoods side by side with old rural landscape.

The case study of the thesis is Pozniaky sleeping district that contains the remains of the Pozniaky village that existed since 15th century; it is a vivid example of contrast between old and new, rural and urban. The district is new; the construction started during Soviet times and it continues until now with high speed and density. The continuous expansion is swallowing the remains of the village the villagers constantly fight back to this injustice. Study area shows the consequence of urbanization and how it can affect relationship between people of the same city. Historical and landscape analysis was made to find the permanencies of natural and rural landscape. Interviews with active citizens were collected for developing future strategy of improvement together.

The strategy used in the thesis is based on the work of Italia Nostra, a non-profit organization that makes successful urban agriculture projects in order to enhance and preserve natural and historical heritage in Italy. The soft design proposal is flexible and involves people in the process of its creation and maintenance. The key stakeholders of the project are apartment cooperatives, Pozniaky residents and educational institutions. The proposal contains guidelines to help reconnect the remains of the villages with the neighborhood that residents can use and adapt according to their needs. Small scale gardens and farms are proposed in important locations, introducing possible collective schemes. The research has developed new methodology of design in rural heritage context that requires community involvement and can be applied in other Kyiv cases.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 0. Introduction

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1. Methodology

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2. Kyiv urban agriculture overview 2.1. Big scale research 2.1.1. Country and oblast level 2.1.2. Metropolitan level 2.1.3. City level 2.2. Short food supply chain research 2.2.1. Farms 2.2.2. Markets 2.2.3. Young initiatives 2.2.4 Supporting local food movement

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3. Social survey

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4. Historical survey of rural traces 4.1. Sleeping districts 4.2. Sleeping districts over rural settlements 4.3. Site choice

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5. Study area: Pozniaky sleeping district 5.1. Existing landscape analysis 5.2. Historical analysis 5.3. Social analysis

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6. SWOT analysis

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7. Case studies

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8. Proposal: 8.1 Strategy 8.2 Masterplan 8.3 Zoom 01: Productive connections 8.4 Zoom 02: Educational farm for children 8.5 Zoom 03: Community garden 8.6 Zoom 04: Self-sustained farm

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9. Bibliography

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0. INTRODUCTION

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...results of Google search of Kyiv residential neighborhoods.

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INTRODUCTION problem

Since the beginning of USSR era, residential architecture of all Eastern European cities was conceived following a structural community concept called Micro-district. The concept comprised residential dwellings and public services buildings, these complexes were an opportunity to build a collective society, an environment suitable and necessary for a soviet new way of life, where the boundaries were planned to emphasize public transportation and community services. Later in time after Second World War, Ukraine among another soviet countries, went into a vertiginous industrialization mainly boosted for the cold war, in where the already residential complexes and new constructions were gradually replaced by a concept of city blocks created just to serve the purpose of housing industry workers. Such micro districts were later called sleeping neighborhoods in where no emphasis on cultural, environmental or positive social interaction were given. This shift in paradigm resulted in creation of dull prefabricated and redundant apartment complexes, schools and kindergarten all over the country specially the capital of Ukraine Kyiv.

In the 1990s with the dissolution of the Soviet Union this type of constructions ceased, and urban planning was no longer under the responsibility of central governments but was delegated to the regions (including Ukraine), which are now dealing with the task of maintaining deteriorating Soviet-era housing assets. This trend continues to prosper resulting in further construction of dense architecture with low quality of public and green spaces. This curse of the Soviet era can still be seen in the outskirts of eastern European cities where huge apartment complexes are being constructed on sites where landscape heritage existed with no regards to the context. This architecture practices have thus created a divide amongst the residence of the newly built apartment complexes and the villagers who feel that their cultural heritage and their public space is being taken by these monotonous residence buildings.

Source

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microdistrict 11

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INTRODUCTION goal

Urban Agriculture spans all the actors, communities, activities, places and economies that focus on biological production in a spatial context, which is categorized as “urban”.

Urban Agriculture takes place in intra and peri urban areas, and one of its key characteristics is that it is more deeply integrated in urban system compared to other agriculture.

Urban agriculture is structurally embedded in urban fabric; it is integrated into social and cultural life, the economics, and the metabolism of the city. Urban Agriculture is far more than just food production in the city; in a wider approach it implies different natural resources in an urban environment.

Urban agriculture serves to improve social relationship. One way of Urban Agriculture expression are community gardens which typically emerge as bottom up initiatives and are tended collectively. They are not only about growing vegetables, but also about growing social networks, building meeting places, and establishing a sense of community.

Base on this concept production is not the focus anymore therefore other considerations emerges as more relevant, for instance a good location becomes more critical than the size of the space. There may be gardens located in educational institutions that provide garden-based learning to their community (schools, kindergartens, etc.), or gardens developed by environmental or social centers that offer educational services to visitors. School gardens are the most common form. Healing services are also well used from gardening and agriculture in therapeutic programs, they are typically located inside the city, at physical and mental health care institutions. They can be used for the treatment of mental disorders, autism, Alzheimer’s disease or cerebral paralysis, addiction to 25 drugs and alcohol, etc.

Over the years urban farms have expanded the provision of services and goods and now include landscape management, environmental measures, land rental, and direct marketing. The farms, which have adapted their business strategies to an intra- or peri urban location can be subdivided into two main groups. One implies the provision of on-site services, like leisure and educational farms or therapeutic and social ones. The other includes local

food farms and environmental farms that provide benefits through material or environmental flows, connected to the urban metabolism and to the urban environment.

Agriculture plays a non-negligible role for urban economies—in particular, by generating turnover, profit, and jobs in the agricultural sector, but also in the entire agribusiness up- and downstream within the value-added supply chain.

Social benefits include participation, education, creation of jobs, inter-cultural communication, and—strategically interesting—an increased resilience to economic and political crises as well as natural hazards through the production of food and fuels. Urban in contrast to rural agriculture, aims to capitalize on the excess supply of nutrients, water, and energy, as well as space (not obviously) and labor in cities.

Source: Urban Agriculture Europe, by Frank Lohrberg/ Lilli Licka Lionella/ Scazzosi Axel Timpe (eds.)

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1. METHODOLOGY

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KYIV URBAN AGRICULTURE

H C E

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SOCIAL SURVEY intangible heritage

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HISTORICAL SURVEY tangible heritage

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E T T S

LANDSCAPE

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CASE STUDIES

M A S T E R P L A N

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S I S Y L

SOCIAL

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V I L L A G E P O Z N I A K Y

HISTORICAL

ZOOM 01

ZOOM 02

ZOOM 03

ZOOM 04

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2. KYIV URBAN AGRICULTURE OVERVIEW

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BIG SCALE RESEARCH country level

Agriculture is one of the main fields in the economy of Ukraine due to its climate and demographic reasons (the density of population in the rural areas in Ukraine is quite high). Ukraine occupies the third place in the world in the corn export, fifth place in the wheat export.

Ukraine has a fame of the granary. The main field in agriculture is the plant cultivation, especially technical and stern.

The total land area of Ukraine is 60 million hectares and about 42 million hectares belong to the agricultural land with the gardens, cultivated land, vineyards and pastures.

Ukraine owned 32 million hectares of black soil before the beginning of the war actions in 2014. 32 million hectares made the third part of the Europe’s arable lands.

Experts say that, nowadays, only about 45-50% of the arable lands are used for crops cultivation. The climate of Ukraine suits for both spring and winter crops. The leading role in the agriculture belongs to the grain production on the territory of Ukraine. The main Ukrainian grain crops are spring barley, winter wheat and corn. The main industrial or technical crops of Ukraine are sugar beet and sunflowers.

Dairy farming is one more popular kind of industry in Ukraine. On the 10th January 2016 Ukrainian companies that produce milk got the access to the European market. Of course the main consumer of Ukrainian dairy products was Russia and this industry suffered a lot after the Russian ban in 2014. Such countries as Armenia, Kazakhstan and Georgia became the main consumers of the Ukrainian milk products.

Ukraine produces such meat products as beef, pork, lamb, horse, chicken and rabbit. The production of meat increases with the every next year in spite of the difficult situation in the country. Ukraine exports poultry products to the EU countries. Meat is exported to such countries as Moldova, Belarus, Azerbaijan and other countries.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine prolonged the moratorium till the end of 2017 on the land sale that has agricultural function. It is impossible to sell agricultural land that is owned by the government now. The citizenry of Ukraine will be allowed to sell the agricultural land only in the beginning of 2019.

