Baku, azerbaijan
june 2014
LOM RANCiSCO CO A COMiC BY F
the voyage of geminin!
...discovering the superpowers of baku’s coastline
The voyage of Geminin Baku, Azerbaijan. June 2014. Author: Francisco Colom Jover Contact: francisco.colomjover@gmail.com
About This comic is part of the project The Voyage of Geminin by Francisco Colom. Its aim is to tell and show the discoveries that were found during the analysis of Baku’s coastline, while introducing the proposal to which this will lead. The story allows us to discover the singularities of the Azerbaijani landscape that make this territory truly unique. Along with Anar, the castaway of the coastline, we will visit those strange, extraordinary, outgoing, authentic and absolutely sincere places that have remained hidden until now. These secret treasures have huge potential to become the main actors of a sustainable tourism infrastructure for Baku’s coastline.
? why a comic “We recognize a split between architecture and the rest of the world by observing how architects only talk to each other, and we set out to change that. We take fun very seriously and strive to be audacious enough to ignite imaginations. Communication is omnipresent, and good communication helps great ideas change the world. Architecture can be more interesting, more fun and more social.” blank space platform
The superpowers of Baku’s coastline remain asleep. They are waiting for a superhero that wakes them up…
Somewhere in the world between Europe and Asia... A PLACE that over the centuries many would term as the Land of FirE...
yanardag...
A ZERBAIJAN!
ateshgah...
Burning mountains fed by the gas that filters through its cracks from inside the Earth... From its bowels would be born Zoroastrianism, the belief in Fire. Its strategic position would turn it into an essential crossing point of the ancient Silk Road, where its carpets would enjoy the greatest prestige... Thus, the visitors would provide the city with a cultural legacy responsible for sculpting the way of living of its inhabitants.
ipak yolu...
Baku is the capital of this kingdom.
Today the image of the city is changing very fast... The economic benefits of the oil and gas industry are being invested in mega projects aimed at putting this place on the world map.
Skyscrapers, artificial islands, futuristic buildings, luxury hotels...
The ambition of the country seems to have no limits... 5
BAKu. september 2013.
A couple of months ago he had decided to return home and things were going well. He had not had problems finding a job in construction...
Anar was deep in thought. He wondered why he was so worried and restless lately...
He should thank God for being able to participate in the project of the new artificial island in the Caspian Sea.
However, all that was too familiar to him. When the global crisis hit the United Arab Emirates, the megaprojects were paralyzed and he had lost his job in Dubai. The experiment had stopped working there‌
artificial islands, dubai Would not his people now be making the same mistake...?
khazar islands site, baku
Would not they know the consequences that all that had had 2000 kilometers away...? 6
The next day at dawn, he went back to work...
Nobody seemed to care much about the consequences that following Dubai may have…
He had promised himself he would not worry. In any case, changing things was not in his power.
HOWEVER...
sometimes we cannot face our destiny... The bulldozer hit Anar in the head…
!
! h s a spl
…sending him to the bottom of the sea. 7
7 dAYS LATER...
He awoke disoriented, where the hell WAS HE?
Dehydrated, limp and near death... Anar arrived to a deserted island. Man of faith, he put his trust in God, the only one who had never ABANDONED him.
Soon he would learn how to survive.
A
ersic p r e s cipen
us
The Persian sturgeon and the herring from the Caspian Sea will mean a great energy contribution. He was surviving. But days and nights were getting longer and longer...
8
…and nervous and expectant, unfolded it…
Suddenly, one day, anar found the scroll... a map!!
...and finally decided to explore it!
A mysterious inscription on the edge caught his attention…
What the hell was that...? he felt better when he recognized where he was. He had heard about Zira Island...
9
WEEK 1 E COASTLINE... EXPLORING TH
ZIRA ISLAND!
SU PER PO W ER # 01
THE SHIP GRAVEYARD! SU PER PO W ER # 02
10
At the heart of Zira he found ruins of buildings. Because of its strategic location, the island had served as a prison during the World War I and II.
In the north a nice feeling surprised him when he reached Zira’s Lighthouse.
He kept going. Based on its steps, the island should be about 3 kilometers long, with an extremely irregular width.
The rusted plaque said that the lighthouse had been guiding ships at its entrance to the bay since 1884. Anar had the feeling that the place should not have changed much since then... Upon reaching the highest point of the island he found an extremely beautiful scenery. It was the first time he enjoyed such a feeling of fullness...
But his rest could not last long. Suddenly, he spotted something in the distance, at the shore...
? What the hell was that? Who had left there that pile of junk...? 11
He could not believe his eyes... B o ats ! H e w a s s a f e !
!! But the joy was gone when approaching... The vessels seemed to have been abandoned for centuries and now were slowly disintegrating in the water of the Caspian Sea. He was in front of a Ship Graveyard...
