Before the war, the share of tourism in Ukraine's GDP did not exceed 2%, while the global figure in 2019 was more than 10% and halved the following year, 2020, due to the pandemic. At the same time, in Kherson Oblast alone, we have 800 km of coastline of the Azov and Black Seas with 200 km of beaches, as well as 5 reserves of national importance and 2 biosphere reserves of world importance: "Askania-Nova" and the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve, which Kherson shares with Mykolaiv, the largest island Dzharylgach of the Black Sea, Arabatskaya Strylka - the longest sand spit in Europe, which stretches 115 km to the Kerch Peninsula, Oleshkiv semi-desert with an area of 2100 square meters. km and more than 70 salt and mud lakes, led by Sivash, which is compared to the Dead Sea in the Middle East for its healing properties.
Kherson. "Arestanka" embankment. Photo source: Findway
This far from complete list of natural objects of the Kherson region eloquently testifies to the tourist potential, which would be the envy not only of other regions, but also of the country. It is about "small" - the creation of developed infrastructure, because, as the head of the State Tourism Development Agency of Ukraine Maryana Oleskiv noted in one of the interviews, the goal is to make short-term vacation spots long-term, and for this, tourists must have a place to live, where to eat and what to buy. Ensuring satisfaction of these primary tourist needs is equally important for regional centers as well as for small towns and villages near which there are natural-recreational and cultural objects, and all of them have not been very successful with this so far. Just like the regional centers - Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which not only lack hotels and decent food establishments, but also have a lot of unresolved urban planning, transport and other problems that do not allow them to be called comfortable for life and attractive for tourists. But about everything in order.
Green tourism and communities
Azov region Photo: Serhii Pidmohylnyi
Serhii Podmogylnyi
The situation with green tourism began to improve with the implementation of the decentralization reform, but the corruption component and the lack of understanding of what to do with new opportunities often prevented communities from using tourism as one of the active tools for development. Serhii Podmogylnyi, tourism expert, coordinator for the development of Greenways tourist route networks in Ukraine, has considerable experience in cooperation with communities, because one of the foundations of the project is the support of local initiatives and the creation of infrastructure on the routes. "Many communities included tourism in the list of strategic areas of development. The Azov region, the East, and the South are no exception. Those who took it seriously tried to connect external funding, made organizational changes, and created additional positions. There was a certain series of actions in individual communities, thanks to which they became more visible in the tourist market.
Some communities went to tourist exhibitions, participated in conferences, were proactive. Every year, the tourist value of the communities increased, they passed on their experience to each other, gradual evolutionary development took place.
Forаcalling Photo: Serhii Pidmohylnyi
If we compare 2020–21 and 2015–16, very significant changes have taken place, particularly in the communities, because the decentralization reform has begun to work, which has given the communities many opportunities, they have been taught a lot thanks to international donors
If the war had not come, there would have been more changes every year, but I think that with the end of the war there will be even more. The problem is that those territories where active hostilities were fought will be excluded from circulation for at least a year or two, not completely, separate zones. And in order for tourism to return fully, I think we will have to wait longer," he reflects Serhii Podmogylnyi.
Strategies to be written anew
The network, the development of which is coordinated by Serhiy in Ukraine, is called Greenways ("Greenways") not only because of the natural orientation of the routes, but also because of the ways in which tourists can travel - on foot or by non-motorized transport, which does not pollute the environment. The history of the movement began in the 1950s in the USA and reached Europe in half a century. In 2015, Ukraine joined it.
Azov region Photo: Serhii Pidmohylnyi
According to Serhiy Podmohylny, each region of Ukraine has its own historical and geographical features, which is reflected in its tourist attractions, and each region had certain distortions with the tourist infrastructure before the war. "The eastern regions were not in the best condition, but the basic infrastructure for the development of tourism existed there. The Azov region was more touristic, as people went to the sea. If it had not been for the war, development would have gradually acquired a more systemic character.
Azov region Photo: Serhii Pidmohylnyi
Most regions of Ukraine prepared strategies. Therefore, from the point of view of the potential, of course, there is something to develop, there is something to show, however, there was still a lot of work before the war, - says Sergiy. "This applies not only to, for example, Zaporizhia or Azov region, but also to Dnieper Zaporizhzhia, along other rivers, individual locations connected with other objects: granite rocks, for example, the heritage of the Mennonites (German colonists in Zaporizhzhia)."