Source: http://proudofukraine.com/agriculture-in-ukraine/ 21

Kyiv city Kyiv metropolitan area Kyiv oblast

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BIG SCALE RESEARCH oblast level

Agriculture production of Kyiv oblast is mainly concentrated on the South of it, as the most fertile soils are located there. Nothern part belongs to Polissia natural and historical region (forested area). The most produced agricultural products are cereal crops, sunflower, sugar beet, potatoes, milk, eggs and meat. Dairy and poultry farming are receiving a lot of investments and getting more and more popular.

Source: old.csi.org.ua/www/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ sil_gos_23_04_14.doc

highest number

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MAIN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF THE REGIONS IN KYIV OBLAST

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BIG SCALE RESEARCH metropolitan level

agriculture fields

More than one third of Kyiv Metropolitan area is occupied by agricultural activities, mainly on the South. 23,8% of the territory is located on the forested areas. There are natural meadows regions, that are suitable for pasture.

Source: https://kga.gov.ua/generalnij-plan/genplan2020

forests natural meadows

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KYIV CITY LEVEL

urban agriculture typologies GARDEN COOPERATIVES Garden cooperative is a legal entity formed by individual-landowners or users of land plots that voluntarily cooperate for the satisfaction of their economic, social and other needs. The partnership works on the principles of self-government. The lands of the owners are used only for agricultural purposes. Usually the participants share the agricultural equipment and costs of services together. Building on the site has to have agriculture related functions (warehouse, equipment storage etc.).

DACHAS Dacha is a cottage house located usually outside the city or within but in green areas. Dachas are not used for permanent residence. People from post-Soviet countries use them in spring and summer as recreational houses. The site of the dacha is used for recreational purposes as well. Although, people usually have some fruit trees on the site and very often they create a vegetable and berry gardens to grow organic food for their families. The dacha owners also organize Dacha cooperatives that work the same as Garden cooperatives except it’s not mandatory to use the land for agriculture.

PRIVATE HOUSING Within city limits there are several type of private housing. The green areas in modern luxury housing is mostly used for recreational purpose, in some cases fruit trees are present. Although, in post village areas and in not luxury private housing neighborhoods people still have husbandry like vegetable gardens, fruit trees and berry bushes, in some cases also animal farm.

AGRICULTURE LAND-USE FOR EACH TYPOLOGY

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7 KOZENIAT (7 GOATS) The farm contains 300 goats. The owner once visited a horse farm where her son was doing sports and was impressed by bad conditions the animals lived in, so she bought the farm in order to improve it. Later she started to experiment and ended up making cheeses from goats’ milk. There is farm-shop in Kyiv.

PRODUCTION: Milk, sour cream, cream, yogurts, different kinds of cheese.

ORGANIC FAMILY FARM The farm is the first in Ukraine closed-cycle agro complex, which operates on the principles of organic eco-standards and successfully combines the production, processing, marketing of agricultural products, eco-tourism, and more. The farm cooperates with supermarkets of Kyiv and Stolychne market.

PRODUCTION: Berries: strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, boars. Meat: pork, mutton, beef, poultry

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SHORT FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN ANALYSIS

oblast level/farms

ECO/MOLOKO VID FERMERA (MILK FROM A FARMER) The brand is making production and sale of environmentally friendly dairy products. The dairy plant is located on the cows’ farm, therefore it is possible to make products immediately after milking. The farm has shops with its’ production in Kyiv and several big cities in Kyiv region.

MORKVA FERMA (CARROT FARM) Family farm that grows vegetables and edible flowers near Kyiv. The farm has a website and makes deliveries of the food and seeds.

PRODUCTION: Milk for bottling, sour cream, cream, yogurts, cheese - soft and hard, butter.

BABYNI KOZY (GRANDMOTHERS GOATS) The founder of the farm bought old kolkhoz building and created a farm in order to keep his own village a livable place.

The farm has 140 goats. The farmers are using sustainable energy resources as solar panels. There is farm-shop in Kyiv and a shop in Zhytny market. The farm practices agrotourism.

SVOJE SVIZHE (YOURS FRESH) The farm was created by the group of businessmen that took as examples European farms. They use traditional, not industrialized, methods of food production. They offer delivery and have one farm-shop in the city.

PRODUCTION: Milk for bottling, sour cream, cream, yogurts, butter, different kinds of cheese soft and hard. Meat: pork, mutton, beef, poultry.

PRODUCTION: Vegetables, edible flowers, salad.

PRODUCTION: Milk and cheeses.

LISOVA FERMA (FOREST FARM) It is small scale family farm that has 15 goats. The owner is a young man that dawn-shifted from Kyiv to the village were his parents live and own their small household. The family practices permaculture and produces handmade cheeses and bread.

PRODUCTION: Sour cream, yogurts, different kinds of cheese, flour and bread.

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SHORT FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN ANALYSIS

city level/markets

ZHYTNIY MARKET Citizens call the place the “soul of the neighborhood”.

Some farmers work in the market for 30 years and have their own customers. The market is very active, it makes a lot of fairs along with cultural and art events. However, some people don’t even get as far as the interior though, as the sidewalk near the entrance has been also turned into a spontaneous market, with people selling products from their own gardens: from flowers and mushrooms to fruits, vegetables and berries. However spontaneous trade is illegal in Ukraine.

BESARABSKY MARKET Its perfectly central location determines what you’ll get here: high prices, sophisticated-looking customers, and a great range of products. The famous building dates from 1912 and managed to survive the Soviet era. Before the building the trade existed in the same place but in very spontaneous and messy way. It is an architectural heritage site now. Bessarabka’s vendors are proud of providing goods from local farms and exotic food from abroad.

DNIPRO MARKET Dnipro is the best market according to the ranking of a famous Kyiv magazine and people’s opinion. It is located in Soviet neighborhood in the periphery, however, a lot of people still decide to take public transportation and go for groceries there despite the distance

STOLYCHNY MARKET One of the youngest Kyiv markets with tion. It has products from local farmers, Kyiv magazines are recommending it. A Ukrainian chefs buy products for their

good reputasome famous lot of famous dishes there.

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SHORT FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN ANALYSIS

city level/young initiatives

SQUATTER GARDEN 1

SAMOSAD (“SELF-GARDEN�)

Samosad is an ecological garden in one of the oldest historical neighborhoods in Kyiv. It was organized by two residents of the district on the abandoned green area in 2015.

The friends and family of organizers joined in changing abandoned space and attract attention of other residents and creating stronger community. People took reused materials to create pots for flowers and vegetables and places to sit. Now the place is a public space with mixed use such as educational lectures and workshops along with recreational purposes. People grow vegetables and herbs in the pots.

SQUATTER GARDEN 2 HEAVENLY HUNDRED SQUARE Heavenly hundred public square was created in 2014 after the revolution in Ukraine. It was created on the abandoned site full of trash that had a fence. During the revolution people destroyed the fence to use it as protection. After, volunteers cleaned the site and people from all over Ukraine (among them also the families of people who died during the revolution) brought trees to plant, artists were creating kids playground. The first educational vegetable garden was created in this square; kids were planting vegetables and herbs, and after, there was a harvest festival.

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SHORT FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN ANALYSIS

city level/young initiatives

EDUCATIONAL FARMS

MECONOMICA INITIATIVE Kyiv farm is a seasonal bottom-up micro-farm in historical center of the city. It is located on the terrace of a young education platform. The farm was created by young activists and in 2016, the money were collected by crowd-funding through online platform. The aim of the project was to show Kyiv citizens that they can use each free piece of space (on land or even on balconies) for growing healthy food. The Kyiv farms hosts educational events for grownups and kids. On the workshops they practice how to grow food in the city. The aim is to foster urban agriculture in Kyiv. The farm works from May till October. The second location of the farm is in botanical garden Fomina in the city center. The entrance to the garden is free. The site for the farming is just 10x10m. The aim is to show how to work in the soil. Workshops for kids and adults are held there, along with friendly events such as lemonade tasting.

The organizers of this farms are making a course about urban farming , how to make a garden in the city legally.

