Maydan Survey by buro-o

MAIDAN SURVEY WINTER 2014

Correspondence 15th January to 26th February

view of what’s going on. We would also like to draw all possible devices that are used for the A hey guys, how are you? Is Kiev demonstrations and make a book as bad as we see in the infos ? it out of this. Seeing your beautiful looks quite scary hope you are ok. diagrammatic drawings we also Ø Thank you, all of us is fine. think that this is something you It’s true the situation is very could do with us. complicated. If you came here now Ø In ideal way—we need to find you don’t recognize city center! real authentic stolen from cops It’s a battlefield. shields. That guys have it on Each day we are there, a lot of “Maydan”, but I don’t belive they people there! And I hope we have give it to us a lot. One, maybe few a chance to change situation. In in maximum (because this is not another way we should think about the end of protest). We need to emigration. ask. Ø If you know we have 5 dead for A Any possibility to buy them? now, 2 of them shooted. All west Ø Tomorrow we try to call to the Ukraine rise against. All East part military factory. But could be that sitting quiet, they frightened. the possibility to buy it have only There are very strong influence of goverment organization or some goverment and russian. other restrictions. Tomorrow we A I hope you are doing fine. I just will check it. wrote a message to Sergey on FB Ø Hi! Civilian couldn’t buy shields concerning an exhibition that we on factory. We have only one way have been invited to participate. to renting shields from Maydan. It’s a show called “Orientations, But before I ask there we should Young Swiss Architects” and it know how many we need. will present a new generation of I think a van could work. One shield architectural practices. 6 offices is 1000×590 mm mass is <= 4kg have been invited – we are one of Ø Quite a lot. I will ask on the them. We are seriously thinking Maydan. about doing something about Ø So I was on Maydan till now, and what’s happening in Kiev and that the results of today: how “spontaneous” architecture – I was talked with the chief of emerges and is built in this sort “Samooborona” (local defense of conflictive event. We want to of Maydan), and the deputy of build a sort of a tent made out of commandant of Maydan. So they the typical shields that the berkut both think they could give us 20 are using for the demonstrations. shields, result will be today after Inside the tent there would be a 23:00, after meeting with the film with interviews of Ukrainian commandant. people that have lived the events. – Interviews. After today I have We would love to work with you some news, according to situation guys for this to make interviews in Ukraine, when government send of the demonstrators inside the in jail for 15 years a man who has tents of Kiev and to have a better few car tires in his trunk. Nobody

knows what happen tomorrow. So not a lot people want to tell on camera that they build barricades or catapult, and I understand them. People afraid questions like “How many people were involved in the building?, What materials were used for the building? Where did you obtain them ?”. So now the mood on Maydan os not so good for free talking. But we will try to make maximum possible interviews in our deadlines. Ø It’s ok, about shields. Deputy of commandant, she tell me today that the groups of “local defense of Maydan” don’t happy to give they “captured” “berkut” shields. Today she will try to push on the leaders of “local defense”, and after 23:00 she could tell me the result. Thats news. Ø Thank you for the letter. She on the meeting now (from 21:00) but I send to her SMS about your letter and how it’s important for us. But I really worried about this idea with shields, because now every body think that the police will attack Maydan in monday, nobody knows how it will. I hope we will get it. This girl Deputy Commandant, she is quite adequate, she know about Museum of Basel and I realy hope she help us. Unfortunately I can’t be on this kind of meeting. Ø This girl, she don’t answer me. In half a hour I will call again. I called to the metall diller company they told me for the list of aluminium 1200×4000 thickness 6mm (for 8 shields) price will be 8720 hrn (across 1000 dollars). It’s without cutting in pieces. Ø Today is very important day, activation of the protests. All shield in use.

Ø I was talking with Deputy of commandant. Bad news. We can’t get shields. All police shields in the Ukraine is own to the government. Any transportation even in Ukraine —criminal crime. And from Ukraine too. Even if we get the official letter from Museum and then try to move shields from Maydan we will be out of the law. Because previous owner was not legal. (shields stolen from “berkut” so...) That’s the situation. Ø Military suppliers sell it only for police’s and army structures not for civil using. If it was possible then all protesters was used them. I was phoned on that factory last week. Lets look on the copies. Ø it’s now. I go Ø yes i’m only from there more than 200 wounded few dead maydan surrounded now I’m hardly came in office Ø maybe tomorrow maydan will be cleaned Ø about 10 armored troop-carrier cops have fire gun weapon Ø we was there —running from cops Ø it’s online, journalist between maydan troops and cops yes thanks I’m fine we try to rest and go Ø just now 10 dead shot in head by snipers Ø Sorry “They don’t give it— this shields save their lives”