Green tourism, which in our country is often associated with rural, that is, with estates, is considered in Greenways in a broad context, as tourism outside urban agglomerations: tourism in the countryside, on the territory of nature reserves (national parks), active tourism. "If considered in a broad context, then Zaporozhye is a territory where there are such objects. For example, Pryazovsky National Park, one of the largest in terms of area, and "Veliky Lug". And Kherson Oblast is generally the Mecca of green tourism. One of the most ecological regions was before the war... We'll see when we win back what it's like now."
Azov region Photo: Serhii Pidmohylnyi
Tourism products that formed communities before the war will be adjusted, taking into account the likely mined areas: "There will be many changes, but it will be necessary to take stock of the situation immediately after the war and plan development for the coming years in relation to this." It is also important, according to the words Sergius, so that post-war compensation at the state and international levels also applies to tourism — destroyed infrastructure, tourist and cultural objects (museums, monuments).
After the inventory, the next step in the recovery of the tourism industry should be the development of short- and medium-term development strategies (for the next five years) for the regions that were directly affected by the hostilities and were located near them. "These strategies are very important," he says Sergiy. — They should predict not only what needs to be done, but also the priority, how much it will cost and where to get the finances for reconstruction.
"There will be many changes, but it will be necessary to take stock of the state immediately after the war and plan development for the coming years in relation to this."
Azov region Photo: Serhii Pidmohylnyi
Tourism development of a small or large area, community or individual object is divided into four main parts. The first concerns the tourist resource itself — those objects for which a tourist visits a certain territory. You need to work through it and find out what the situation is with it. The second concerns communications, that is, to what extent the infrastructure of accessibility has been destroyed, how to restore it and what is the priority. In recent years, good roads have been built from Zaporizhia to Mariupol, Berdyansk, and Melitopol - we need to find out what their current condition is. The third part directly concerns communal and tourist infrastructure. The fourth is organizational and personnel support. It is necessary to analyze all this and form a plan regarding the structure, determine priority, budget and sources of funding. This should be the sequence.
The strategy for the Kherson Region, which we worked on, may remain in certain parts, but to understand which parts, the process must be started from scratch. We don't know a lot now, so strategies have to be written anew. They will have issues of safety, ecology and many others that did not exist until February of this year."
Photo: Tina Hartung / Unsplash
Regional centers: Kherson
Serhii Dyachenko
Just as with the nature reserve territory of the Kherson region, we do not know what state its regional center will be in after deoccupation. But specialists are well aware of the complex of urban planning, planning, infrastructural, transport and other problems of Kherson, which have long needed a solution. It helped us understand this multi-layered complex of issues Serhii Dyachenko, architectural historian, urbanist, museologist, project manager of the public organization "Urban Re-Public", active member of the Ukrainian National Committee of IKOMOS, member of the National Union of Architects of Ukraine. Before the war, he was also an activist of urban planning practices in Kherson and popularizer of cultural heritage, participated in the development of the master plan of Kherson in 2009 and 2021, was a member of the urban planning council of Kherson for several years, prepared historical references for almost all district centers and many settlements Kherson region.
Talking about the features of Kherson's planning and historical development, which prevent the city from developing and being comfortable for the citizens, we touched on the painful topic of master plans for Ukrainian urban planners. According Serhii Dyachenko, master plans have outlived themselves, and we must adopt the world practice of creating a concept of city development without reference to an abstract number of population increase or decrease: "When journalists ask me to analyze the modern general plan of Kherson, I start by writing out all the problems that have accumulated for all these years: the embankment, inactive businesses, problems with parks, transport and pedestrian arteries, access roads to the port and new elevators, lack of improvements, landscaping, etc. In the new concept of city development, these mistakes could be corrected: move something, build a new county road, plan the general development of the city for the distant future with the reservation of certain territories for roads and bridges... Instead, we are solving some small problems of individual entrepreneurs. And in this way, the next general plan does not solve the old problems of the city, but creates new ones," he reflects Sergiy.
