In nine months, in the state of struggle that Mykolaiv has become now — cut up by debris and covered with plywood shields? How have his routes changed, is his face just as well recognized by the townspeople and those who dare to visit the city, which has turned into a living fortress? An even more important question is what will the future hold? What should Mykolaiv become so that all its children, forced to fly out from under the wing of the "city on the wave", fleeing from the dangers of war, will return.
In the first materials of the special topic "New Map" we talked about Raisin and Trostyanets. The history of Mykolaiv will be fundamentally different: the city did not survive the horror of the occupation, but has retained more vitality. But other trials befall him.
In many private and high-rise buildings in Mykolaiv, due to numerous shelling, glass was falling, window frames, balconies, and doors were damaged. Photo: Svitlana Vovk
The lines from the interview of a military man from Mykolaiv, in peaceful life a teacher of a local university, published by the "Return Alive" fund, are mentioned: "My most difficult battle was on March 7 on the outskirts of Mykolaiv. My comrades and I stopped a column of enemy equipment: 8 people and one cannon, and that one was crippled. We didn't think any of us would survive: there were no options. <...> Fired despite the damage, with direct aim, as long as they could. And then a shooting battle at a very short distance, from 15 meters. There were few bullets. And against us are tanks and "bekhs".
The war lasted almost 300 days, but in his memories the battle for Mykolaiv remained the most difficult.
Danger came to the city quickly - in the first days, the newly renovated airport and the military airfield were fired upon, and in early March, enemy columns came close. In fact, Mykolaiv was surrounded on three sides, there was only one road that could be used to move. In nearby towns and on the outskirts, street battles took place, enemy DRGs were active.
The battles for Mykolaiv lasted throughout March. The city held out, and the occupiers fled south towards Kherson, leaving columns of broken and burned equipment. On March 29, as if signing off on their own insignificance and helplessness, they launched a rocket attack on the State Administration building. That morning took the lives of 37 people.
The destroyed building of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration. Photo source: UNIAN
Evgeny Polyakov
Since that time, Mykolaiv has been bombarded with all types of artillery and rocket weapons for months in a row. There were no more than fifty quiet days here. This account is open - the war continues, and Russia has not gone anywhere. Mykolaiv realities: 800 high-rise buildings and almost a thousand private houses were damaged, all educational institutions of higher education and many secondary schools in different parts of the city, hotels, one of the cultural centers, a local history museum, the city drama theater. As noted Evgeny Polyakov, deputy director of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Mykolaiv City Council, we cannot talk about all the losses of the residential and non-residential stock now, but they are all calculated: Mykolaiv became the first among Ukrainian cities to create a set of data on damage in the GIS system. The project is implemented with the support of the Ministry of Regions, EUACI (EU Anti-corruption Initiative in Ukraine) and the Danish government, it will make it possible to combine information about the destruction of municipal infrastructure and damage assessment, to more systematically manage reconstruction projects.
Establishing a centralized water supply system is perhaps the most urgent issue for Mykolaiv today. Photo: Serhii Ovcharyshyn
Half of the residents left Mykolaiv, and 200 to 250 people remain. Since April, due to damage to the water main, the city has not received drinking water centrally. The shelling took place in the temporarily occupied territory, so it was impossible to repair the pipes for a long time, and work on restoring the water supply began only in the fall, after the front line was pushed back. For technical needs, Mykolaiv residents use water from the local estuary - it is salty, causes pipe corrosion and spoils equipment, which in itself, and taking into account the onset of the cold season, is a significant problem. For housing and communal services workers, winter is not the easiest time even without such challenges.
Damage to the Dnipro-Mykolaiv water pipeline, received in April, left the city without drinking and high-quality technical water in the tap. Photo source: Ukrinform
The liberation of Kherson and a number of settlements in Kherson region and Mykolaiv region from the occupiers gives the city chances for a more peaceful life, a decrease in the number of air attacks, and the restoration of normal logistics. On November 15, the city railway station welcomed a passenger train from Kyiv. Special - the first since the beginning of the war. Simple things and events, so common in the past, have acquired a deeper meaning. At a time when many Ukrainians wish their loved ones not a good, but a quiet morning, they want to talk about Mykolaiv just like that - quietly, so as not to frighten his good luck.
