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Table of content
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TOPIC 2018
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RADIUS OF INVESTIGATION. objectives and format
10 learning. SOCIOLOGICAL
INVESTIGATION
14 learning.
HISTORICAL INVESTIGATION
20 learning.
INVESTIGATION
SPATIAL
24 first
ideas DURING learning PROCESS
28 CONCLUSIONS
OF THE learning PROCESS and INVESTIGATION TASKS
TOPIC 2018
PROMPRYLAD DISTRICT. POST-INDUSTRIAL IN POST-SOCIALISTIC
Background
For 100 years the Promprylad Plant was a significant part of the city in all its meanings: spatial, social, economic. Currently, Promprylad is in a state of active changes: most of the area has already been transformed into housing, one of the premises bought out by an IT company, the other by the university, some of them became an unfinished shopping centre, smaller premises are actively occupied by various tenants such as masters, music studios, offices shops, and, from now on, by a pilot project “Promprylad. Renovation”. The project “Promprylad.Renovation” can be seen as a new working “change” at a plant that seeks to bring back its primary significance, but in the context of the modern industry. The purpose of the project is: to dynamically build up the district through the development of the creative potential of the city. But it is known that changes (even positive ones) always include fear of the new and unknown future, especially when it is not clear to everyone what the outcome will be and how exactly they will work. With this background and on the basis of previous investigation, MetaLab has identified several tasks within the first laboratory.
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Metalab
As part of the project “Promprylad. Renovation”, MetaLab aims to examine the changes caused by the project from different viewpoints and consider possible scenarios of its future impact on the district, local residents, current, past, and future users of Promprylad. This is about the monitoring of the development of the project “Promprylad. Renovation” and ensuring of its urban function, which MetaLab represents. So, first of all, the relationship between plant and district are in the centre of our attention: earlier both of them were a kind of gap in the project. So we decided to figure out how Promprylad and the nearby district are related, how do they affect each other, what are the expectations of each other, what are the opportunities for interaction? MetaLab, as an urban platform and as a “cohabiter” of Promprylad and district, plans to develop cooperation and good neighbourly relations with the local community. We believe that interaction with local residents will contribute to their active involvement in the project and allow them to take into account their requests for the formulation of the MetaLab agenda and the project “Promprylad.Renovation”. The results of the investigation will enable us to contribute to a more balanced development of the project and to understand which methods can be used to communicate these changes with the residents.
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RADIUS OF INVESTIGATION 8
NEARBY DISTRICT OF “PROMPRYLAD” It is a territory near Promprylad within the radius of pedestrian accessibility up to 5 minutes.
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LEARNING. SOCIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION
Week 1 (May 31 — June 2) Community investigation workshop Curator: Sebastian Shlüter (MitOst) Sebastian Shlüter is a Berlin urban specialist and program coordinator of Actors of Urban Change in collaboration with MitOst e.V. He has the qualifications of an urban geographer, previously worked as a lecturer at the Humboldt University of Berlin, and published a magazine about architecture and everyday life of cities. In the laboratory, Sebastian told how to investigate, identify, and understand the needs of communities in the urban spaces, where we plan to work. Relevancy of The Promprylad Plant has developed social infrastructure (chorus, dance ensemble, the topic theatre, newspaper, radio), so the workers were involved in various kinds of leisure activities, and they actively communicated outside of work. Now it is only a history, there are no more than 150 workers remaining. Who are these people who currently work at the plant? What is the plant meant to be for them? Is it only a place of work or an integral part of life? Who lives next to Promprylad? How could the postindustrial space interest the local residents? What is in the neighbourhood of Promprylad: what kinds of public spaces, infrastructure, activity are there? What resources are the local community lacking? After all, it is the residents of the district, their neighbours, who are the targeted audience of the project “Promprylad.Renovation.” These people are the potential users and the ambassadors of this space, and perhaps also project investors.
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It was also important for us to consider probable scenarios of influence of the project “Promprylad. Renovation” for various social groups such as plant workers, district residents, current, and future users of this space.
“How can we together combine the future of Promprylad?”
Methodology
Working on the social profile of the district, we used the results of previous investigations conducted in December 2017 for the Promprylad Plant. We interviewed the residents. We tried to make quantitative and qualitative maps of the local community. We prepared the visualization of the function in the district and compared the current situation with the requests of residents and the suggestions of the project “Promprylad. Renovation”. We analysed the social and socio-economic risks associated with the implementation of the project.