COMMUNITY GARDEN

ZHYVYI PROSTIR (“LIVING SPACE�)

Living space is a community garden made by volunteers in 2017 in order to promote gardening in Kyiv. The garden is located on the territory of Soviet Exhibition of National Economy center, where the exhibitions showing the progress in national industries and agriculture used to take place. The community garden is 0,25 hectares space.

It is divided into medium (12-18 m2) and big (18-24 m2) plots that people can rent for 1 season paying only once for the rent and water. There are also common gardens for educational and experimental purpose.

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Ukraine’s Under-the-Table Local Food Movement After years of brutal starvation under the USSR and a poorly managed transition to private farming after communism, an ad hoc network of local food providers has sprouted in Ukraine.

Vadym Vadym, 57, is an internationally respected trauma surgeon by day, honey expert by night. Between checking in on patients’ wellness and performing emergency surgeries, Vadym manages to pick up his monthly order of ten kilos of beef and three kilos of salo (pure pig fat, as important as flour in any Ukrainian kitchen). He and his colleagues meet Maria, their meat supplier, in the hospital lobby on a regular basis. Over the decades, they’ve developed a close friendship with Maria. Although she lives on a farm thirty kilometers outside of the city, Maria makes occasional trips to deliver meat to her customers who request specific cuts in advance. The packages are delivered in several layers of plastic bags or wrapped in paper and tied with string, depending on the type of meat and amount requested, and sometimes with a surprise bonus jar of jam or pickles.

Occasionally she’ll bring him honey, which is a special treat for Vadym; he keeps at least four different kinds of locally produced honey in constant circulation at his breakfast table. (To keep his health, Vadym clarifies.) After a brief chat with Maria, Vadym transfers the meat to plastic bins in the trunk of his car, where the raw pieces will remain until he returns home and his wife can begin preparing the meat for their freezer and their table.

Vadym’s grocery shopping style is no exception in Ukraine.

Due to the nation’s rich and complicated agricultural history, Ukrainians recognize and appreciate where their food comes from. In a culture rooted in the importance of togetherness, a strong personal and familial connection between Ukrainians and the food they eat has far-reaching effects on the country’s economic output, environmental strategies and relationships.

The future of Ukrainian food production is now unclear,

but the mentality behind the relationship with food can be traced back many generations.

Maria Maria’s family didn’t always produce meat and dairy products. When Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union, the government assigned different crops and production schemes to different plots of land. The government had this control because of the national land collectivization policy, under which farmers were forced to give up their land, livestock and other agricultural property and were punished severely for resistance. By denying farmers a choice in what was to be grown on the land that they worked, the system perpetuated a lifestyle of pseudo-serfdom for more than half a century.

When collectivization was first introduced in 1928 the effects were especially brutal. The policies damaged agricultural production and confined millions of peasants to abject poverty. In fact, collectivization was largely responsible for the Holodomor, a manmade famine in Soviet Ukraine and southern Soviet Russia that lasted from 1932 to 1933. With Ukrainian farmers already in a state of flux due to a loss of private lands, the Soviet government unexpectedly decided to increase Ukraine’s production quotas.

Widespread starvation consumed the rural population at the same time that the country’s agricultural exports surpassed levels that could have sustained the starving citizens. Stalin denied the existence of a famine and refused foreign aid in the midst of tremendous human suffering. In total, the Holodomor claimed the lives of an estimated 2.4 to 7.5 million people.

Even today, the Holodomor remains shrouded in mystery; there are no precise records enumerating the famine’s casualties and the exact reasoning behind the Soviet government’s agricultural plans is unknown. Still, the Holodomor serves as a reminder to contemporary Ukrainians that food availability is not something to be taken for granted. There is respect for those who toil to produce the food that feeds and nourishes, because they can remember a time when their ancestors did not have the privilege of owning prop36

KYIV CITY LEVEL

supporting local food movement erty and choosing how to manage their land.

Victor Victor, 32, is the proud father of Anatoli, age 4. After leaving his parents’ village to search for work in Kiev, Victor always made an effort to return and visit his parents on the weekend whenever he had time. When his son was born, however, these visits became even more important. Victor is proud to raise Anatoli in a bustling city, but doesn’t want his son to miss the experience of village life. The weekend visits are now top priority, sometimes taking precedence over Anatoli’s soccer practice, much to his dismay. The pair hits the highway early Saturday mornings, joining hoards of other city-dwellers on their migration to family villages for the weekend. Victor explained that things are different in the village – the clean air, spring water, fresh fruits and vegetables, just-laid eggs, and newly slaughtered meat. Of course the family has a potted garden of their own in their apartment in the city, but Victor says that it’s not the same; Anatoli needs to see it, feel it, breathe it, remember it.

Following Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the country’s collective farms were divided up among the workers and pensioners who had once been tied to the land plots. Villagers needed to prove their long-term affiliation with the collective farm to receive a private lot, which ranged from 1 to 7 hectares (or 2.5 to 17 acres) depending on the region. Because land privatization was conducted at local officials’ discretion, villagers who had been less than loyal often found themselves coincidentally without the necessary documents to be granted private land. Those who were lucky enough to receive a plot of land found the divisions illogical and inconvenient and were rarely briefed on their property rights. The land divisions were hastily drawn and resulted in unclear and often undocumented property lines.

And not much has improved since.

Now, more than twenty years after Ukraine gained independence, the government has yet to develop a comprehensive record of property ownership. Rental agreements are complicated and neighboring landowners feud. Al-

though the average size of a land unit is between seven to ten acres, landholders find themselves locked into a system of legislation that doesn’t acknowledge or support small-scale farmers. With funding from the World Bank, the State Agency for Land Resources of Ukraine is working on a mapping project to create a less volatile land economy for Ukrainian farmers, but has failed to establish a transparent land market for the country so far.

What the government did do is place a moratorium on agricultural land sales in 2001 to allow more time for the development of a secure land market. The moratorium has already been extended three times, first in 2009 and again in 2012 and now in 2017. With Ukraine’s fertile black soil’s estimated value ranging from $40 to $80 billion dollars, the moratorium is freezing one of Ukraine’s biggest markets and setting severe limitations on the agricultural sector’s potential.

Because of the moratorium, landholders aren’t allowed to sell property, which violates Ukrainians’ constitutional rights and denies the struggling agriculture sector a needed economic boost. Since many landowners are unable or uninterested in farming, the ban on land sales has created a leasing culture of half-hearted commitment: Domestic investors are hesitant to devote resources to land they can’t own, and foreign companies view the sector as being too risky and unstable for serious investment. As a result, rural Ukraine lacks developed local roads, modern grain elevators and other common farming equipment. As agricultural technology from the Soviet Union decays on local farms, Ukraine’s rural population is rapidly changing.

The rural population has dropped from 53 percent in 1960 to 33 percent in 1991, and the urban migration continues today. In 2011, rural inhabitants made up 31 percent of the total population, a record low. Ukraine’s farmers are also growing older: according to a 2012 survey by AgroInvest, only 19 percent of Ukrainian farmers and land managers are under the age of 40. Greater interests in higher education or urban job availability are likely factors.

Ruslana Nearly eight years ago, Ruslana, 25, hopped on a bus with 37

a few belongings in a rusted suitcase and left her family’s village in the Cherkasy region to settle in a dormitory at the National University for Life and Environmental Sciences in Kyiv. After graduating, Ruslana landed a job with an extension organization of the university and continues to work on its campus, living with her boyfriend in an apartment nearby. While most Americans have to wait for a trip to their parents’ place for a home-cooked treat, Ruslana’s kitchen is full of her mother’s canned goods and sweets.

Without fail, a lopsided package of jars and breads arrives every Tuesday evening on a passenger bus from Cherkasy.

(Many Ukrainians skip the pitfalls of the Ukrainian mail system and have goods delivered straight to their intended recipients by coordinated bus pick-ups.) Having long ago memorized the bus schedule, Ruslana braves sun, rain, and snow, waiting for her weekly package to arrive. Since Ruslana’s brother Sasha, 20, joined her in Kyiv to attend university last year, her portion of the package has been halved, but she’s fond of saying that the newly established tradition of meeting weekly to catch up and feast upon their bounty together is even better than her mother’s borsht.

Foreign investors have already expressed interest in Ukraine for both its fertile lands and natural resources. In September 2013 Ukraine signed a record-high $2.6 billion deal with China to develop agricultural projects on nine percent of Ukraine’s arable land in exchange for preferential food prices for China. Two months later, Chevron signed a $10 billion shale gas deal with Ukraine and Shell Gas has also expressed great interest in developing a deal in Ukraine once the ongoing political unrest subsides.