Before alternative sources of water supply were established, some residents of Mykolaiv were forced to collect water for technical needs from rivers and the local estuary. Source: Mykolaivvodokanal
New and familiar routes. For water and to water. From "Sotka" and around the city
A new and, unfortunately, popular route map that has appeared in the city is to shelters (often these are ordinary basements) and equipped points with water. There are many of them, next to each one is a rosary of townspeople with eggplants and containers. There are no long queues: the population has halved, there is no one to create a crowd. Everything is not critical (if you can say that at all about a city that is located near the water and does not have drinking water in the tap). Delivery works, water can be bought in stores, but eggplants are definitely the new reality of Mykolaiv. A wild thought rushes through my head - everything is like in ancient times, when residents came with jugs to springs and city fountains. The Russians tried to "liberate" us from civilization and return us to some distorted past, hardly imagining references from antiquity or the Middle Ages.
Realities of the city of Mykolaiv. Photo: Oleksandr Medvedenko
Another characteristic "route": some townspeople try not to stay in Mykolaiv overnight, leaving for relatively safer areas every day (because now there is nothing absolute) and returning home in the morning.
The usual "pre-war" geotags have not gone anywhere, but they have a different look. The cathedral square, where the main Christmas tree was installed every year and concerts for 50 people were held, is now empty. Not as crowded as before, and the main street for walks, which is also now called Soborna. The longest pedestrian street in Ukraine with tall trees providing shade, an alley of artists and a number of cozy cafes and shops. In the summer, it usually sounds like jazz, laughter, noise, smells like coffee and cotton candy. Some of Sobornaya's establishments have been closed for a long time, others continue to work. The facades are sometimes sewn up with plywood, which does not always signal damage: rather, it is a way of saving the storefronts in case of another shelling.
Chestnut Square, which is unofficially called "Hunchback" is adjacent to Soborna Square - another place familiar to Mykolaiv residents since childhood. The numbering of the street starts from the square and goes to the center, but people walk more often in the opposite direction - from "Sotka" and towards the river, to Flotsky Boulevard and the embankment. As for "Sotka", not all townspeople know the origin of this name (we were told that the state store No. 100 worked at that place, later the building was privatized, but the number was preserved among the people). Meeting "near Sotka" is a common arrangement before a long walk around the city.
Marble lions in Chestnut Square are one of the city's hallmarks. Photo source: Wikipedia.org
Yuriy Lyubarov
The length of Soborna is one and a half kilometers, and its pedestrian part is exactly one kilometer. Yuriy Lyubarov, the head of the Department for Culture and Cultural Heritage Protection of the Mykolayiv City Council, says: shortly before the start of the war, it was planned to "demolish" the Cathedral and fix small cast-iron markers at a distance of every 100 m. The design of this "coin" had already been developed, but they did not have time to install the signs.
The above-mentioned Fleet Boulevard is often called BAM by Mykolaivites, and this in no way applies to railways and Siberia. The abbreviation was formed from its "popular" name — Admiral Makarov Boulevard — and became familiar. The boulevard, laid in the 8th century on the site of a landfill, has two parts, respectively the upper and lower BAMs, connected by stairs. The Lower BAM is laid along the Ingul River. There is a popular walking route on the river tram, which departs from the Mykolaiv XNUMXth pier to BAM and returns.
The upper part of Fleet Boulevard ("Upper BAM"). Photo source: promir.info
On the route of the "Upper BAM", you can make another unexpected stop - at the three-meter iron sculpture of a flower, which, however, is more often called "Cabbage" or "Crazy cabbage". In different years, "cabbage" was green, white and pink. The work appeared here on the initiative of private business. Discussions about the expediency or aesthetics of the "cabbage flower" broke out periodically, on one of the local history portals, the style of the sculptures installed on the boulevard in recent years was called "alarming eclecticism." But they have already taken root in the fabric of the local landscape.