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Comments of the participants
LEARNING. SOCIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION
Anna Dobrova a coordinator of Metalab – urban project of the platform “Teple Misto”
Ruslan Burchak interior designer , Ph.D. candidate of the Institute of Arts
“Program of Promprylad will uniquely affect the nearby district and pricing of the property and its lease. It is both a positive side and a risk for the project and district, but it is an inevitable process. For example, with the advent of the pilot floor, other people intending to open their offices within the premises of Promprylad began to appear, which partially replaced the existing rehearsal bases of musicians at the plant. Therefore, it is important to monitor and respond to changes in the economic and social balance at the Promprylad Plant and in the district as well (I mean public space, prices for real estate and lease).” “During the community analysis, we investigated social conglomerates, outlining different groups (pensioners, teenagers, etc.). We also had a dialogue regarding the engagement of pensioners to the context of Promprylad. At first, most of us said that we did not need them, but later realized that it might be interesting: if older people, let us say, came here, told their stories, it would be an element of leisure activities for them and for other people at the Promprylad Plant, an interesting experience of change of the generations and epochs. My group worked with teenagers at the age of 13-19 years. We tried to talk, to have a dialogue with them on the streets near Promprylad: some refused to communicate, some willingly answered the questions, and some of them after our communication even became interested in Promprylad and came to see what was happening there. In general, we tried to understand how people would like to change the space around and what resources the neighborhood lacks.”
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LEARNING. HISTORICAL INVESTIGATION
Week 2 (June 7 – June 9) Public history workshop Curator: Taras Hrytsiuk (“Insha Osvita”) Taras Hrytsiuk, a historian, professional facilitator, co–founder of public organization “Insha Osvita”, co–founder and coordinator of educational program “Studii Zhyvoi Istorii”, program of critical thinking development “Zvychka dumaty”. Range of interests: public history, critical re–evaluation of historical constructions, memory policy at local and global levels, industrial and post–industrial heritage of cities, Soviet heritage and its perception in the mass culture, informal education and critical thinking development.
Relevancy of The production history on the territory of Promprylad is more than 100 years old. It is the topic a unique part of the city history and image. Therefore, it is so important to capture the past of the plant, find and bring out the new data, survived artefacts, and previously untold personal stories.
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In the past, more than 5 thousand people worked at the Promprylad plant. This place was the centre of not only powerful production, but also active social life. The most vivid part of life of the plant is the people who worked there. They did not just work, but lived in the plant, because it was a place of their self-realization, communication, and leisure. The place was obviously connected with their future, where their dreams appeared. Therefore, at this stage of historical investigation, the laboratory team focused on public history. This direction involved compiling of history not only by professionals, but by involvement of a wide audience as well, and the representation of historical knowledge in accessible formats, such as documentaries, open discussions, public interviews, exhibitions. We tried to get to know everything from the direct
witnesses and participants of the process of development of the plant: their stories about their plant should be told and preserved. It is very important for them. For us. For the city. Promprylad was an important factor in the formation of the identity of Stanislav– Stanislavov–Ivano–Frankivsk. Symbolically, it is located in the city centre. The industry of the city originated from there. Afterwards the personnel for other enterprises were trained there. About 5000 people worked at the plant at its peak with the whole families and generations, they met there their beloved people and friends. So, for many of them it was really the “second home”. Now about 150 people work there and the volume of production is not impressive, but, of course, Promprylad is more than a plant, it is an important symbol of our city, its past, present and future.
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LEARNING. HISTORICAL INVESTIGATION
Methodology
• Our task was to understand the importance of the Promprylad Plant for the residents of the district and for people who are still working there. To find the connections between the residents of the district near Promprylad, the history of the plant that should be preserved, the decision regarding the future of Promprylad, which can tell everything about its past. To find the answer we worked in several directions in order to gather the maximum information and then analyse it. We: • met and talked to Aliona Karavai, a co-founder of public organization “Insha Osvita”, which is one of the partners of the project “Promprylad”; • watched the series of video interviews by Bohdan Oslavskyi and Denys Ovchar, which tells the story of Promprylad with the help of the personal stories of the workers of the plant and talked to Bohdan as well; • worked with relevant materials in the State Archives of Ivano–Frankivsk region; • visualized the timeline of development history of Promprylad in order to understand the cause-and-effect relationship, features and stages of production development; • investigated and compiled the timeline of production history by analysing the assortment and evolution of the products, technologies, approaches to design, research and development component of the plant; • reviewed in the
the history of Promprylad global historical context;
• discussed the evolution of Promprylad from the image of “closed territory” to the space not only production one, but also filled with other senses, functions, such as art (rehearsals of musicians, rave parties, etc.).