Beyond foreign involvement, these deals will introduce a slew of environmental problems unfamiliar to traditional Ukraine, where small and medium scale farming has been the norm for centuries.

Currently, the practices rooted in village culture read like a conservationist’s wish list: Due to local fresh food availability, food transportation emissions are minimal. Producing local foods to be sold in local markets promotes self-sufficiency in addition to building community and a sense

of place. In many cases, small- and medium-scale farmers have had the land in their families for generations and practice responsible farming simply because they have a familiarity and investment in maintaining high soil quality.

Nina Eighteen months ago, Nina, 73, moved from her family’s village in central Ukraine to her daughter’s home in a small town on the outskirts of Kyiv. Nina’s family did not want her to grow old in an isolated village where they could not care for her as need be; however, Nina, a great-grandmother and cook extraordinaire, has shown few signs of any plans to grow old. Her daughter had always grown food in a kitchen garden that wraps around the family home, but that wasn’t enough for Nina, who turned every square inch of the family’s backyard into a thriving garden. When her daughter’s property proved too limiting, Nina began planting on her son-in-law’s brother’s property that runs adjacent to the garden. There are apple, pear, plum, and cherry trees, whose fruits are eaten fresh, dried for compote (a hot juice-like drink), frozen for oatmeal in winter, and canned for jellies and jams. There are countless vegetables that are picked fresh right before dinner, or they are pickled, preserved, and combined together in jars of tangy salad for later months. And there are dozens of herbs and spices drying from all hanging places in the kitchen and overflowing from tiny jars labeled and arranged in a way that only Nina understands. Her basement walls are mosaics of glass jars that feed her family all year round. Of course Nina misses her village community and old home, but she has certainly succeeded in bringing a piece of her village culture with her to the city.

Traditional farming practices have succeeded for many years in making nationwide agricultural policies unnecessary; however, as big operations take root, the need for national farming policies has become an inevitability.

Ukraine is home to one of the most thriving local foods movements in the world. Theirs is a system idealized by the U.S. farm-to-table set, sick of big box supermarkets and trying to reconnect to the food system.

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Lately, agricultural issues have been put on the backburner due to the political unrest raging throughout the country since November 2013. Months after the ousting of corrupt President Viktor Yanukovych, May 25th hosted early presidential elections that brought Petro Poroshenko into power. Although Poroshenko has a myriad of issues to address, including violent separatist conflicts in the east, agriculture is likely to flourish under his leadership.

Nicknamed the “Chocolate King,” Poroshenko is well-acquainted with agricultural technicalities due to his involvement with the cocoa bean production necessary for his billion-dollar confectionary enterprises. He called Ukraine’s agricultural sector a highly profitable “sleeping giant” and encouraged an increase in production to address food security issues in Ukraine and abroad.

In Ukraine, from urban streets to village roads, it is taboo to throw away bread. Bread that has fallen on the floor or gotten stale is placed in wire basket bird feeders outside so that the food does not go waste. Some Ukrainians even give the bread a quick kiss before leaving it for the birds.

The state of Ukraine’s food culture, built on a deep respect for locally produced food, is in flux. But many Ukrainians, like Nina, Maria, Vadym, Victor and Ruslana, are carrying village values with them to their new homes. For them, food production and distribution is a matter of family and friends’ visits, of hospitality and generosity. Every bit of food has a story.

Source: https://modernfarmer.com/2014/06/ukraines-record-local-foods-movement/

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3. SOCIAL SURVEY

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SOCIAL SURVEY

Google form

The purpose of social survey was to understand the value that Kyiv citizens give to food, where they get it from and if they are willing to produce it themselves.

Google form with several multiple choice questions was created and spread through Facebook. 61 people reacted on the survey and gave feedback. Among those 61 people there are present stakeholders of Urban agriculture, people who grow vegetables by themselves and just active citizens willing to participate in the city improvement. People shared personal experience and knowledge, added critical thoughts and advices.

Several interesting sparks of urban agriculture were found along with the traces of old cultivations and fruit trees plantations in the neighborhoods. The evidence of strong agricultural presence in the city was mentioned.

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surveyed people 44

SOCIAL SURVEY

general information People from various districts of the city responded on 12 questions and added some interviews about their ways of getting and producing food. Most of them are in the limits of 26-35 years old, as active facebook users.

63,3% women 36,7% men

23%

18-25

54,1% 26-35 11,5% 36-45 11,5% 46-60

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SOCIAL SURVEY

where do you buy food?

While evaluating the results of the questionnaire, it was evident that Kyiv citizens have strong attachment to the locally produced food. Most off the surveyed people are active customers of the markets, fairs and spontaneous trade. The number of vegetarian people is increasing in Kyiv. Moreover, it was identified a lot of people who are trying to grow the food by themselves in the city. Strong connections with countryside is present, big number of people responded that they get food from the village of their grandparents, neighbors or dachas. However, most of the users pointed out that supermarket food is more affordable for them, than the locally produced one. Also, there is lack of trust to dairy products and meat from the markets, due to the cheating in quality control. Although, the tradition to buy vegetables in the markets is still strong, mostly because of the strong connections with the village lifestyle of Ukrainian people. In addition, the trend to consume organic food takes place, people mention buying products in “special� markets or shops.

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48

SOCIAL SURVEY

findings

“There are apple gardens that belong to Puscha Vodytsia agroholding on the Grechka Street. However, they are used privately; there is no access for people.”

“There are gardens on Pravdy Avenue, but they are currently under destruction because of new construction.”

“Yes, there is a garden and it’s cool! Right next to my house is an old apple and apricot garden and kindergarten on Vernadskoho street .”

“Teremky - a residential area next to the Exhibition Center where there are still many gardens, plus we had a lot of greenhouses in the past (in the childhood there went on a banana tour there, and so on), and there are private sectors, which also have gardens.”

“A lot of Hruschevkas were built on Darnyrsky Boulevard. Ex-residents of villages were relocated there because their villages were flooded in order to build hydroelectric station. They planted a lot of fruit trees between their houses.”

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50

SOCIAL SURVEY

findings/roof garden “It’s very interesting topic and very related to my family. My parents are architects and gardeners at the same time. I already mentioned that we have a garden on the roof a school building. My parents were always eager to eat organic vegetables, and when my younger sister was born, we decided to switch completely to natural food. At the same time my father was building a charity school from Spanish catholic sisters. It’s a small building with additional sports facility. While working us all became friends. Firstly, my father was planning to make a playground on a flat roof, however it didn’t work out well, it was not used. So, my parents decided to organize a huge garden there. The soil is located in wooden beds arranged in the rows. There is automatic watering system. The water is connected to each pot.”

Martha, daughter of urban farmers

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TRANSFORMATION OF UN-USED, NEGLECTED AREAS NEAR THE BUILDINGS INTO GARDENS

FLAT ROOFS ARE POTENTIAL SPACES FOR GARDENING

ADD SENSUAL VARIETY TO THE SPACE BETWEEN THE BUILDINGS: DIFFERENT PATTERNS, SMELLS, COLOURS

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SOCIAL SURVEY conclusions

“I want my personal garden! Near our house there are a lot of possibilities to use the land for gardening.

Behind the house there is a piece of land that is as long as the house and 10 m wide. There is couple of trees and grass, no one goes there because it’s not a comfortable place, however good enough for community garden. There is flat roof, but it needs to be repaired a bit, also there is a small building in the yard 5x5 meters that could have become storage for instruments or a place of receiving recycling materials.

Therefore, there are possibilities for development. “

“I can imagine that it’s possible to take better care of a land nearby the houses, add more flower, aromatic trees, greenery (even eatable). Amaranth, for instance, is very useful and easy to take care of, plus quinoa and purslane for salad with high amount of vitamins, also, mint, daisies, melissa, chamomile, lavender something like this. Red amaranth already is already added in flower beds, you can probably eat it as well, but the flowers will become less dense. I would like to have beautiful smell near my building; probably I will plant mathiola and something else for beauty in spring.”