"Crazy Cabbage" on the Upper BAM. Photo source: nikolaev-guide.blogspot.com
Mykolaiv's "Eiffel Tower" - the Shukhov Tower - and the 1906th-century house of Joachim Kannehiser are located near Spassky Hill, the highest point of the city. They look at each other across the street. Both objects are official sights entered in the state registers, but the water-pressure hyperboloid sees the world from behind the fence and did not receive many guests even in peacetime. As fate would have it, the Shukhiv tower did not receive its share of attention and understanding of its uniqueness. Built in 2022, it became the world's first hyperboloid tower, an innovative engineering object involved in the water supply system. Here, in Mykolaiv. The tower is a landmark in its essence: its "brothers", the Stanislav-Adzhigol lighthouses in the Kherson region, were designed by the same engineer and have a similar structure. Before the winter of XNUMX, the object was not protected by anti-corrosion treatment, but now it is not an urgent matter. I would like for the industrial monument to find its place in restoration projects after the victory, receive a share of glory and not be lost.
Shukhov Tower (and Joachim Kannehieser's house on the right side of the black and white photo) in old and modern pictures. Photo source: Wikipedia.org
The house of the head of the "Naval" plant, Joachim Kannehieser, the current state before and after the restoration in 2018, which, however, changed the historical appearance of the building quite a lot. Photo source: Wikipedia.org, nikvesti.com
Yuriy Lyubarov shares his observation: now many people are coming to Mykolaiv whose lives until 2022 were not connected with it. A new logistics is being formed, a special kind of "tourism", if you can call it that: visiting cities near the front, de-occupied, territories where hostilities are taking place. This is not an empty interest. They come here because they want to be useful, to help. Volunteers, doctors, public figures, influencers.
Konstantin Kachanovskyi
Among them are artists who create new marks on the city map. The creation of murals and objects of street art in settlements affected by armed Russian aggression is now a means of drawing public attention to the events, thanks to art actions, funds are often generated for aid. While Banksy is visiting Kyiv and Borodyanka, other creative associations are working in Mykolaiv. Konstantin Kachanovskyi — a Ukrainian artist who took part in the Mykolaiv action "Walls of Culture", organized by Kola Serga's "Cultural Landing". "Desant" is a group of cultural figures united by the idea of psychological support for residents of the affected areas through art. The project started in the de-occupied Kharkiv region and spread to other regions, in Mykolaiv the team created about 10 works, including on the renamed Mariupolska Street (Moscow Street until August 2022).
Thanks to the union of artists and artists "Cultural Landing", the Kupyanska stele found its apostrophe. Photo source: "Cultural Landing" Instagram (instagram.com/culturalforces)
Kostyantyn Kachanovskyi: "During the trip, I saw people returning home. Mykolayiv lives today"
Murals created by artists Kostyantyn Kachanovskyi and Mykola Patii in Mykolaiv as part of the "Walls of Culture" project. Photo: Kostyantyn Kachanovskyi
In a few days, Kachanovskyi and a colleague completed two murals. A particularly emotional work is a tribute mural on the walls of the Mykolaiv children's sports school, in memory of the boy Artem, who died as a result of the shelling of a high-rise building. "On the spot, seeing the building destroyed by the rocket, the ants left in a body, and we realized that this work should be right here," the artist recalls.
Kachanovskyi says: it is difficult for him to compare the atmosphere that currently prevails in Mykolaiv with what he has seen and felt in recent months, because mainly these were de-occupied cities that suffered devastating destruction. Talking about the experience of visiting the city, he shared his emotions: "During the trip, I saw people returning home. You can feel life in the city, its residents are very pleasant and hospitable. Mykolaiv lives today."