General plan of Kherson, 2011, provided by Sergey Dyachenko
A temporary city for a century
The tangle of Kherson urban planning problems began to form from the moment of its foundation. The place on the high right bank of the Dnieper, where Kherson was founded in 1778, was accidental and unsuitable for urban planning: without a dry shore and transport connections, without sources of clean drinking water. Grigory Potemkin, as a representative of the Military Collegium, only needed a fortress on the way to Ochakov, which after the Russo-Ottoman War of 1735–1739 turned into the main Turkish military and naval base on the northern shores of the Black Sea. The Admiralty Board was looking for a place to build a shipyard. Potemkin believed that Kherson should be founded on the site of modern Kizomys, and the board believed that the shipyard should be in the tract of Hlyboka Prystan (near the modern village of Stanislav). But the place where Mykolaiv was later founded and where there were ancient settlements before that was actually more convenient, in contrast to the lands chosen in the end for Kherson. But then the border ran along the Southern Bug River, and there was no way to build anything there.
A compromise solution was a temporary shipyard with a fortress on the site of Oleksandrivsky Shants, which played the role of a crossing point across the Dnieper in previous wars (to Oleshok and Holaya Prystan). And after the quick, as it was believed, capture of Ochakov, Kherson was planned to be transferred to the place of the future Mykolaiv. Actually, that's what happened, but Mykolaiv got its name, and Kherson was decided to leave it as the final storage base for wood and other materials that were delivered by the Dnieper River to the south. According to the words Serhii Dyachenko, who researched the history of Kherson's foundation and urban development in detail, the area near the Antoniv bridge gives a correct idea of what the coast of the city looked like in the XNUMXth century: a swampy area with thickets of reeds, without convenient access to the water. "Throughout the first half of the XNUMXth century, the swamps along the city were filled in and created something similar to an embankment, which was used as a quay wall. "Every street going down to the Dnieper ended with a pier that went far beyond the shore to bypass the swamps," the researcher says.
Kherson. Photo source: Findway
Degradation of the historical center
One of the problems of modern Kherson concerns the central part of the city, which was distorted by construction in Soviet and post-Soviet times. "In other cities, the fortress remained the center for a long time, and in Kherson it became a merchant fort, because after the capture of Ochakov, the fortress lost its meaning and was located at a certain distance, behind the buffer zone, which, meanwhile, the authorities did not allow to build on, as, in fact, to transfer the territory of the fortress was owned by the city until 1866. The river was the most important road to Kherson, land roads were secondary, there was no railway, so the architects tried to create a beautiful view of the city from the river side. That is why tall buildings began to be built there: the City Duma, the Art Museum, the European Hotel - the tallest buildings in the city, which was generally two-story. This made it possible to create a stepped "facade" of the city.
The historical center is a separate territory that must have its own norms and rules of urban planning behavior. There should be a high rent for land, so that vacant lots, destroyed buildings, long buildings, non-functioning objects are unprofitable, as it is now
Kherson. 1960s. Park view. Photo from the archive of Serhiy Dyachenko
The era of the USSR did not have the best effect on the urban fabric of Kherson. The port remained in the center and constantly expanded, new industrial enterprises appeared around it, for this residential blocks were destroyed, streets were blocked - the city grid was destroyed. The Soviet principle of equalization by service and the actual value of the housing stock of the city center and outskirts also led to a significant degradation of the historical center. The rudiment of this remains the administrative division into three districts without observing the natural historical division into historical districts, which in fact were separate urban formations that developed according to their own rules, which were also violated. By conviction Sergius, this approach hinders the development of the city: "This applies to all cities of Ukraine. The historical center is a separate territory that must have its own norms and rules of urban planning behavior. There should be a high rent for land, so that vacant lots, destroyed buildings, long buildings, and non-functioning objects are unprofitable, as it is now. There should be a separate fund for the improvement and restoration of monuments of cultural heritage, which are mostly concentrated here. These two square kilometers in the center are the face of the entire city."
Kherson. Photo from the archive of Serhiy Dyachenko
There is a river, but not for the townspeople
Despite the artificially created chaos in the central part of the city, the main problem of Kherson is the port. At the beginning of the city's existence, the entire coastal line was built up by private marinas of various ship owners. After the revolution, a single port was created, which under Stalinism turned into a closed territory, fenced off by giant fences. Thus, the river port, and then the sea port, take away more than 2 kilometers of the coast in the historic center, and then the elevator with water intake - another 1 km, the townspeople have only a piece of the coast of 260 meters left, but it also mostly serves as a quay wall . "City planners immediately saw this as a tragedy for the city.