Майдан Незалежності

Щіти Самооборони

Катапульта Правого сектору

Таран на Інститутській

Турнік Самооборони

Баліста “Пугач”

“Картофелестрел”

Загородження

“Тітушкомет” на Інстітутській

Відсувне загородження

Тимчасовий тент

Катапульта №1

Стіл - резерв шин

Катапульти Правого сектору

Місце обігріву

Фрагмент барикади з прапором

Тент з бочкою

Флагшток

Місце обігріву - Калуш

Вежа на Міхайлівській барикаді

Накривка з піччю

Автобус “Беркуту” на Грушевського

“Вінницький Курінь”

Юрта Романа та Василя

Їдальня

Барикада на Інститутський до штурму

Інформаційний екран для “Беркуту”

Протипіхотні їжаки

Фрагмент барикади на Майдані

Вежа на Інстітутській

Нижня Інститутська барикада після штурму

Верхня Інститутська барикада

“Казарми”

Барікада Хрещатик

Index fig. 1 Plan fig. 2 Elevation 0 Maidan Square 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

“Міхайлівська Січ”

Self Defense shields Right sector catapult Institutska battering ram Self Defense pull-up bar Ballista pop gun Potato gun Roadblock Institutska Titushkomet Movable barricade Temporary tent Catapult number 1 Table and tire stock Right sector catapult Sitting area with heating Barricade with flag Tent with fire barrel Flagpole City of Kalush tent of warmth Mihaylivska barricade watchtower Tent with furnace Hrushevskoho Berkut bus with piano Vinnitsa hovel Yurt of Roman and Vasil Eatery Institutska Barricade before assault Cinema display for the Berkut Roadblock for the infantry Fragment of Maidan barricade Institutska Watchtower Institutska first line barricade after first assault Institutska second line barricade Barracks Khreschatyk Barricade Mihaylivska Sich From modernity to tradition

It is now more than 20 years since Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas published the definitive version of his theory of Bigness. This eulogy to Bigness has since become a classic work, allowing an understanding of both the end of the Modern era—from Mies van der Rohe to Le Corbusier—and the dawn of vast projects bearing the names of a few major figures, including Rem Koolhaas himself. “Beyond a critical mass,” Koolhaas explains, “each structure becomes a monument, or at least raises that expectation through its size alone.” This “Bigness”—a popular trope among fin-de-siècle architects – is based on several core principles: the liberating power of elevators, the autonomy of different parts of a new building, a clear separation between indoors and outdoors and, most importantly of all, the fact that “Bigness is no longer part of any urban tissue”. It sticks two fingers up to context. Over the space of 20 years, Bigness has become a mainstay of the landscape, from vast Olympic projects to Asian skyscrapers in cities such as Dubai and Shanghai. It is now up to the new generation of architects to criticise and rethink this trend, while proposing a new professional code and different ethics. The recent financial and property crisis has led to the emergence of new social movements. In short, the game has changed. These movements initiate a discourse at a grassroots level, focusing on the needs of those for whom Bigness is simply out of reach. Across the globe, public squares play host to demonstrations that attract hundreds of thousands of citizens over several days. Irrespective of their temperament— indignant, angry or peaceful—these vast crowds create a new type of horizontal Bigness that is taking over large squares in some of the world’s major cities. In Paris, the Bastille was a monumental prison that symbolised the excesses of power. Once it was demolished, the site became a square synonymous with the Revolution. Thus, Istanbul’s Taksim