Lost and saved
As early as August, there was not a single university left in Mykolaiv that was not "flying in". Black Sea National University named after Petra Mogyly, the V. O. Sukhomlynskyi National University, the National Shipbuilding University (there were only two such specialized educational institutions in the entire post-Soviet space)... Higher enemies destroyed deliberately, with some special zeal. Even if the buildings survived the first shelling, later attacks were repeated. So, for example, the main building of ChNU did not withstand the second blow - several floors collapsed, according to preliminary damage assessments, it cannot be restored. In November, the building of the city polytechnic college was partially destroyed.
Mykolaiv National University named after V. Sukhomlynskyi, photos of the building were taken in peacetime and after shelling. Photo source: Mykolayiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkovych's Facebook page (facebook.com/senkevich.aleksandr)
Shells fell on schools in the neighborhoods of Varvarivka, Solyana, and Korabelnoi district — a number of secondary educational institutions were damaged, some schools were destroyed. For example, No. 51 or No. 60, which at one time was the first in the city to participate in the "Warm House" energy modernization project. These are large educational institutions that served the districts, it will be difficult to find an alternative to them.
The destruction of the First Ukrainian Gymnasium named after M. Arkas in the center of the city, which was hit by a Russian S-1 on the night of November 300, was painful news for many citizens. The Renaissance-modern building of the gymnasium was built back in 1892 according to the project of the then chief architect of the city Yevgeny Shtukenberg. In the first decades of its existence, the Mariinsky Girls' Gymnasium worked there, Mykolaiv residents also remember it as School No. 5. The rocket damaged the historic square in front of the building, smashed the entrance group, the facade and a large fragment of the roof. In order for the gymnasium to be able to wait for the victory and restoration, the municipal authorities carried out inspections and strengthening works. A cursory assessment confirms: for now it can be saved.
The building of the Mykola Arkas Gymnasium, then the Mariinsky Girls' Gymnasium, on an old postcard. Photo source: Wikipedia.org
The destruction of the Ukrainian gymnasium named after M. Arkas, caused by an enemy rocket. Photo source: Telegram channel of Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich (t.me/senkevichonline)
Another architectural monument of the 1881th century, which was found by an enemy missile, was the historic Monte Theater, now it is the Mykolaiv Academic Drama Theater. Fortunately, the damage was repairable, the main impact was in the courtyard, but the flying debris damaged the walls and balconies of the building, as well as the sculptures and trees that decorated the entrance. The Monte Theater was built in 20, during its long life it underwent several restorations and reconstructions, was almost completely destroyed in the XNUMXs of the XX century, and burned down during the Second World War. The theater team currently does not use the building, but continues to show performances in the shelter.
The inner courtyard and sculptures near the Teatro Monte after the shelling. Photo source: nikvesti.com
The Russians repeatedly shelled the streets near the Mykolaiv Museum of Local History with rocket launchers. Ammunition fell tens of meters from the building, it cut the facade, shattered windows and doors. The museum exhibits were evacuated. The exposition is broken, now the cultural institution is unable to receive visitors.
The Mykolaiv Regional History Museum is one of the oldest museums in the country, it started its work in 1913 and changed its address several times. Now the museum is part of the large "Old Fleet Barracks" complex. Photo source: Wikipedia.org
A mountain of bricks, mixed with pieces of furniture, remained from the auditorium of the city's Palace of Culture in the Korabelny district, which is the area most often attacked. In November, the PC directorate at the level of the Embassy of Italy in Ukraine was approached by representatives of the Italian architectural bureau, who would like to help in the reconstruction of the institution, providing their concept visualization for the new building. It is still too early to talk about the results of this communication or the decision regarding cooperation.
Analyzing this and similar information, it is worth understanding: the events taking place in Ukraine attract wide public attention from both foreign and domestic specialists; this also applies to architects and designers. Its result will always be the reaction of these specialists: a creative search for solutions, an attempt to help, to understand the destruction of the object. As an example of such a reaction, we can recall the open-call Re:Create UA, which called on the authors to rethink the future of Ukraine after the end of the war; about projects for Mykolaiv, created within the framework of this competition, we have separate publication. However, this does not mean that all or some of the presented projects will find their physical embodiment - for this, at least, a state competition is required. Some places of destruction may become memorials in the future. Replacing the lost and painful with a new building is not always the right way out.