Panorama of Kherson. Photo from the archive of Serhiy Dyachenko
Since the 1930s, it has been written that, unfortunately, Kherson has lost the Dnipro, that the main highway leading to the city was cut off from its center, says Sergiy. — In almost every master plan since the 1930s, it was proposed to move the port further away. In the fall of 2021, when we were working on the master plan, we finally made this decision. The management of the port agreed to transfer it, at least in the distant future, to the site of a long-defunct shipbuilding plant, which has all the conditions not only for the operation of the port, but also for its development. We finally have hope that we will make a super-modern embankment. But already at the beginning of 2022, it became known that something at the port did not work out with this idea."
Serhiy mentions the project of 1985, one of the ideas of which should be returned to. According to that project, the territory from Ushakov Avenue past Slavy Park was cleared and a car and pedestrian transit embankment was created up to the Antonivskyi Bridge: "Now embankments on stilts are widely used. In this place, the shore is still such that there are almost no natural descents to the river for residents. The terrain would make it possible to separate pedestrian and transport routes and make the river really accessible to residents," he thinks. Serhii Dyachenko.
Kherson. Photo from the archive of Serhiy Dyachenko
Transport. Landscaping
Despite the compactness of the city and the presence of a radial system, one of the acute problems of Kherson is transport. There are small buses, minibuses that run only until eight o'clock in the evening. The problem could be solved with pedestrian and bicycle routes and shorten distances, but this now has several obstacles, objects that, according to Serhii Dyachenko, cut the city into pieces: the railway, a separate port branch of the railway, several deep beams, over which today there is more than one bridge. Instead, at the beginning of the 80th century, there were as many as five bridges across the girder closest to the city center. The railway separates from the main part of the city the Northern and Tavriyskyi microdistricts, where more than 3 people live, and there are only two crossings. Meanwhile, from the borders of the most remote districts to the city center is only XNUMX km, and this distance could be covered even on foot, not to mention a bicycle or a scooter, but there are simply no direct and convenient ways.
For the inhabitants of the "backwater", a territory with an area of 2x2 km, there is no urban transport route at all - a dead zone, an island, which, meanwhile, borders the center
Kherson. Quarantine Island. Photo: Kostyantyn Ryzhenko / Wikipedia
There is also a big problem with parks trying to build one after another. This applies even to the central park, which once appeared on the site of the fortress. "The old Kherson fortress with an extremely interesting architectural complex could become the coolest tourist center," says Dyachenko. — City planners learned from the example of the ensemble of Palace Square in Kherson, but it was destroyed after the Second World War in order to create this park. This sacrifice was made in order to create a green zone of the appropriate area for the residents of Kherson, which was declared the regional center, taking into account the increase in the population. The city development project of 1944 for a population of 150–200 residents provided for a 30-hectare park. The destruction of the fortress ensemble was a real disaster. But an even bigger disaster is coming now, when the park is constantly being swallowed up by new buildings." The same applies to the park of the Tavriyskyi microdistrict, which remained in the master plan, but in fact has already been completely built up or given over to illegal buildings.
Kherson. Glory Park. Photo source: Findway
Directions for development
Today, Kherson is an agglomeration with fairly large settlements around: Bilozerka with Komyshany, Chornobayivka with Stepanivka, Zelenivka, Naddniprianske and Sadove with Antonivka, as well as the city of Oleshki, where about 20 residents live, most of whom work in Kherson. In fact, all these settlements are districts of the city, which need to be conveniently connected not only with the city, but also with each other. "There is a transit Antoniv bridge, but an internal one is needed, or the problem needs to be solved by water transport. Before the construction of the bridge, water trams and ferries were widely used," he recalls Sergiy. There is an option to solve this problem by using the non-functioning branch of the Oleshkiv railway: to restore it and run something like an internal electric train. This would give development not only to Oleshki itself, but also to the settlements along the railway.
View of Kherson and Antonivsky bridge. Photo: Uaquantum / Wikipedia
Listed Serhii Dyachenko urban planning problems of Kherson are not unsolvable. Preliminary analytical work has already been carried out, there are experienced specialists and young urbanists who together could apply a holistic approach to the city and give it a chance for healthy development. One of the examples of the possibility of rethinking modern Kherson is the project of the Urban Curators and Formografia team as part of the "Interaction Structures" project, which in 2020-2021, based on their own research, developed a concept of public space.