While monuments are normally well taken care of and protected, those that are rundown are often much more interesting‌
He thought that all that should have very negative environmental consequences. On the other hand, it generated a surreal landscape that seemed to come from another world. He could feel the ships slowly accepting defeat. It was spooky and tremendously exciting... At dusk, the semi-sunken ships narrated thousand adventure stories about that place... why no one paid attention to that magnificent scene?
But the adventure had only just begun... 12
WEEK 2 E COASTLINE... EXPLORING TH
JACK-UP RIGS! SU PER PO W ER # 0 3
THE JAMES BOND AREA! SU PER PO W ER # 0 4
13
He was shocked to reach the shore and discover the excessive jack-up rigs facing him.
After hours of journey, Anar spotted something in the distance. It seemed like huge‌ metallic monsters!!!???
That kind of oil infrastructure was used in waters less than 100 meters deep. They were about 200 meters from the beach and connected to this by a wooden platform. It was the most radical scene he had ever seen. Anar thought they had a huge potential to become something else...
In summer the locals shared bath with those unusual guests. Somehow, the platforms had been accepted as part of the landscape. 14
Slender conical iron skeletons dotted the landscape...
…in and out of the water.
The aesthetics of this area was defined by the unique rigs and pumpjacks.
It was a huge oil extraction field only two kilometers far from the center of Baku. Day and night, they keep moving...
A movie set. In 1999 the place had shared the stage with James Bond in the filming of “The World Is Not Enough”.
Dramatic, violent, distressing ... and beautiful.
The ambition of the country offers no rest… 15
EEK 3 COASTLINE... W E TH G N I R LO EXP
THE SUNKEN CASTLE! SU PER PO W E R # 05
THE (lost) BATH HOUSES! SU PER PO W E R # 06
16
He dived for hours looking for a clue to the existence of the Castle.
And when he had almost given up hope ... There!! Finally he recognized it in the distance! The Sunken Castle was just 300 meters from mainland and seemed surrounded by an aura of secrets, legends and riddles... It had been built in 1232 to protect the city and later used as a fire worshipper temple. The castle had sunk in 1306 due to the earthquake that hit the city. He pictured it in its glory days, reigning over sea level...
In days of low tide the top of the Castle could be seen from the city. The rest of the time, the relic remained asleep under water...
He estimated that it was about 180 meters long and at least 40 meters wide. He was especially surprised by the thickness of the walls, nearly 3 meters!
17
He arrived at the exact spot marked on the map. Disappointment... there were only traces of the wooden walkway structure... The Bath Houses!!?? Had they disappeared!!??
He would soon find an answer: the baths had been dismantled during the Soviet period when water pollution caused the bathing conditions became harmful to health.
The Bath Houses had been built in 1920 to provide the opportunity to swim and socialize without having to go to the distant northern beaches.
A feeling of anger caught him. Before returning to the map, he swore to himself that he would give back to that place what belonged to it.
The Bath Houses and Hamams had been responsible for defining the Azeri society and culture, where water is a main element. They were key to understanding the historical relationship between the sea, the city and its citizens... 18
EEK 4 COASTLINE... W E TH G N I R LO EXP
THE OIL rocks! SU PER PO W ER # 0 7
THE PIPEBEACH! SU PER PO W ER # 0 8
19
Somewhere in the Caspian Sea... Anar found the amazing Oil Rocks, a city of 2000 inhabitants... Amid the sea!
!! i i r r a l a l s s a a D NNeefftt D
!!
The settlement had been built in 1949 after oil was discovered 1,000 meters deep. It was the first offshore oil platform in the world.
A system of steel and wooden platforms dependent of a foundation based on waste branched along the site.
Its total length was over 300 kilometers!
Nine-storey buildings, cultural facilities, supermarkets, bakeries, installation of potable water or a landing pad for air traffic ... The place was surprisingly well equipped. He stayed shocked after watching the place. A productive and industrialized sea. The man was an animal capable of anything‌
20
Finally he reached the shore. And he found the most strange picture: three huge gas pipelines crossed the beach resting in the sand‌
That was not very common for a beach... The pipes were joined by huge red plastic floats. Anar understood that they were in charge of raising the pipes and prevent them from sinking at high tide.
He found that in winter the fishermen lived with this strange fellow‌
While in summer bathers had to overcome the pipes to access to the water... And the floats were conquered by children.
He walked away to watch the scene from afar. His eyes failed to see where the pipes ended but they had at least several kilometers. Anar thought that place was grotesque, eccentric, bizarre... and extremely unique.
21
WEEK 5 E COASTLINE... EXPLORING TH
THE ABANDONED SKELETONS! SU PER PO W ER # 09
THE ABSHERON PARK! SU PER PO W E R # 1 0
22
Anar got to work and soon found the First skeleton: an abandoned steel and concrete structure which was completely surrounded by water.