One of the options for the reconstruction of Mykolaiv airport, published as part of the open competition Re:Create UA. Author: Mykola Zaitsev. Image source: recreateua.com
When the Chestnut Square was shelled, it became clear: the nearby landmarks were miraculously left unscathed. A monument to St. Nicholas, the deputy of the city, was erected nearby, and famous marble lions "live" in Chestnut Square. Made in the XNUMXth century. by an Italian master of sculpture, they once guarded the entrance to the house of the Arkasy family, iconic for Mykolaiv. The Arkasiv lions never claimed to be unique as art objects, but they were and remain one of the symbols of the city, a dear sight for the citizens. Almost everyone has childhood photos with them, stone lion backs worn to a shine over the decades.
Boris Saltovsky
In the fall, the lions disappeared from the park and moved to a hiding place. They also have a kind of "backup" thanks to a local historian, a specialist in 3D scanning and AR and VR technologies, a teacher at Petro Mohyla National University of Ukraine Boris Saltovsky. He printed detailed models of the sculptures on a photopolymer printer, testing the capabilities of the equipment and the accuracy of the calculations. Printed copies will appear in the exhibition "City in miniature" of the local history museum. Also, several more projects are currently being discussed with the scientist, which will connect Mykolaiv's cultural heritage and augmented reality technologies.
Marble lions in Chestnut Square are one of the city's hallmarks. Photo source: niklife.com.ua
Other monuments and city sculptures, entered in the security registers or those that are in the places of the most frequent shelling, are also trying to protect them, they have been moved or covered with sandbags. This changes the images of the usual public spaces, removes certain "notes" and "chords" from the seemingly established harmony of Mykolaiv streets.
The "wings" of the monument to the Heavenly Hundred are hiding from disaster under a protective shelter made of sandbags. Photo: Svitlana Vovk
In the process of creating a protective structure. A monument in honor of the deputy of the city of St. Nicholas in the central part of the city. Photo source: nikvesti.com
Some monuments related to the imperial or Soviet era are now preserved, but may not return to the city. Their fate will later be decided by expert groups at the official level, Yuriy Lyubarov notes.
The city has a significant water resource, it is actually located on a peninsula. Photo: Oleksandr Minyailo
To understand Mykolaiv
We did not aim to do historical research, so we will not retell articles from Wikipedia and versions about the "fathers of the city" and what exactly they gave to Mykolaiv. The heritage of the city as such is not only people's names, street names or factories. This is its entire system, highways, buildings. The way it is organized, functions, "thinks" according to the inertia obtained from past years. Therefore, it is more important and interesting to understand how all this works - does it work, and what should be changed?
Mykolaiv is large and stretched along the estuary, has two bridges and remote areas "across the water". Photo: Dmytro Udovytskyi
Mykolaiv has a large water resource - the Ingul and the Southern Bug rivers, which form an estuary with access to the Black Sea, the city is actually located on a peninsula. This resource was actively used in the 8th century, when Mykolaiv was the third city in terms of trade volume with foreign countries after St. Petersburg and Odessa, and in the Soviet era, when the city received the status of a shipbuilding center of "Union importance" and partially closed, because the factories produced cruisers and aircraft carriers as well. To a lesser extent, we can say that this resource gifted by nature was consumed by the townspeople: in Mykolaiv, which has two bridges and remote areas "across the water", there was and is not a developed network of water transport, there are few beaches, piers and embankments for recreation and relaxation, and not for industrial use. The old city yacht club, Naberezhnaya Street and the recently created public space "*XNUMX Pier" have critically few competitors.
During our conversation about the city, Yuriy Lyubarov noted that it is common for the people of Mykolaiv to be on the river, many of the townspeople engaged in damming, went on a yacht or on boats.
But the quality of this interaction with water could be much better.