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4. HISTORICAL SURVEY OF RURAL TRACES

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Soviet sleeping districts surveyed people 56

HISTORICAL SURVEY OF RURAL TRACES sleeping districts

Within the limits of the city there are around 30 “sleeping” neighborhoods. The period of Soviet residential construction lasted from 1950 till 1991. Mostly the buildings were for the workers of the industries, military services and people from the villages or suburbs whose private houses were demolished due to the construction of the sleeping districts got free apartments there.

“In the city center Soviet buildings lives creative youth, because there is nice and high ceilings. In my neighborhood we have a lot of new buildings near our house, so many young parents settle here. The old people are very few. Students are mostly renting apartments and come here only to sleep, because the rent is cheap.”

“The mix of workers of the factories, who received apartments from the government and the new owners live in Soviet districts. Due to the fact that my neighborhood is in close to the city center, the newcomers are wealthy people.”

“Mostly, retired people who received their apartments for free, young people who inherited apartments from their parents, or rent flats.”

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CASE1

CASE2

CASE3

historical area of modern city Soviet sleeping districts rural settlements 58

HISTORICAL SURVEY OF RURAL TRACES sleeping districts over rural settlements

The base of the drawing is the map of Kyiv and its surroundings from 1930s. The plan shows overlap of the sleeping neighborhoods over rural settlements. It is visible that most of the neighborhoods were constructed outside the city historical areas due to proximity to the industrial areas. The main aspect of design was infrastructure, the exiting landscape was almost not considered.

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CASE1: SYRETS

CASE2: PIVDENNA BORSCHAHIVKA

CASE3: POZNIAKY

limits of rural permanences water permanences roads permanences

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HISTORICAL SURVEY OF RURAL TRACES 3 cases

Current analysis was made to show different landscape conditions in the neighborhoods and relationship between massive Soviet constructions and existing context.

SYRETS The husbandries developed along the river bank before 14th century. In 1799 the village entered city borders of Kyiv. In 1840 the military camps and factory started to be built. During the Second World War there was a concentration camp. In 1950 the Syrets residential estate started to be constructed mostly for the workers of brick factory. Current estate is one of the oldest and the closest to the city center and has interesting landscape forms such as Forest park, Dendrological Park and Historical place Babyn yar.

There is not much new construction and social atmosphere is friendly. People got the apartments there and live with their families for more than 60 years, so neighbors know each other. As the neighborhood was one of the oldest, the buildings are mostly Hruschovkas, the earliest type of pre-fabricated building of Soviet times.

POZNIAKY Village Pozniaky was founded around 16th century. Till 1920 the village was flourishing there were a lot of rich people. After 1920 the Soviet authorities started to make people join the kolhoz in order to control food production in the village. In 1935 the village became a part of Kyiv. Despite the fame and the victims of the village during Second World War till the end of XX century quite a lot of families lived there. In 1989 the Pozniaky residential estate started to be constructed and a lot of settlement were destroyed.

Low quality modern construction is developing very actively. Due to the fact that developers are destroying a of green spaces constructing high residential buildings, it makes public awareness more active. Residents propose projects of landscape parks and lake fronts to municipality and make protests against new dense construction.

PIVDENNA BORSCHAHIVKA The site is located on the historical territory that was populated in the middle of 18th century. There were 5 small villages that historically merged in one. The villages belonged to several Kyiv monasteries. In 1925 in Borschahivka there were 1364 husbandries and 6419 inhabitants. The Pivdenna Borschahivka sleeping district was constructed “on the top� of the 3 villages that merged together exploding them in 3 random parts again in 1980. The apartments were given to the workers of the industries on the North of the neighborhood or military workers. The remains of current villages are in possible danger of new construction.

River Nyvka was crossing the villages. As the soil was humid and there were wetlands, after the construction of the soviet neighborhood the river was placed in underground collectors. Instead 2 lakes were created. The village on the South transformed more to the elite country house neighborhood.

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5. STUDY AREA: POZNIAKY SLEEPING DISTRICT

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STUDY AREA: POZNIAKY SLEEPING DISTRICT existing landscape

POZNIAKY Village Pozniaky was founded around 16th century. Till 1920 the village was flourishing there were a lot of rich people. After 1920 the Soviet authorities started to make people join the kolhoz in order to control food production in the village. In 1935 the village became a part of Kyiv. Despite the fame and the victims of the village during Second World War till the end of XX century quite a lot of families lived there. In 1989 the Pozniaky residential estate started to be constructed and a lot of settlement were destroyed.

Low quality modern construction is developing very actively. Due to the fact that developers are destroying a of green spaces constructing high residential buildings, it makes public awareness more active. Residents propose projects of landscape parks and lake fronts to municipality and make protests against new dense construction.

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1

1

2 2

3 3

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STUDY AREA: POZNIAKY SLEEPING DISTRICT existing landscape

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SECTION1

SECTION2

SECTION3

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STUDY AREA: POZNIAKY SLEEPING DISTRICT existing landscape/sections

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map 1930

before 1930

1950

1980

1991

2000

analyzed village

developing construction

water surfaces

industries

sleeping districts

rural settlements 70

STUDY AREA: POZNIAKY SLEEPING DISTRICT chronological analysis

1969

2010-2018

In the beginning of 16th century when Ukrainian Orthodox Church was at its revival, the monasteries and churches of Kyiv started to buy or receive as a gift from dukes the forestry lands of left bank of the river. The location of the lands was perfect, just across the Dnipro River directly in front of the monasteries. The peasants that agreed to settle there and work on the lands were free of paying the fines and taxes. That is how Pozniaky village was created.

In the first half of 18th century the lands were divided between 10 Kyiv monasteries. But in 1766 all the Left bank fields were given into a state ownership by the decree of the Russian Empire queen Catherine II. New taxes had to be paid by peasants. The agricultural lands were supposed to be used with economical purpose; however people didn’t want to plant new (at that moment) types of food such as potatoes and sunflower that leaded to the punishments. In 1860 the peasant got freedom and a right for their land, however the taxes were big and the land was not so fertile for economical agriculture that led the villages to degradation.

In 1870 the railroad was constructed in the direction of Kursk and Moscow and in the point of the intersection the industries started to grow. Darnytsia village started to expand due to the growth of workers and new settlement called New Darnytsia was built.

In 1950 Pozniaky industrial area was created near the river. That leaded to the first intervention on the village, the road that links the new industry with Kyiv Kharkiv Street was constructed.

The expansion of residential estates reached the South part of the railroad. In 1967 the factory Burevistnyk was built in Pozniaky industrial area In 1969 construction of the first neighborhood of Pozniaky started. The micro district was for the workers of Burevistnyk factory. At the same time the villages on the North disappeared completely.

In 1989 the construction of Pozniaky residential estate starts.

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1941

1968

2004

2005

2008

2010

2012

2014

2016 72

STUDY AREA: POZNIAKY SLEEPING DISTRICT chronological analysis

Current analysis represents the most evident changes in the area site. The start of the construction was in 1989, and after 2000 the village settlements, roads and lakes started to disappear under the mass of the new districts completely.

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Permanences

...1945

1945-1975

1976-1991

1992-2003

2004-2018

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STUDY AREA: POZNIAKY SLEEPING DISTRICT synchronic analysis

Synchronic analysis of Pozniaky neighborhood shows the most evident permanences from the past. First of all, it is strong presence of original vegetation in the remains of the village areas, especially near water surfaces. Zhandarka, Kachyne and Prirva lakes represent water heritage. Several streets of the village and settlement are still present, however, most of them are disconnected due to the intersection with more modern infrastructure. The present settlement in the village are from 60-80s, although there are completely modern houses as well. The analysis also shows complete neglecting of the context while constructing new neighborhood parts.

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1. What you don’t like in your neighborhood? What would you like to change?

In the neighborhood where my building belongs to I don’t like the lack of green spaces, water and landscape solutions. My building is located in the corner of the district; from the window I see the territory that is the remains of the Poznyaky village. I don’t like that there is a clutter, lack of care about the land. There are many greenery, but completely neglected, mostly thrown up by debris, overgrown with weeds - impenetrable, neglected thickets. First of all, I would like to change the mess to the neatness, well-being. The remnants of green areas make recreational areas where you could walk around and see something interesting (a flower, a plant, a butterfly, a bird), in lakes you can swim or even sit on the grass around them. I would like overgrown grass to be treated accurately, banks of the lakes to be cleaned, benches, trash bins, lights to be designed.