He learnt that years ago due to the rise in sea level many bars and restaurants in the beaches had to be moved behind, leaving their nude structures in the water‌ Today the skeletons are part of the beaches and in summer they live together with the bathers, who found in them new leisure and sports uses...
The skeletons have become a characteristic element of the landscape, adding heterogeneity to the beaches and turning into icons.
It seemed very interesting for Anar to think about occupying those structures in order to reactivate the beaches‌ 23
He arrived shortly before dawn, on time to enjoy the most exciting sunrise that he had witnessed ever before‌
The site consisted of 783 hectares of the largest natural monument near Baku.
That land had such a special color...
It is said that the purest water and cleanest air of the Caucasus is here.
Anar discovered that the territory was inhabited by very diverse flora and fauna... ad i flaminqo
bo y u k a gn a z tulku xa z a r s ui t i si ikis u nbul aciliq ‌and found in his electric poles the essence of the Azerbaijani landscape.
xird acicakli tayaotu
It seemed a paradise compared to the contaminated areas that he had been sailing.
He thought he could count on the place to activate the territory. An attraction for ecotourism lovers could be a very powerful ally... 24
WEEK 6 E COASTLINE... EXPLORING TH
THE NORTHERN BEACHES! SU PER PO W ER # 11
THE GAS PIPES! SU PER PO W ER # 12
25
anar arrived to the first beach, where only the metal structures of forgotten umbrellas were waiting for him. The place was deserted...
They talked about how those same beaches had been crowded only a few months ago...
Walking, he reached the second beach where the locals were riding their horses... he had finally found humanity in the North!
…there was a brutal contrast between winter and summer. The contamination of the beaches caught his attention: the place was crowded with waste... mmmm.... That’s why the Forbes magazine points northern Baku as the dirtiest place in the world...
Nobody cared about the beaches until shortly before summer, when they were ‘made up’ for the arrival of swimmers ... He thought about the environmental and economic consequences that this summer / winter cycle should have...
He said goodbye the only courageous he had found swimming during the whole day, put on his hood and continued to the next point...
26
he had to venture a few meters inland to find the next singularity. It was not a specific point but a continuous linear element that traveled throughout the coast...
They rise, fall, fold, disappear and reappear‌ The gas is carried from place to place avoiding roads, housing, barriers... ...and it always does above ground.
Those yellow gas pipes were the protagonist of the landscape seen from the road.
Besides the economic benefits, the conversion of the carrier gas infrastructure in a visible element involves the birth of a strange landscape dominated by continuous yellow lines. They serve as visual references in the landscape and the locals have already adopted them as intrinsic elements of the place. Sometimes the pipe movement seemed to respond to their environment, as if they were lifted to frame a particularly admirable scene... 27
WEEK 7 E COASTLINE... TH G N I R LO P X E
THE THEME PARKS! SU PER PO W ER # 13
THE OIL PLATFORMS! SU PER PO W E R # 1 4
28
Very close to the beach Anar found the poster. There was one of the old amusement parks…
The place was abandoned. However, the attractions had not been dismantled and were still standing there.
The vegetation was slowly conquering them and stealing the prominence that they had once had. Thus a very special connection between ‘dead’ and alive was generated.
The set transmitted an almost devilish ghostly sensation that inspired Anar feelings of nostalgia and fear.
The parks were part of the childhood of several Azeri generations.
Anar thought that it would be very beautiful to rethink those places in order to return their lost prominence to those structures…
29
Anar continued his journey and soon spotted the last point marked on the map...
It was not new to him. During the last weeks he had seen these structures in the distance many times, always waiting for the correct time to conquer them.
The history of Baku has been strongly linked to the oil and gas industry and the development of the city depends on the economical profits coming from there. This is represented by the huge oil platforms. As he walked away Anar thought how he could bring those elements closer to the citizens and visitors of the country that they fed...
The platforms are an essential part of the Caspian landscape and a common element in the imaginary of Bakuvians, who are used to see them from the distance.
Today it is not possible to visit any of them due to strong security measures. 30
M EETI NG...
f o e s the wi e ! n i l t s a o c the
He checked again that this was the last point shown on the map. Apparently, the trip had come to an end.
He was exhausted. However, he had no desire to regain his previous life‌
It was the most wonderful trip I had ever dreamed of...
...During the last months he had fallen in love with that place and felt that he wanted to stay there forever, rediscovering it again and again. He felt upset to think that the mission was over. There had to be something he could do... But what?
Young man, your journey is not over.
Two locals passing by stopped in front of him to offer a clue...
31
You must find the wise of the coastline, he will tell you how to go on.