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a student of V. Stefanyk Subcarpathian National University an interior designer
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Comments
HISTORICAL INVESTIGATION Mariana Baran
“Due to the historical investigation, I got a clear understanding of the importance of the topic of the laboratory, everything that was happening at Promprylad, as well as the plant as a system and what should be preserved, restored, or reorganized. The goal and what we need to do became clear for me. But I consider the historical investigation to be rather global (it covered a large period of time that was impossible to explore in a few days), and we soon set out the issues that need to be studied rather than explored. The team worked with printed material about the plant, which was as a book to its 100th anniversary, a catalogue of products. Materials from the library, newspaper archives covered the topic of everyday life: concerts, performances, other moments that were previously fell on deaf ears. In fact, we singled out the life of the plant as a separate component, that is not less important for study than, let us say, the product development. I believe that historical investigation plays a major role regarding our future work on this topic. The consideration of the past helps to form the values that were not noticed or understood before, and, perhaps, another investigation perspective and an updated vision of the project. In addition, before I was just curious, but during the laboratory work there was an emotional connection regarding Promprylad.�
Aliona Karavai a co-founder of public organization “Insha Osvita”
Bogdan Oslavskyi a journalist, author of the series of video interviews about Promprylad “Production”
Anna Pashynska an initiator and curator of the MetaLab space
The workers of Promprylad about the plant and its future (from the film “Production”)
“Information on the Museum of the Plant gave rise to the idea of creating / restoring the Museum of Promprylad; the idea of the Assortment Room gallery, which is now functioning as the part of the pilot project, as well as the intention to conduct an investigation laboratory for the study of history every year, was connected with it.”
“Promprylad is an important place for the city and for people, families who worked there. People I interviewed spent at the plant many years, the best years of their lives; they reverently talk about it. In general, they have unbelief in the prospect of the plant, there are mixed feelings regarding everything what happens at the plant. During the work on this topic, my task was to talk to people, allow them to tell their stories.”
“The film about Promprylad tells us about its heroes, the educated people, who like their work and want to transfer their knowledge and skills to others. And they have the fear of being unnecessary.”
“It will bring the youth back to the city”, “We want to save the building”, “We will not forget the industrial past”, “I spent all my life there”, “Does anybody appreciate my work?!”, “I do not know what is happening there”, “Where did the plant disappear? Where is it, why did it disappear and who is guilty?”
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LEARNING. SPATIAL INVESTIGATION
Week 3 (June 14 – June 16) Spatial investigation workshop Curator: Andrii Shulyar (Urban Curators) Andrii Shuliar, an architect, urban specialist, investigator, co-founder of Urban Curators agency. His previous experience covers the work of a manager at the Department of Urban Development and Architecture of Kyiv City State Administration (Kyiv), a study at the Centre for Urban History of East Central Europe (Lviv), a teaching at the Lviv Polytechnic Institute of Architecture, and others. In his work at Urban Curators, Andrii is engaged in high-quality pre-project investigation, analytics and architectural design. Relevancy of As the physical space, Promprylad was and is an important city–creating factor for Ivano– the topic Frankivsk and its identity. It is located close to the downtown and train station and occupies a fairly large area (36,900 m²) citywide. A lot of residents consider such space to be marked as something important for the city, and with global significance as well: in the prototype of unique products, the reputation of Ivano–Frankivsk was established far beyond its borders. At the same time, this territory was perceived as closed, isolated, and inaccessible. Such understanding remains to wide extend up to this day, although the project “Promprylad. Renovation” gradually (reopens) opens this space, making it publicly available. The purpose of the laboratory team at this stage was to investigate the spatial features and infrastructure of Promprylad and nearby district. To determine the degree of accessibility / inaccessibility, openness / closure of Promprylad, activity / passivity of public spaces of nearby territories. To understand as well which unexploited or ignored potentials the space of the plant and district has, to suggest certain solutions for the disclosure of these opportunities.