2. What is your opinion about the remains of Poznyaky village and other historical landscape as lakes or vegetation?

Do you consider it as historical value?

I have a positive opinion towards the remains of the village, but I would like them to be a pearl, a heritage, but not a shame of the city. People from the “city” are usually scared to go in that village, because there is no proper roads, lights, the private properties are also messy. People are surviving there, they are not receiving gas, they don’t take out the trash from there (because it’s expensive), that’s why they live there as they can, waiting for resettlement (however they also want a lot of money for their land, because the authorities leads them for self-destruction). I would like them to become a beauty of the city, like in Finland or other Scandinavian countries where the country house are with beautiful fences (not 5 m tall), flowers along the site, well-treated gardens and so on. In the area of your proposal there are A LOT of lakes and plants (so far), but ALL of them are neglected, especially the small ones that are in the village. Authorities erased them from the map and they are planning to fill with sand

and construct new high rise residences. Nobody takes care about big lakes as well. Only maybe one deputy is trying to please the people by cleaning only once the bottom of the lake and constructing a small bridge. I believe that this historical heritage must not be destroyed but preserved, cleaned and improved for the city development, for various leisure time-spending, for keeping the health of the people and esthetical development.

3. Would you like to have fruit or vegetable garden in your neighborhood?

If I had a possibility I would like to have my own garden, but I have back problems, doctors do not allow me to work physically, although I’m used to the gardening since my childhood. I think that a tree garden would like nice in the city, because the trees can be registered in Zelenbud and be accounted. However, the gardens… depend on the plants: potatoes, onions – homeless and gypsies will dig out. I think some berries can be, but probably in the city people will vandalize them green, before the harvest.

Probably it is possible to plant something just for beauty.

When I was living in Urlivska, I was passing by the alley of mulberry; there were a lot of berries. My kids and I were sometimes collecting them; it was very interesting to show some fruit on the tree in the city.

Victoria , 42 years old

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STUDY AREA: POZNIAKY SLEEPING DISTRICT interviews of the apartment residents

1. What you don’t like in your neighborhood? What would you like to change?

I don’t like banality as business. I would like to live in old Kyiv. And not because I’m retrograde, actually I’m quite opposite, it’s because every day Kyiv becomes like “everyone”. Probably it’s comfortable, when in each spot on this planet you can enter familiar McDonalds, however, the loss of peculiarity, diversity, is not an evolutionary aspect of life.

2. What is your opinion about the remains of Poznyaky village and other historical landscape as lakes or vegetation?

Do you consider it as historical value?

I would like to make a statement that the remains of Pozniky village are beautiful and I would like it to be preserved! Unfortunately, they don’t have chances to survive because the mega polis monster wants to eat it… I have true love to the lakes and river, in my neighborhood on each lake I have favorite beaches, just couple of meters long where I can communicate alone, without witnesses, with water, air and planet in general.

3. Would you like to have fruit or vegetable garden in your neighborhood?

YES, I would like to have my garden. Of course, people from the remains of the village plant their gardens. Even residents of Kyiv city are trying. They have trees in the yards between their skyscrapers, they take care of them as they can, chasing young vandals that thoughtlessly can cut of the branch of long age for couple of apricots. City kids are cruel towards everything alive because they communicate with the world through the screen.

Olexandr , 63 years old

1. What you don’t like in your neighborhood? What would you like to change?

For me the main problems are lack of green spaces and parks. This is the first and main issue. After that, I would like to have a hospital closer. Besides, we need multilevel parking at least 5 buildings of 7 floors. Because there is plenty of illegal parking. I would like to change the density of construction. All the buildings are 25 floors tall and the view from the window is a window the neighbor. At least would be good to make the height of buildings different.

Also, I would like already full grown tree to be planted between the new buildings so there are more green spaces.

2. What is your opinion about the remains of Poznyaky village and other historical landscape as lakes or vegetation?

Do you consider it as historical value?

I’m totally in for preserving the lakes; we even had a second day of wedding celebration there, they are gorgeous places that need to be preserved… Because there is lack of green spaces, and people need to have places to rest and enjoy nature. We chose this neighborhood because of the lakes. About the remains of the village as a few building between the new buildings, I think it’s cool to preserve them. It’s sort of the monument of architecture. Kyiv is growing and developing, but you cannot put all houses in one place as denser and higher as possible. I like how they do in Germany, they make parks or even forest park accessible by foot from each neighborhood. But in general, I like my neighborhood because it’s new and full of modern infrastructure in terms of public transportation and shops.

3. Would you like to have fruit or vegetable garden in your neighborhood?

They planted apricot alley in Krushelnytska street. Residents always collect them, children run around eating. I like it. It’s a good idea those fruit tree. But personally, I would not plant a garden. Well, I’m not a fan of this.

Anastasia, 25 years old 77

1. What you don’t like in your neighborhood? What would you like to change?

I’m not satisfied with ecological condition of the neighborhood, air pollution (the dump of ashes in the Harachka lake, Bortnytska plant, waste incinerator), also they bury the small remains of the lakes and try to build on the high-rise buildings (we protect Kachyne lake), this is the destruction of recreational zones against all the norms of urban planning. There is lack of the open, arranged for everyone riverfront along the Dniper (the only district like that in Kyiv), lack of parking (they promised to investors, but they didn’t build them, at least in the neighborhood I live). The schools and kindergartens are full; there are no available out-of-school educational institutions, cultural centers. The district transformed into concrete ghetto with skyscrapers and supermarkets, that’s all.

neighborhood?

I work from the morning till the night, headwork, I don’t have time for the garden. We run away from here to the country house near Kyiv, when it’s warm there are berries and fruits. Here I wouldn’t plant food, due to ecological situation, only flowers. I think in terms of farming here the gardening is problematic due to the ecology of the place, maybe the poultry can be, also the gardening of flowers and decorative trees in order to make the place greener.

Olena, 42 years old

2. What is your opinion about the remains of Poznyaky village and other historical landscape as lakes or vegetation?

Do you consider it as historical value?

I’m totally in for keeping the historical landscape. We bought the apartment here because of several reasons: my reason is the beautiful view of the hills of right banc of Dniper, Vydubychy, Lavra, my ex-husband’s reason was that there is green village nearby and lake. I remember, how in the night we listened to the singing of nightingales and frogs, how I was having a walk with my kids in-between the cherry trees of the village, how we went on holidays to sit there near the fire. The village, cherries and frogs are buried under construction of the neighborhoods. The view from the window will disappear behind new buildings also.

In the city administration they the confirmed to add 10 thousands new residents in a small piece of land near the railroad bridge without sufficient infrastructure, working places, parks and educational and cultural centers. I’m really close to the decision to move out of here, it’s very sad to see this illegal, arbitrary mockery of nature and people.

3. Would you like to have fruit or vegetable garden in your

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STUDY AREA: POZNIAKY SLEEPING DISTRICT social analysis

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STUDY AREA: POZNIAKY SLEEPING DISTRICT people’s perception

While making social and photographic survey, people’s perception analysis was carried out. There are several senses that are based on the interviews and personal feelings.

CLOSENESS Fences in the village part represents social disconnections and lack of trust between neighbors.

CLOSENESS

ENCLOSURE

INSECURITY Random, thick vegetation is growing on the abandoned sites of the villages along the roads, where no lights are provided.

THICKETS Lack of care in some private and abandoned sites in the village due to the poverty and disintegration.

INSECURITY

CONCRETE GHETTO

DISPROPORTION The feeling that solid concrete objects provide near tiny village houses.

ENCLOSURE Feeling of safety and calmness that happens in between rural sites.

CONCRETE GHETTO The slang name active people use to call their neighborhood.

THICKETS

FRUIT TREES PRESENCE

FRUIT TREES PRESENCE People feel presence of rural, productive landscape while walking inside the village.

ISOLATION The cases of the remains of isolated village sites.

DISPROPORTION

ISOLATION

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EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

LAKE COMMUNITIES

YOUNG INITIATIVES

HOUSING COOPERATIVES

ACTIVE APARTMENT RESIDENTS

VILLAGE RESIDENTS

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STUDY AREA: POZNIAKY SLEEPING DISTRICT actors

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS The actors are present schools, kindergartens and libraries.

School N111 has Pozniaky village museum.