The methodology of the cross-disciplinary research combined urban planning, architecture, history and sociology. In March 2021, the project was officially presented to the city mayor and deputies. It was initiated by the public organization "Garage Gang", which since 2009 has been implementing the "Creative Cities" strategy in Ukraine. Creative Society" and coordinates the implementation of the long-term program "City Code", one of the directions of which is the "Constructions of Interaction" project aimed at creating public spaces. The project was implemented with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which identified a pool of cities.
Kherson. The photos were taken by the Urban Curators research team during the development of a public space project for the city. Authors: Nika Popova, Mykhailo Klyokta, Iryna Yakovchuk
Iryna Yakovchuk
Stepping from the general to the partial, Urban Curators offered Kherson to develop a public space project for the location on Suvorova Street, near the Planetarium, which combines all the values of Kherson that were discovered by the team during the research: transit/promenade, permeability, historicity. In addition, they singled out the main narrative of Kherson - the "path": the path that the city needs to take to sustainable development, awareness of its value and identity, and the path in understanding the walk (promenade), which, as it turned out, is practiced by almost all citizens. According to the words Iryna Yakovchuk, co-founder of Urban Curators and research curator of the "Constructions of Interaction" program, despite all its chaos, Kherson has a huge potential for development. The city should stop thinking about itself only in the context of the region and be an "appendix", but seek, articulate and offer its own unique characteristics (peace, walkability and promenade, connection with nature, cottages).
Visualization of the "Kherson Road" public space project by Urban Curators
Visualization of the "Kherson Road" public space project by Urban Curators
Visualization of the "Kherson Road" public space project by Urban Curators
Visualization of the "Kherson Road" public space project by Urban Curators
"A city that does not understand its value does not have a strategy on how to monetize this value," he says Iryna. — The main challenge of Kherson is the lack of a strong institutional backbone in the branches of government at all levels and, accordingly, the lack of effective communication, coordination of efforts, cooperation and work for a common result. All manifestations of this problem are very clearly demonstrated by the appearance of the city.
One of the first important steps for the development of the city, in our opinion, should be the creation of the City Institute/City Development Agency — an institution that would have the authority to work with the architectural heritage of the city, would be engaged in the development of green zones, public spaces, and would be an active participant in the development city/transport/territory development strategies, design code, advertising placement rules, etc. We believe that, following the example of other Ukrainian cities, the creation of such an institution will allow Kherson to begin its path towards development and prosperity."
Henichesk. Photo: Ivan Shestak / Wikipedia
The southern coast of Ukraine: from research to development
In February 2021, an interesting large-scale project called "Southern coast of Ukraine: from research to development" was implemented, organized by the NGO "Urban Re-Public" (Kherson) in partnership with the architectural group "AMA" (Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa). within the framework of the international technical assistance project "Strengthening Public Trust" (UCBI II), financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The goal of the project was to rethink the development of Skadovsk and Genichesk, the territories adjacent to them, and to create alternative scenarios of spatial transformations that can give impetus to qualitative ecological, socio-economic and cultural changes. To achieve this goal, the creation of the urban innovation platform "CO-URBANISM 2030" was initiated. Specialists of Kherson State University, students and teachers of Ukrainian architectural universities and leading practicing architects were involved in joint work as expert consultants. The project included not only "work in the field", but also an educational block of lectures by experts.