Before Anar could answer, the men went their way...
He had no idea who the wise of the coastline was, or where to find him.
waaaaait...
However, everything was easier than he expected... Someone caught his eye in the distance... I was waiting for you…
Looks like a fisherman, but there haven’t been any fishes in this water for a long time…
did you bring the map? …How the hell does he know that I have a map...?
My son, I myself drew that map many years ago. I am glad that you found it.
32
Your mission is not over. You have had the fortune to discover the treasures of this place, but you must know that this territory is now being threatened.
Man wants to make important changes. However, the singularities that you have discovered do not fit into their plans. The superpowers are in danger.
You will show the world what you have seen. You and Geminin must help the citizens and visitors of Baku to discover the treasures of this place.
But‌ Who on earth is Geminin?
We must show the way and make them enjoy the journey as much as you have done. It will be the most exciting experience of their lives. Then, they will be our best allies. They will go home and tell their friends what they have seen. Soon the news will expand, and this place will be safe.
Geminin is my boat... Although being such a blockhead you may think it is your work... He has been my contribution from the beginning. I had to make sure that you would reach the end...
33
And what the hell does he want me to do‌?
There is no time to lose. The only chance to save this place is in your hands. Get busy. And may God have mercy on your soul...
Although he could not entirely believe what was happening, Anar decided to follow the orders of that wise man and continued working on the boat...
34
35
Once it was ready, Geminin began to sail the Caspian Sea. It would explore the coast again and again, showing local and foreign guests all those treasures that for so long had been asleep...
36
37
CHANGING OUR SURROUNDINGS INTO RESOURCES IF WE RETURN TO OUR EVERYDAY ARCHITECTURAL LIFE, ARCHITECTURAL MAGAZINES AND UNIVERSITY TEXTBOOKS ARE FILLED WITH FAMOUS WORKS-EAST AND WEST, OLD AND NEW. SPECIALISTS, SUCH AS PRACTITIONERS AND CRITICS FIND THEIR CRITERIA BY LOOKING AT OVERSEAS EXAMPLES. THIS IS CORRECT AND NECESSARY, BUT THE VALUES WOVEN BY THIS SITUATION JUDGE THIS CITY AS CONSUMED BY A DISGUSTING LANDSCAPE. BUT, IF OUR FOOTSTEPS ARE ACTUALLY EMBEDDED IN SUCH A PITIFUL URBAN LANSCAPE, THE IDEA OF USING FAMOUS ARCHITECTURE AS A CRITERIA BASE SEEMS TO BE JUST AN ATTEMPT TO EXPRESS GOOD TASTE. PHOTOGRAPHIC BOOKS AMPLIFY A DESIRE FOR AN ARCHITECTURE WHICH SIMPLY CAN’T BE FOUND IN OUR SURROUNDINGS. IN SUCH A SITUATION, THEN SUDDENLY ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN HOLDS NO INTEREST ANYMORE; THE FUTURE APPEARS DEPRESSING. IF WE CAN’T TRY TO TURN ‘DISGUSTING’ SITUATIONS INTO RESOURCES, THEN THERE IS NO REASON TO PARTICULARLY STAY IN BAKU. SURELY WE CAN START TO THINK ABOUT HOW TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEM, RATHER THAN TRYING TO RUN AWAY. SHAMELESSNESS CAN BECOME USEFUL. SO LET’S START BY CONSIDERING THAT THESE SHAMELESS SITUATIONS ARE NOT COLLAPSIBLE INTO THE CONCEPT OF CHAOS, BUT ARE IN FACT AN INTRICATE REPORTING OF THE CONCRETE URBAN SITUATION. ADAPTED FROM THE BOOK “MADE IN TOKYO” (atelier bow-wow)
SPECIAL THANKS TO: Principal characters ANAR / José Antonio Carrillo the wise of the COASTLINE / Joaquín Alvado Secondary characters Local 1 / J.a. Sánchez - pencho local 2 / Pablo Martí
TO BE CONTINUED...
IF WE CAN’T TRY TO TURN ‘DISGUSTING’ SITUATIONS INTO RESOURCES, THEN THERE IS NO REASON TO PARTICULARLY STAY IN BAKU. SURELY WE CAN START TO THINK ABOUT HOW TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEM, RATHER THAN TRYING TO RUN AWAY. SHAMELESSNESS CAN BECOME USEFUL. SO LET’S START BY CONSIDERING THAT THESE SHAMELESS SITUATIONS ARE NOT COLLAPSIBLE INTO THE CONCEPT OF CHAOS, BUT ARE IN FACT AN INTRICATE REPORTING OF THE CONCRETE URBAN SITUATION. ADAPTED FROM THE BOOK “MADE IN TOKYO” (ATELier bow-wow)
Baku, azerbaijan
june 2014