LAKE COMMUNITIES There are currently the organized communities that are maintaining the lakes. The first is Kachune lake community that protect small lake from the burring under the sand for the new construction. People from the community organize cleaning and trees planting around the lake. The second is Zhandarka lake community, a bottom-up initiative that are currently developing a public project of a park around the lake. The group organizes cleanings around the lake.

YOUNG INITIATIVES Stakeholders of Urban Agriculture movement that were found in previous analysis such as Misto-Sad and Meconimica.

HOUSING COOPERATIVE Exinsting non-profit legal entity created by the owners of apartments and / or non-residential premises of a multi-apartment building for the joint use, maintenance and management of their home and adjoining territory, as well as for the legal registration of their property rights to the house and adjoining territory.

ACTIVE APARTMENT RESIDENTS People that replied to the interviews and support preservation of historical landscape and participate in Facebook groups of Lake communities.

VILLAGE RESIDENTS Mainly active villagers who are attached to their land, continue to lead rural lifestyle and eager to keep the village.

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6. SWOT

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SPATIAL “I have true love to the lakes and river, in my neighborhood on each lake I have favorite beach, just couple of meters long where I can sit and communicate alone, without witnesses, with water, air and planet in general.”

SOCIAL

ENVIRONMENTAL

ECONOMIC

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SWOT

strengths Presence of rural and natural heritage represented by lakes, vegetation and people keeping rural traditions from the past.

*Picture was given by one of the active apartment residents, who appreciates the landscape of the village.

Presence of active communities and individual activists that would like to preserve and improve natural heritage and stop random, thoughtless, illegal construction.

*Picture from the facebook group of Kachyne lake community cleaning the lake front.

Presence of rather clean lakes and vegetation, along with personal gardens and fruit trees of the people from the remains of the village.

*Picture of Prirva lake taken by photographer.

Self-production of vegetables and in some cases meat, of the residents of the village. Sometimes villagers trade goods to the people from the apartments.

Picture of the husbandry of pani Natalia taken by active apartment resident.

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SPATIAL

SOCIAL “The schools and kindergartens are full; there are no available out-of-school educational institutions, cultural centers. The district transformed into concrete ghetto with skyscrapers and supermarkets, that is all.”

ENVIRONMENTAL

ECONOMIC

88

SWOT

weaknesses Thoughtless, high-rise and dense residential construction with money making purpose that leads to low quality of space in between the buildings as well.

Lack of connections between developers and residents, citizens of apartments and villagers. Lack of cultural and educational activities for kids and adults. Pressure from the authorities on the village residents to sell their land to developers.

Water, soil and air pollution due to the proximity to the industrial areas and car congestion. Pollution from the wastes from Darnytska electrical power plant, low quality of soils in the modern neighborhoods because of sand and remains of construction wastes.

Lack of sales of the food from the husbandry of the villagers to the people from apartments.

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SPATIAL

SOCIAL

ENVIRONMENTAL “I would like to have my garden. I can see from my window the two most peculiar houses that keep farming. Actually, when my younger son Taras fell in love with a girl he gave her as a present a piglet from Natalia, the owner of the farm. “

ECONOMIC

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SWOT

opportunities Interest of urban farming stakeholders in the abandoned spaces of the neighborhood and village. Volunteering planting of trees in between the skyscrapers.

Rise of cultural interest among people, especially among artists (photographers, movie makers) in the peculiar remains of the village within the city. Improvement of the relationship between the neighbors in order to manage green spaces.

Switch from the burning of coal to the burning of gas in Darnytska plant that would lead to stop ash wastes supply in the neighborhood. Increase the possibilities to use the green spaces in the village.

Rise of people, especially young, interested in organic home-made production against supermarket one. Sales between remained farmers and people from apartments.

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SPATIAL “In the city administration they confirmed to add 10 thousands new residents in a small piece of land near the railroad bridge without sufficient infrastructure, working places, parks and educational and cultural centers. I am really close to the decision to move out of here, it is very sad to see this illegal, arbitrary mockery of nature and people.�

SOCIAL

ENVIRONMENTAL

ECONOMIC

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SWOT

threats Total burying of historical landscape and remained green spaces under new construction and car parking. Loss of identity of the neighborhood.

*Picture from the masterplan of Kyiv 2025, showes almost no green spaces of the village remained.

Resettlement of the last villagers due to the cut off gas, water, electricity supply, with possible use of force. Lack of trust and disrespect between neighbors. *The picture was taken froma protest against new construction

Ecological disaster due to the water, soil, air pollution and lack of green spaces, health deterioration of residents of the neighborhood, especially kids due to the power plant ashes. Biodiversity decreases in the remains of the village so it’s impossible to grow food.

Residents are abandoning high-rise buildings in order to run away from congestion. No investments in green infrastructure leads to the deterioration of the neighborhood.

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7. CASE STUDIES

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CASE STUDIES Italia Nostra

The organization Italia Nostra was born in city of Rome, in 1955. A group of artists, historians, urbanists joined with the purpose of defend the artistic heritage and nature preservation of Italy. In the last six decades, this non-profit organization have been collaborating to spread over Italy the Conservation Culture of the Urban and Rural landscape, monuments and the environmental character of towns. The main activities supported by this organization are legislative suggestion about historical heritage and training to promote environmental education.

Nowadays Italia Nostra participates in specific agriculture project, such as “il progetto nazionale Orti Urbani� (National Project Urban Gardens), with the purpose of creating horticulture for the benefit of food in urban and suburban centers and spread the culture of non-standardized and speculative agriculture throughout Italy, taking into consideration the diversity of practices.

Source: http://www.italianostra.org/chi-siamo/i-nostritemi/agricoltura-e-orti-urbani/

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98

CASE STUDIES

Parco della Cave

Parco della Cave is located where was once the abandoned Baggio quarry in the city of Milan, a place that until 1997 was known to have illicit activities. The 10-year construction of the park had the contribution of the organization Italia Nostra, volunteers and associations. The 122 hectares territory of the park is inserted in the west system of parks, known as Parco Agricolo Sud di Milano. The main elements that characterize the park are: the woods and shrubby areas, which develop along the riverbed of ancient fountains and in the abandoned construction areas of the old quarry; the presence of water in lakes and watercourses partly drained and being recovered; the large turf spaces furrowed by cycle and pedestrian paths; an agricultural area still active with the ancient Cascina “Linterno�; and urban gardens that from the original degraded condition are progressively transformed into small gardens. The park has an orchard and the main cultivated species are: Peach, pear, apple, cherry, pomegranate, chestnut and fig.

Source: http://www.comune.milano.it/wps/portal/ist/it/ vivicitta/verde/parchi/parco_cave

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100

CASE STUDIES

Miraflores park Miraflores is an urban park located in the north of Sevilla – Spain. Its history starts in 1983, when the inhabitants of the district of Macarena organized a meeting to discuss about the neighborhood’s problems. The result of this meeting was the foundation of the group called “Miraflores Educational Park Pro Committee”, assuming that the key element to improve their situation was with citizen participation. The main problems found by the organization were: absence of green areas, unhealthiness generated by the deposit of garbage, chaotic urban development that generated a place without identity and lack of social-cultural activities. The citizens elaborated their own design for a park that would seek to attend all their necessities. The construction took 4 years and in the beginning of the 90’s two more projects were created: the Workshop School of Miraflores and the Orchard Program las Moreras.

The Orchard Program provided the park with educational greenhouses, gardens, pedagogical itineraries, allowing the citizens to grow their own vegetables, teaching the children to learn how to cultivate land and establish a close relationship with the natural environment.

Source: http://www.jardinesdesevilla.es/fotoplanojardinessevilla/miraflores/textomiraflores/textomiraflores.html

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8. PROPOSAL

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PROPOSAL

strategy

Main strategical goal is to create new, non-governmental organization that will consist of representatives from each actor groups evaluated in previous analysis. The NGO is an analogue of Italia Nostra, Italian non-profit organization. It should be bottom-up cooperation of active people that would protect and enhance heritage, manage abandoned spaces and involve citizens of Kyiv in participatory activities. The objective of the NGO would be to provide environmental education to the citizens and add value the remained historical and natural landscape through series of projects.