The concept of the development of the coastal part of the city of Skadovsk by the "Genichesk-1" team, developed within the framework of the "Southern coast of Ukraine: from research to development" project, 2021. Tutors: Oleksandr Maymeskul, Darya Maistat. Participants-architects: Kristina Savytska, Olga Zhilyakova, Anastasia Kryvorotenko, Darya Timchenko, Ilya Nekovalyov
The concept of the development of the coastal part of the city of Skadovsk by the "Genichesk-1" team, developed within the framework of the "Southern coast of Ukraine: from research to development" project, 2021. Tutors: Oleksandr Maymeskul, Darya Maistat. Participants-architects: Kristina Savytska, Olga Zhilyakova, Anastasia Kryvorotenko, Darya Timchenko, Ilya Nekovalyov
The concept of the development of the coastal part of the city of Skadovsk by the "Genichesk-1" team, developed within the framework of the "Southern coast of Ukraine: from research to development" project, 2021. Tutors: Oleksandr Maymeskul, Darya Maistat. Participants-architects: Kristina Savytska, Olga Zhilyakova, Anastasia Kryvorotenko, Darya Timchenko, Ilya Nekovalyov
The concept of the development of the coastal part of the city of Skadovsk by the "Genichesk-1" team, developed within the framework of the "Southern coast of Ukraine: from research to development" project, 2021. Tutors: Oleksandr Maymeskul, Darya Maistat. Participants-architects: Kristina Savytska, Olga Zhilyakova, Anastasia Kryvorotenko, Darya Timchenko, Ilya Nekovalyov
Within the framework of the project, the main local resources, potential, as well as defects restraining development were identified. Together with specialists of various scientific fields, the community and business, a strategy for the development of the settlement, which will be comfortable for both residents and vacationers, has been developed. The main event of the project - the seminar "Skadovsk - Genichesk-2030", which was held online in view of the quarantine, was attended by representatives of the Genichesk and Skadovsk communities, local authorities, experts, tutors, architects-designers. As a result of the seminar, six concepts of zoning and territorial development of Skadovsk and Henichesk were developed - three project proposals for each city. This is the development of separate areas of the coastline in both cities, as well as the reinterpretation of the neighborhood residential development to transform it from a homestead type to an urban type of development. Design solutions for the future planning of individual quarters and various options for development with an updated and diverse environment were developed.
Henichesk. Photo Source: ScanTrip Inc.
Each of the presented concepts can be applied as a method of modernization and revitalization of any other neighborhoods in both cities. An important result of the project was the initiation of the process of creation of development agencies/offices of Skadovsk and Genichesk, which could become an effective tool for attracting additional funding, sustainable development, an intermediate link of interaction between citizens and local self-government bodies for the effective implementation of urban development ideas that originate in the local community.
The projects that were developed in the Kherson region in the pre-war years can become a good basis for the reconstruction and development of this region after de-occupation, although the reference point will, unfortunately, be different.
View of the dam of Zaporizhzhya HPP. Photo source: PrJSC "Ukrhydroenergo"
Regional center: Zaporozhye
Pavlo Kravchuk
Like Kherson, Zaporizhzhia began as a fortress, and therefore has some similar problems today. The city was founded in 1770 as the Russian Alexander Fortress of the Dnieper line of fortifications. Later, the fort at this fortress received the status of a post, and after that, in 1806, the status of a county town called Oleksandrivsk. This is how the first historical core of the city was formed, but Zaporizhzhia has another, Soviet core, known as Sotsmisto, or the Sixth Village, the first stage of which was built in 1929–1932 for the workers of the Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Station (Dniprohesu), located near heavy industry enterprises. The historical center of Zaporizhzhia stretches along the Dnieper coast. However, as he told us Pavlo Kravchuk, chief specialist in the historical and cultural heritage of the city of Zaporizhia of the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Zaporizhia City Council, the paradox is that the citizens still do not have a decent access to the coast and the opportunity to use the recreational resources of the Dnipro, and this is one of the urgent problems that needs to be solved. In this matter, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are real sister cities.
Evening Zaporozhye. Photo: Oleksiy Tolmachov / Wikipedia
The need to restore the planning culture
Solving the first problem — the lack of access to the Dnipro for citizens, and the related second — the decline of the city center — Pavlo Kravchuk sees, first of all, a radical change in investment policy, a rejection of the practice when tenants are given land, but they do not fulfill their obligations regarding the construction of certain objects, when, for example, land is provided for recreational purposes, and in the end there there is a shopping center. "It is important that we be honest with the citizens and that the policy of managing city resources and land is more public, then the citizens will understand what resources they have and how they can be used. That's the only way some changes can happen," he believes Kravchuk.
The building front of Sotsmist along Soborny (former Lenin) avenue, December 2018. Photo: Oleksandr Kharlan
According to the historian, the main reason for this situation lies in the loss of the planning culture that occurred after the collapse of the Soviet Union: "Then it was based on a certain rigid position of the controlling bodies, and now a certain democratization is underway, which in fact turns everything into chaos. The main thing that we are losing now is the feeling of integrated development. Young people perceive sleeping areas as something not very attractive. But in these sleeping areas, which are the legacy of Soviet modernism, the structure of public centers was planned and formed, which we should develop so that all the needs of the citizens are met in the zone of pedestrian accessibility. This lack of understanding that every slum needs a community center is turning our city into a favela." There is misunderstanding among district leaders and citizens, but Kravchuk hopes that with certain educational measures this problem can be eliminated over time.