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Methodology
The workshop provided the investigation and analysis of the outer space around the plant and interior space of Promprylad. As for the latter, the laboratory participants inspected the territory of the plant, almost all buildings, shops and equipment. They also had the opportunity to communicate with the employees about the peculiarities of their work, their everyday life and habits. In the context of the district, they studied the territory within a radius of pedestrian accessibility for up to 5 minutes around Promprylad in four directions: western, southern, eastern, northern. The whole area under study was divided into several sectors, the team was divided into groups. Each group had its own sector for analysis: the participants inspected the building, functional space, determined the different zones (transit, recreational, economic ones). The work focused on the interdisciplinary approach: the representatives of various professional directions in the team allow you to reveal the topic from the point of view of different professional competencies and experiences. Thus, a historian will be interested in the past of the plant, an architect in the specifics of the functioning of buildings and space, and other participants in the design, range of products of the plant, etc. As a result, one can get a more comprehensive picture of the subject of investigation.
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Comments of the participants
SPATIAL INVESTIGATION Andrii Shulyar
“Space can be understood differently: to measure its quantitative and physical characteristics (area, size, etc.), as well an urbanist and an architect, as qualitative characteristics, which are more complicated and rather subjective. external expert However, qualitative investigation is a way to find some of its special features in the space. Such investigation involves work and interview with people: it helps to understand who are the users of the investigated space, external or internal one, to understand the needs of people in this space. The participants in the laboratory received interesting comments from those who they talked to. For example, they found out that in the south of Promprylad there is a small lake, the future of which is of interest to local people. I also like MetaLab’s attitude to the structure of Promprylad, the community of workers who are the determining factor in this location: it is not a representation of ourselves as a new generation to replace the old one, but a desire to find a common language and coexist in harmony, to enhance previous experience.”
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Mariana Zatolyuk an art director of creative agency Nammi, participant of laboratory team
“We divided the territory on the map near Promprylad Plant into 5 zones. After their investigation, collection of information, photographing, the maps of closure / openness of the district, functional filling of the first floors (commerce, administration, education, etc.) were made. Due to the investigation, it is possible to draw conclusions about the effect of the level of openness on the function. For example, the main streets such as Konovalets or Melnyk Street have a lot of commercial and public areas; the closed locations do not have functions of buildings other than residential ones. In the process of spatial investigation, we made some interesting discoveries. So, it turned out that behind 9-storeyed building on Sakharov Street, on the opposite street to the plant, there is a nice yard, large and comfortable, where there is no dust, emissions, and noise of cars. There is a fullfledged ecosystem: residential buildings, kindergarten, school, university and sports complex. Another interesting location is the lake. We got to know that the sculpture recently installed there unfortunately did not affect this place: local residents, on the one hand, would like to keep the lake clean, but they do not do anything for it. It is also interesting how all the stages of investigation of communities, history and space are interrelated and, for example, how communities affect space and vice versa.� 23
first ideas during learning PROCESS
The atmosphere of the district and communication with the local residents allowed the team to generate many ideas from very simple to almost fantastic one! So, we decided to outline the preliminary work for future projects:
Work with community:
• waltz courses in the park provided by the dance school of “Promprylad.Renovation”; • viewing of the historical films offered by the residents in the public space of the district; • involvement of residents of the district in the creation of a temporary joint library of the district in Promprylad space; • organization of the live museum and exhibition within the territory of Promprylad (assortment / everyday life / posters, etc.); • excursions fulfilled by the residents of the district, personal stories about iconic locations; • contests or competitions (zero-budget kitchen project, inventions contest, etc.); • common master classes (how to repair furniture, to wash a pot, etc.); • creation of animation film “One Day from the life of Promprylad”; • creation and placement of installations concerning the topic of Promprylad;
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• “portal of accomplishment of desires” of the residents of the district, a vacuum tube in MetaLab;
Rethink the historical heritage and plant potential:
• launch of FabLab as an experimental design shop, as a leader of the external needs of the city and internal technical capabilities of the plant, as a platform for exchange of knowledge and experience between older and new generations; • involvement of business expertise and creation of a new product on the basis of the plant; • creation of a new experimental product as a point of collaboration among generations of producers; • joint identification and implementation of solutions to improve the infrastructure of the district; • execution of events in the community associations (educational institutions, etc.); • paralleling between the industrialization of Britain in ХІХ–ХХ centuries and Stanislavov / Stanislav / Ivano–Frankivsk; • introduction equipment;