Square, Cairo’s Tahir Square, Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, New York’s Zuccotti Park and Kiev’s Maidan describe a superlative, a levelled-out Bigness. All of these squares have one thing in common: they have become symbols of people power, where vast crowds gather temporarily for a few days. They are what Hakim Bey calls “TAZs” (Temporary Autonomous Zones). These TAZs poke fun at Big Business, forming assemblies, committees, security personnel and conscience groups to invent new ways of dismantling the structures and architectures of power. In Kiev, the square is known as Maidan (literally, “square”). Although it is now officially known as “Independence Square”, Ukrainians are aware that it has changed its name five times in the last century. In Maidan, where 15,000 people are camped, there is a need to organise the exorbitant disorder and to establish spaces, pathways and boundaries. In short, the protesters need to create their own autonomous zone architecture. In this case, however, the structure is no longer what the Modernists referred to as a “human settlement”. Instead it is a temporary installation, an emergency shelter with a unique function (kitchen, bathroom, library, hospital, place of worship) but also a shared function: a refuge against the bitter cold and snow of the Ukrainian winter. Occupied public squares have clearly defined boundaries: the limits of the autonomous zone mark the boundaries of the area controlled by the Power against which the protesters are demonstrating. In the streets that lead to these squares, the State installs security forces and hardware as a symbol of its power. These military and paramilitary personnel, protected in their trucks and barracks, defend their own zone, separated from the protesters by a no-man’s-land or a barricade. The term “barricade” comes from the French word “barrique” (barrel), since these barricades were once made by

rolling and stacking barrels to create a protective shield. These days, the barrels have been replaced by tyres, which are easy to roll, or by street furniture uprooted from areas where it hinders free movement through re-captured public spaces. In some cases, cars or even piles of television sets are used to create an obstacle. For centuries, barricades have come to symbolise a desire to regain lost freedom. They are a symbol of defiance against Bigness, against grandiloquence —a rallying cry for the power of what we might call “Smallness”. These barricades, bearing flags or draped with banners, mark the boundary of the autonomous zone. In Kiev, after months of resistance, another object has come to symbolise the resistance movement at the Maidan: the Roman shield or scutum. Initially used sparingly as a symbol of war, it has since been deployed on a massive scale. Unlike the shields used by the Teutonic Knights or Samurais, the scutum was a piece of curved, stretched hide designed to protect the full length of the legionnaire’s body. As such, a standard size was adopted: 130 × 67 cm. It is described at length in accounts of battles by Dio Cassius, but the most impressive account is that provided by Plutarch in his Lives of Illustrious Men, in a description of a battle between the Romans and the Barbarians: “For they thought they were riding up for plunder and booty, not battle, and when they encountered many missiles and saw that the Romans were fresh and vigorous and eager for the fray, they were once more tired of the struggle. However, as the Romans were descending some steep hills, the Parthians attacked them and shot at them as they slowly moved along. Then the shield-bearers wheeled about, enclosing the lighter armed troops within their ranks, while they themselves dropped on one knee and held their shields out before them. The second rank held their shields out over the heads of the first, and the next rank likewise. The resulting appearance is very like that

of a roof, affords a striking spectacle, and is the most effective of protections against arrows, which glide off from it. The Parthians, however, thinking that the Romans dropping on one knee was a sign of fatigue and exhaustion, laid aside their bows, grasped their spears by the middle and came to close quarters. But the Romans, with a full battle cry, suddenly sprang up, and thrusting with their javelins slew the foremost of the Parthians and put all the rest to rout.” When this military formation—known as the “tortoise” formation—descends a hill, it appears like the tiers of a theatre or a pleated shell. In Kiev, these shields are used not only by the government forces, but also by the Maidan security personnel. Despite their size (100 × 59 cm)—slightly smaller than the Roman scutum—the resulting tortoise formation is the same. The tortoise acts as a moving barricade, a sort of mobile front line. It marks the boundary of the zone and is able to retreat in an orderly manner or advance and re-capture the surrounding streets. In this case, the occupation of public space is not an urban theory concept. Instead it is a reality playing out on a resolutely human scale. It is an inverted form of Bigness, suited to the professional approach of the new generation of architects. These new architects are rolling their sleeves up and getting really stuck in. Give them a shield, a shelter or a barricade and they will create a small project out of it, the manifesto for how architecture will be in years to come.

MAIDAN SURVEY, WINTER 2014 A Project by

BUREAU A, Leopold Banchini & Daniel Zamarbide (CH) with BURØ, Sergey Ferley (UA) Published on the occasion of the exhibition ORIENTATIONS. YOUNG SWISS ARCHITECTS 23th March – 4th Mai 2014 at the Swiss Architecture Museum, Basel

Correspondence Sergey Ferley Text Daniel de Roulet Translations Simon Thomas Drawings Manon Fantini, Leopold Banchini Photography Sergey Ferley Design NORM, Zurich Typeface Replica Printed by Druckerei Nicolussi, Zurich

BUREAU A / BURØ, Shield, Aluminium, 100×60×10cm, 2014 Backcover

BUREAU A / BURØ From Modernity to Tradition Project for S AM, Basel, 2014

Від сучасності до традиції