Microdistrict development: an idea that everyone forgot about
It was for this purpose that last year the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Zaporizhia City Council launched the research project "Zaporizhia. Microdistricts". According to the words Pavlo Kravchuk, the project is about the urban environment, in which approximately 70% of Zaporozhye residents live today.
Social city, top view. Photo: Semyon Shirochyn
We are trying to return the culture of urban development to Zaporizhzhia. Neither the city department of architecture nor the regional department of urban planning deals with this culture
"First of all, it is necessary to take care of each microdistrict. The idea of the structure of the city has fallen out of the minds of the citizens: that a microdistrict, a housing estate for them is one and the same, - says Pavlo. — Accordingly, no one understands the norms of providing a certain number of people with a certain number of service institutions. We are trying to return the culture of urban development to Zaporizhzhia. Neither the city department of architecture nor the regional department of urban planning deals with this culture. Project "Zaporizhia. Microdistricts" should explain the intention of the creators. The material is ready for processing by broad sections of the population. The finished layout of the book "Workshop of Modernity. Zaporizhia architectural modernism of the late 1950s-1980s". A corresponding exhibition will be prepared. It's not even a project. We hope that it will turn into a movement for a better future for Zaporozhye, because you cannot continue to live without understanding your advantages, and we have them. The city, located near a large water artery, must be provided with access to the water surface - the mirror of the Dnieper. "Zaporizhzhia. Microdistricts" shows how the city center was planned, how the embankment was to develop, what modernist urban complexes we had. Why were there? They exist, but behind the scratched facades, people do not realize that this is actually a large urban complex, and it should be treated with care. Through this project, we are trying to return love to our own city."
Zaporizhzhia is a European city
Sotsmista polyclinic, now the 3rd city hospital, November 2017. Photo: Dmytro Krasnokutskyi
The previous important project for Zaporizhia, which drew the attention of citizens, state authorities and local self-government to their own city, was implemented in 2017 as part of the "Weeks of Germany in Ukraine" and was called "Bauhaus-Zaporizhia". Its main part was the International scientific and practical conference "The universality of the phenomena of Zaporizhian modernism and the Bauhaus school. Problems of preserving the modernist heritage", as well as an exhibition on the history of Zaporozhye's buildings and workshops for students.
The organizers of this large-scale event were the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Donetsk (office in Dnipro) in partnership with the NGO Urban Forms Center, the Barannik Gallery of Contemporary Art and Professor Thomas Frierl (Germany). Pavlo Kravchuk was one of the speakers at the conference and highly appreciates its role in positive changes in the understanding of the heritage of their own city by the authorities and citizens: "The main initiator of the event was the researcher of Ukrainian architecture Yevgenia Gubkina and her Urban Forms Center team. They gathered like-minded people around them - both Zaporizhia and Germans.
The residential wing of the commune building (later the Intourist hotel) of Sotsmista, now a communal dormitory, December 2018. Photo: Oleksandr Harlan
Wolfgang Messinger, the former Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Donetsk, became a great driver and friend of Zaporizhzhia. He managed to do a lot, and the most important thing was to instill in our officials the understanding that Zaporizhzhia is a European city. After the conference, this awareness among the masses is gradually increasing. But this applies only to those who have a desire to learn, to gain new knowledge about their city."
Semyon Shirochyn
Another participant of the conference, a researcher of the history of architecture Semyon Shirochyn, considers it important that such a conference took place in Zaporizhzhia and brought together interesting specialists from different countries and with different experiences: "The fact that the Germans see in Soviet constructivism something related to their Bauhaus is very good, because when someone from the outside says that in we have something valuable, our people sometimes listen to it. But when we talked with the Germans during the conference, it was clear how different our problems are from them.
Our problem is to explain to people that the architecture of this era is important and must be preserved, while the Germans have that people, when they make repairs in such houses, want to do everything authentically right, and they need to be provided with information and relevant documentation. These are completely different levels of the problem. The Germans have architecture from the 1920s recognized by UNESCO, they respect it and preserve it as their cultural heritage. Making sure that the value of architecture is understood by our authorities and citizens is a difficult task."