For Mykolaiv residents, it is common to be on the river since childhood, but the quality of interaction with the water resource could be better
The city is gathered in the center - it so happened that all its movement is not towards the water, but from the water, and it really resembles a fortress. Evgeny Polyakov notes: it was the city in the first decades of its existence, and not the shipyard, as is often believed, as evidenced by old plans.
Stages of development of urban development according to the plans of the past years. Image courtesy of Yevhen Polyakov
At the same time, modern Mykolaiv has two "extensions" - buildings along the railway and transport highways, which arose due to the excessive growth of industrial zones and the need to service them. Residents of buildings on these streets suffer from polluted air and excessive noise. Loaded with heavy traffic is a characteristic not only of the outskirts of the city, but also the Cathedral is twice interrupted by streets on which trucks ply.
According to Borys Saltovskyi, over the past ten to fifteen years, Mykolaiv has turned from a shipbuilding city into a port city, largely thanks to the activities of the giant of the Ukrainian agricultural industry, the grain trading company "NIBULON". This also significantly changed city logistics. Historically, most of the ports were located in the center, so grain trucks began to run through the streets of the city.
The influence of "NIBULON" on the development of Mykolaiv and changes in the region is a separate big topic, and it is also a topic of losses. The director of the enterprise, Hero of Ukraine Oleksiy Vadaturskyi and his wife Raisa died in their own home during the massive shelling of the city at the end of July...
Panorama of a typical high-rise building. Photo: Viktor Ajamskyi
Even for a population of 400–450 thousand people, Mykolaiv is a large city stretched along the estuary. At one time, Matviivka, Velika and Mala Korenikha, and Varvarivka joined the city. Korabelny district is also a part of the city far from the center. There is part of the ship's infrastructure and a neighborhood built for people who worked at these facilities.
The city is characterized by a large number of one-story manor houses of 1850-1920 - housing cooperatives located in the center. In Soviet times, they were divided for the residence of 4-12 families and later privatized. Each inhabitant of the housing cooperative has an average of 21 square meters. of property, for comparison — the European average figure reaches 40 square meters. These buildings mostly have no architectural value and are in poor condition, the area of this building is about five square kilometers.
A ruined two-story housing cooperative. Many objects of the old neighborhood buildings were damaged during the shelling. Photo source: Dmitry Berin's Facebook (facebook.com/dmitry.berin)
The condition of the blocks of two-story buildings of 1945-1955 is also blatant, this housing stock needs attention, and its renovation cannot be postponed for long. There are also many "markers" of almost all post-socialist cities - "Khrushchevs" - in Mykolaiv, the term of operation of such a massive building has been exhausted.
Mykolaiv became a "city on the waves" in 2020, when the city council approved a new slogan and a tourist logo with two sails. Yevhen Polyakov recalls that in 2018, specialists of the city's urban planning and architecture department were ordered to make changes to the current general plan of Mykolaiv in 2009, the Kyiv project institute "Dipromisto" was supposed to develop these changes, but the work was not completed.
Now the approval of this general plan is not relevant at all, in addition to the accumulated ones, the city has received new problems and challenges. Starting with the obvious: 450 out of 200 residents are in the city, it is unclear how many more will return home. You have to review everything again. And Mykolaiv has such a chance.
Time constantly brings changes, and war changes reality in a titanic, merciless progression
In the spring, the Ministry of Regions developed a plan for the comprehensive rehabilitation of Ukrainian cities. Ukraine turned to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (EEC, English — UNECE) to enlist its support in expert analysis and proposals regarding this plan, as well as in the development of financing mechanisms for the restoration of damaged infrastructure.
The result of this communication was a program of cooperation between Ukraine, EEC, the Italian architectural company One Works and the Norman Foster Foundation to help Ukrainian cities. The cities of Kharkiv and Mykolaiv were chosen for the pilot restoration project.