of
the
newly
saved
old
• representation of evolution of devices and technologies using 3D-modelling; • combination of various materials for a comprehensive representation (in the museum): scents, sounds of the plant space, visual, photo and video materials about the plant; • development of navigation, information materials at the Promprylad Plant and for it, in the street space, and presentation of the navigation system to the neighbours of the plant; • creation of a common kitchen and garden;
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first ideas during learning PROCESS
Possibilities of the space:
• use of public spaces in various formats and interventions for communication for the purpose of development of cultural leisure of the district community; • Promprylad as an active and efficient community can influence the development of infrastructure in the district: disclosure of the barriers, work with public spaces, work with orientation in space, district branding; • formation of “public protection” project from the threat of residential development of the territory through active communication with the community of project values; • provision of the openness and accessibility of the territory due to the restructuring of the plant space; • development of cultural life through the involvement of socially responsible businesses; • creation of “district office” for the information collection, needs identification, joint implementation of projects, communication; • organization of the site on the terrace of Promprylad for contemplation of the production process; • communication with the community regarding the project “Promprylad. Renovation” through the creation of shared objects in the district (for example, bicycle parking with project branding);
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CONCLUSIONS OF THE Learning PROCESS AND INVESTIGATION TASKS 28
Conclusions
Three preliminary stages of our investigation, such as sociological, historical and spatial are an “accumulation” period. We have gathered a lot of information about Promprylad and nearby district to better understand the “character” and significance of its location, evolution, problems, unused potential and potential prospects for development of the city. Another important aspect is the peculiarities of the perception of Promprylad and the project “Promprylad. Renovation” by the various categories of users and residents. We worked with various materials (archival documents, old newspapers, catalogues of products, book about the history of the plant, modern investigations, etc.), had communication with people involved into the work of Promprylad or district, watched, analysed and systematized the information. As it was mentioned before, it allowed us to form a sociological picture of the territory (structuring the community inside and outside the project and in the district). The result of the historical investigation was the understanding that Promprylad was very important in the personal life stories of many citizens of Ivano-Frankivsk and in the context of the city in general; it significantly influenced the formation of the identity and image of the city: the plant was a “point of attraction”, a place of active diverse social life, with its own infrastructure and traditions. The study of space allowed understanding the diversity of the environment in the district, the availability of different levels of accessibility and simplicity of ways leading to Promprylad. It also confirmed the rather widespread perception of Promprylad as a closed space. And, of course, each of us had own “personal history with Promprylad” and a certain binding to it. In the process of work, this place began to be filled with the specificities: personal memories, fears about the future, expectations from the project, specific artefacts, etc. This space was full of different mood, emotions and senses. It meant it came alive again.
S.W.O.T. streANGTH weakness opportunity threat
The training process was completed by SWOT analysis, which helped us to develop a comprehensive picture of how to move further and develop further tasks for the laboratory and formulate strategic directions for the whole project “Promprylad.Renovation.” Perhaps, the most important conclusion of the first unit of our laboratory was the understanding that the space between Promprylad and district is interconnected, a lot of connections are not disclosed and these two spaces could help each other a lot. What exactly and how? To find out, we decided to be wrapped up in the plant space, analyse its current content (first of all, technical and industrial one), to feel its mood. And then to link the plant space and the project “Promprylad.Renovation” with the district, to integrate them into this wider context.
Tasks of the laboratory
• to develop the strategies for integration of existing production into the project “Promprylad.Renovation” through the development and production of a joint product with the help of equipment of the plant, which is functioning there; • to identify the potential and reveal the identity of Promprylad district (potentials, mood, trends, work with communities, etc.); • to communicate appropriately about the project “Promprylad.Renovation” externally (spatially and socially) in order to expand and involve the audience into the process of composing the project “Promprylad.Renovation”. 29
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2018, ivano-frankivsk
Broshure was created by the team of MetaLab – urban project of platform “teple misto”
text
Iryna Shutka, Anna Dobrova, Anna Pashynska
Photo
Anton Kuba, Andriy Sidoruk and participants of the laboratory
graphic
participants of the laboratory
design
Ulia Rusylo
English translation: «Profpereklad»
websites and social media
www.metalab.space www.warm.if.ua
translation
buro
www.metalab.space