Whether or not Sotsmist is a World Heritage Site
An important step on the way to solving the problem of general devaluation by Ukrainians of their own architectural heritage of the Soviet times can be the entry of the Zaporozhye Sotsmist to the UNESCO World Heritage List in Ukraine, which currently includes 7 cultural objects and 1 natural one. The painstaking process of preparing relevant documentation for the inclusion of Sotsmist in the preliminary list of UNESCO World Heritage was initially started in 2017 by the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Zaporizhzhia City Council, but in 2019, a department for the protection of cultural heritage was established within the city executive committee by the city planning authorities, and the process slowed down somewhat, if not to say stagnant.
Zaporizhzhia. Horseshoe house. Photo: Semyon Shirochyn
According to Pavlo Kravchuk, the Department of Culture managed to certify 45 objects of the Sixth Settlement before the transfer of cases to the newly created department, and some of them have already been registered with the state, including quarter buildings. "Starting from 2020, I don't know what is happening with UNESCO. But now it has fallen into the background. It is inappropriate to shout about UNESCO when fighting is going on 30-50 km from the city, and the city is shelled every day. Peace will come, the time will come to decide how to live on, and we will bring this issue up for consideration with our colleagues."
Zaporizhzhia. Sotsmisto, Druzhnii proezd, 11-12. Photo: Semyon Shirochyn
Pavlo Kravchuk also proposes to restore 2-3 three-story buildings of Sotsmist per year, in order to get a complex in ten years, which will be visited by people from all over: "This is a real story, where real people live, who can tell about what it is like to be residents of this complex . You have to be able to use these unprecedented advantages. Due to the traffic, there would be an economic benefit for the city, and its status would be different. Zaporozhye has something to demonstrate."
Photo: Ilya Pavlov / Unsplash
Cultural codes of the city
So what cultural codes should be used in the future for a successful rebranding of Zaporizhzhia so that there are no contradictions between the impression of the citizens and the view of the guests? According Pavlo Kravchuk, Zaporizhzhia is a city of synthesis. There is the imperial heritage, there is the lost Zaporizhzhya (the wooden architecture of the Pokrovsky Cathedral), and there is the Soviet one. "For the further development of the city, there is a potential for the understanding of local traditions and pan-European modernization practices with a view to the XNUMXth century, when the project "Great Zaporozhye" existed. It is usually interpreted as a purely constructivist idea. But in fact, there were a lot of European influences there, in particular, we watched how Greater Berlin and other European cities were designed. This synthesis of the best European cities and local history should become the key meaning for the formation of new approaches to the development of the city," - believes Kravchuk.
Zaporizhzhia. The first power station (Poshtova Street, 73). Photo: Semyon Shirochyn
He used an interesting and somewhat similar idea about the synthesis of the definition in his article and YouTube blog about the architectural development of Zaporozhye Semyon Shirochyn: "Zaporizhia is an architectural reserve." The Kyiv researcher substantiates his definition with a good representation in the Zaporizhia building of ensembles in different styles, which are well preserved and well convey the era in which they were created. "The peculiarity of Zaporizhzhia is that the main axis of the city - the avenue - in many of its parts is well developed with ensemble buildings: in Sotsmist, and in Voznesenets, and in Oleksandrivsk. There are very interesting projects there, which, for example, do not exist in Kyiv, but they are all commensurate with the city in terms of scale." Although the concept of a reserve implies a protective status, which would contradict the development of the city, at the first stage, for the citizens to realize the value of the architectural heritage and as a good opportunity for its restoration, such a slogan and positioning should work.
Zaporizhzhia. The former building of the Zemsky Administration (29 Troitska Street). Photo: Semyon Shirochyn
Instead of conclusions
Discussing with experts the problems of Kherson Oblast and Zaporizhzhia in the context of post-war reconstruction and transformation of these areas into a tourist Mecca, there is great hope and faith that we will succeed. There is knowledge, there is an understanding of how, there are modern tools for this, there are experienced specialists, there are proactive communities and public organizations, and there is a burning desire to implement all ideas into life. Just not to disturb. But we will overcome that!
This publication was created with the financial support of the European Union. The content of the publication is the sole responsibility of DW Akademie / Mediafit Program for Southern and Eastern Ukraine and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