Restoration of the industrial zone connected to the water front is one of the tasks to be solved in the new master plan. Photo: Oleksandr Minyailo
One Works is an architectural company with more than ten years of expertise, offices in London, Milan, Rome, Dubai, Bangkok, Singapore and a large portfolio of projects: in particular, the creation of functional master plans, comprehensive analytics and design for the reconstruction of cities after natural disasters , transport strategies, revitalization of urban geospaces, design of civil infrastructure objects, restoration of architectural heritage. One Works was one of the first to support Norman Foster's "Principles of Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Design and Architecture" declaration, announced at the 83rd session of the UNECE Committee in San Marino on November 6. In the principles formulated by Sir Foster, provisions regarding the design of cities, urban infrastructure and buildings are fixed.
Rendering created as part of One Works' comprehensive work on the master plan for the reconstruction of Porto Medici, the oldest part of the Tuscan port of Livorno. The project was named Porta a Mare. Image source: one-works.com
The result of Mykolayev's extensive cooperation with UNECE, One Works and the Norman Foster Foundation should be a new functional master plan of the city and a detailed development of five vectors of its development. Changes in the city should be implemented in several directions: restoration of the cultural heritage object and the object that suffered from shelling, revitalization of green areas, restoration of the industrial zone connected to the water front of the city, creation of an innovation quarter.
Yevhen Polyakov: "The experts involved should understand Mykolaiv and its potential, hear what our city needs from the citizens themselves, and take it into account in their decisions."
Objects in the city for which concepts will be developed will be chosen by foreign experts according to their own methodology, based on the study of urban planning documentation, statistics, the results of a survey of Mykolaiv residents and systematized information after discussions and public hearings. Yevhen Polyakov notes that this interaction is not only mentoring support, and the work will not end at the concept stage: "EEC provides assistance and a platform for attracting investments, this work is a closed cycle, from development, design to the search for investors and implementation. We see it that way."
The initial stage — gathering information — is ongoing and will be completed in December. Yevhen Polyakov says that it is extremely important to invite representatives of the public and interested persons, citizens to the process, to hold discussions and public hearings, which is happening now: "The experts involved should understand Mykolaiv and its potential, study the main and hidden problems. Hear what our city needs and take it into account in our decisions."
As part of this work, a questionnaire was also developed for residents of Mykolaiv who remain in the city or have temporarily left home. It contains questions about what initiatives they consider urgent and how they would like to see their hometown. The same questionnaire was developed for Kharkiv. Taking into account the population outflow, for Mykolaiv a representative answer is from 10 respondents, for Kharkiv this figure is 20 answers. The results of the survey will be sent to the One Works team for processing.
If you have a relationship with the city, we suggest you take a look questionnaire questions at the link.
One Works does not have a monopoly on Mykolaiv, other specialists from European countries and Ukraine will also be involved in cooperation. Further analytical and project work and discussion will take more time, but its results will also serve the residents of Mykolaiv for many years. At the same time, the city will need a general plan not in three years, but much earlier.
The tops of floating and bridge cranes are a familiar attribute of the Mykolaiv landscape. The city is waiting to reveal its potential. Photo: Viktor Ajamskyi
As for the physical implementation of concepts and reconstruction, according to UNECE representative Oleh Dzyubynskyi during a speech at a public hearing, it will become possible when the city is quieter than it is now, and it will be possible to proceed to the implementation of projects without fearing that the next day they will be bombed. It depends on circumstances that change quickly.
"Turn the city to face the river", "remove factories and housing cooperatives from the center", "renovate the port infrastructure", ""squeeze" the city, because fewer people will live in it", "remove freight transport", "make the city energy efficient", " to create more public spaces and pedestrian zones" are examples of suggestions expressed by people on public talk. The "cloud" of thoughts-tags, from which it crystallizes, is collected from the fragments of the map of the future city.
During speeches and discussions about the master plan and reconstruction, Yevhen Polyakov often uses the thesis "to understand Mykolaiv", "to make the city alive", "to rebuild the city in such a way that it can be left as a legacy to children". It is these scenarios that are important. The city of Mykolaiv is important. We are all important.
This publication was created with the financial support of the Stabilization Fund for Culture and Education 2022 by the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany and the Goethe-Institut