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INTERVENTIONS

MAINTENANCE

PROPOSAL

main strategical actions

“I would the remains of the village to be a pearl, a heritage, but not a shame of the city. I would like to change the mess to the neatness, well-being. The remnants of green areas make recreational areas where you could walk around and see something interesting (a flower, a plant, a butterfly, a bird), in lakes you can swim or even sit on the grass around them. I would like overgrown grass to be treated accurately, banks of the lakes to be cleaned, benches, trash bins, lights to be designed. I believe that this historical heritage must not be destroyed but preserved, cleaned and improved for the city development, for various leisure time-spending, for keeping the health of the people and esthetical development.�

Victoria, 42 years old, active apartment resident, member of the Kachyne lake community

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Green paths Strategic goal of the intervention is to make neighbors work together for the improvement of their neighborhood and participate in the design process. NGO should prepare strategic masterplan of the intervention and present in to different actors in order to have public discussions and add wishes of citizens in the proposal. The next step is to organize crowd-funding from the neighbors and apply for city grants to get additional investments. The implementation should be done by volunteering residents themselves in order to create feeling of belonging to the land they are changing and establish social connections between neighbors.

Educational garden The main goal of the intervention is to create space for kids, where they could get environmental education and to keep it open for public use as well. The main stakeholders should be kindergartens and schools nearby. NGO would create a proposal of the design, involving educational actors in the process and introduce it to the public discussion. Citizens can add their desires and rules of use.

Schools and kindergartens provide the investments for the project along with organized by NGO crowd-funding.

The key role in the project would play also external young initiatives that could provide educational activities and help in design process. The last but not least is the resident of the isolated house that would be asked a assist in gardens management and creation in order to break social isolation.

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PROPOSAL

strategies

Community garden Strategic location of the intervention involves multiple stakeholders in the project. The main ones are the residents of the apartments and villager. The goal is to improve social gap between them with the help of gardening.

After making project proposal by NGO and public discussion, people from the apartments should take initiative to make first maintenance of the village such as clearings of the thickets. The project considers to involve external stakeholders, such as Meconomica ( Kyiv farm) to provide educational activities on the community garden plots along with villagers.

Economical farm The goal of the project is to give financial value to the farming in the neighborhood. Although, the process will require several stages. The key role would play the will of external stakeholders to participate. NGO should involve Kyiv urban agriculture stakeholders in the design process. After public discussion, the residents of the apartment along with villagers would start transforming the place of intervention, firstly, in public fruit garden and gradually adding economical function to the garden, increasing quantity of planted food. The proposal could reach the level of big urban farm that would have various of sectors of production.

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PROPOSAL

masterplan Strategic masterplan shows the main intention which is the maintainence and regeneration of Pozniaky village, integration of the heritage inside the city life and establishing warm social relationship between neighbors. The drawing shows the physical connections provided, stakeholders and the green interventions around the lakes and inside the village areas. The intervention has its style, it is proposed to use red granite paths, with the fruit trees along them in order to connect the isolated parts of the villages and make it visible and unique.

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PROPOSAL

green paths

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PROPOSAL

green paths

“BEFORE” SECTION

The proposal is to provide physical connections between the remains of the rural and natural heritage changing the section of the existing pedestrian ways along with adding new ones. The goal is to plant fruit trees along the paths in order to reunite the heritage islands with the help of productive landscape and to give to each path specific identity. In addition, the concept provides transversal connections in order to improve the space in the neighborhoods.

The paths that connect the apartment blocks with new passages are provided. It is proposed to plant berry bushes and small trees along them. In order to make the landscape more sensual the types of vegetation may vary on the voids between the buildings in correspondence with context lines.

“AFTER” SECTION

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PROPOSAL

educational farm

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PROPOSAL

educational farm The proposal is to create an educational garden with public access near the lonely house remained from the ex-village.

The goal is to create orchards with food plants and flowers along with some urban furniture so people can stay and enjoy. Kids from the kindergarten are going to take care of the vegetation as a part of their daily activities. As it was showed in analysis the neighborhood doesn’t have enough social infrastructure, thus project provides extracurricular activities for kids and adults. Selection of vegetation is provided.

“BEFORE” SECTION

“AFTER” SECTION It is proposed to plant cherry and apple trees to make the landscape diverse in different seasons. The choice of the bushes was made with the goal of protecting the site from the vandals. Dog rose and gooseberry bushes have spines and surve as natural barior.

Cerasus/ cherry tree

Malus/ apple tree SUGGESTED VEGETATION

Rosa canina/ dog rose bush

Ribes uva-crispa/ gooseberry bush 119

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PROPOSAL

community garden

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PROPOSAL

community garden The present work has chosen potential vacant spaces surrounded by a mixture of residential constructions that include village type houses and multi apartment buildings.

The intervention areas are the abandoned sites of the village, where the private housing and gardens took place.

Currently they represent an opportunity for private investors to keep erecting no sense multi-apartment buildings.

Theses vacant spaces have already the background and essence of becoming organized green spaces, because of the existing biodiversity in the place and fruit trees that remained on the site from the past gardens.

The community garden plan represents a mechanism of getting this area of the city in a social interaction context, where the objective is to obtain services from its surroundings. Educational activities are provided to improve social relationship between neighbors (especially between people from high-rise apartment blocks and villager), raising public awareness and evidence the local environmental impact of production of food. In addition, interaction in an economy frame is giving the possibility of renting sites to apartment owners to have valuable personal gardens and create a feeling of the belonging to the land.

“BEFORE” SECTION

“AFTER” SECTION

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PROPOSAL

economical farm

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PROPOSAL

economical farm The proposal is to create a self-sustained farm in the triangular part of the village in order to get economical profit for supporting urban agriculture in the area. The goal is to create several divisions such as: berries, fruits, vegetables, herbs and poultry sectors. The residents of the village and several hired workers will take care of the orchards and sell goods. The intervention requires evolution of the site area with years. It starts from being public fruit and berry garden and ends up as a profitable farm.

EVOLUTION OF THE SITE

“BEFORE” SECTION

“AFTER” SECTION

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8. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Urban Agriculture Europe, by Frank Lohrberg/ Lilli Licka Lionella/ Scazzosi Axel Timpe (eds.)

2. Cities For People, Jan Gehl 3. Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives , Carolyn Steel 4. https://kga.gov.ua/generalnij-plan 5. http://businessviews.com.ua/ru/the-infographics-report-ukrainian-agribusiness/ 6. http://www.italianostra.org/ 7. http://www.jardinesdesevilla.es/fotoplanojardinessevilla/miraflores/textomiraflores/textomiraflores.html 8. http://meconomica.com/ 9. http://misto-sad.com.ua/ 10. http://dreamkyiv.com/2016/04/zhyvyj-prostir/ 11. http://proudofukraine.com/agriculture-in-ukraine/ 12. http://www.parcodellecave.it/ 13. https://modernfarmer.com/2014/06/ukraines-record-local-foods-movement/ 14. https://gloss.ua/lifestyle/121044-starye-poznyaki-i-troeshchina-kak-vyglyadel-levyy-bereg-kieva-50-let-nazad 15. http://www.forestfarm.com.ua/ 16. http://www.zhytniy-rynok.kiev.ua/ 17. http://svoesvije.com.ua/uk/delivery 18. http://www.etomesto.ru/map-ukraine_kiev_gs-500m/ 19. http://dreamkyiv.com/2016/05/gyd-po-mykrorajonam-kyeva/ 20. https://www.interesniy.kiev.ua/drevniy-drevniy-levyiy-bereg/ 130

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I would like to thank my tutor Paola Branduini, for introducing me with passion and deep knowledge the topic I worked on. I was lucky to get tutor that shares my vision on the gap between architects and society.

I want to thank my amazing friends, that I got during this two years of masters, especially Linda, Lucia, Svetlana, Isabela and Raphaela. Carlos, I know you are reading this, thank you for you moral support and making my life much more adventurous, you are the best.

Thanks for last minute help to Nora, Afsun, Frida and Ali. I’m grateful to the beautiful people from the Pozniaky neighborhood that gave me so much useful interviews and supported my work with advice.

I would like to mention Maxim, my Ukrainian best friend, who went to take pictures for me to understand the site. And many thanks to Volodymyr Chepel and Margo Didichenko for giving me professional pictures and showed intrest in the topic.

I would like to thank my family, just for the fact of having them in my life. Thanks, mom. I would like to thank my uncle, who made huge contribution for me being here, I will always remember you.

The last, but not least person I want to thank is my father, who, unfortunately, will never read this book, but you are always in my heart, love you, dad.

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