PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA: Speakers at the "Parliamentary Buildings" conference, organized by the London Bartlett School of Architecture, talked about the fact that most important issues are decided not in the session hall, but in informal spaces, in particular in the so-called backrooms, so their quality directly affects the work of the parliament . What spaces for informal communication are available to Ukrainian deputies and how suitable are they for communications, small talks and more serious contacts and discussions?
Anna Bondar: The building of the Verkhovna Rada has many corridors. First of all, these are open foyers around the main hall. I can't say that this is a comfortable place for any discussions. There they greet each other and maintain social contacts. You record your presence there, you record a moment of respect for your colleagues. But the discussions take place in separate closed rooms. But I can't say that they set up for deep work or a trusting conversation, rather for formal decision-making.
There are large conference rooms with endless oval tables where you can hardly see the person sitting at the other end. Or there are long, narrow rooms that are completely occupied by long tables. But there are no cozy spaces close to a square where you can conveniently arrange chairs or set a round table. I don't know exactly what Volodymyr Zabolotny was guided by when planning many long, narrow cubicle rooms, but I assume that the typology of the spaces was influenced by ideology: usually a party representative sat at the end of the table and ordered what should be done. Others agreed.
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. It was built in 1939 according to the project of Volodymyr Zabolotny. Reconstruction — 1948–1952, reconstruction of the cinema hall — 1998–1999, restoration — 1985, restoration of the dome — 2018. Photo: Andriy Vyetoshkin
PM: So these spaces were clearly not designed for equal dialogue?
G. B.: Exactly not. I did not find a single room there that was close to a square. As an architect, I understand that a square is the best layout for a comfortable environment. No matter how you try to create a more or less informal atmosphere in narrow offices, it is impossible. When we first tried to write the Law on the capital directly in the Council, we could not find a suitable room. We were allocated a long room, completely occupied by a table, and we, sitting in a row, tried to do something. And this is physically uncomfortable.
PM: How about some cozy cafe or lounge area?
G. B.: Oh, we have a dining room there. It consists of two parts. One more open is a typical dining room, and the second is a closed, mirrored hall. Waiters are already serving there. And all narrow discussions usually take place in the Hall of Mirrors. When several people gathered, they discussed something and left.
PM: What kind of functional spaces are you sorely lacking?
G. B.: There is an acute shortage of small conference rooms with a flexible structure. But perhaps the main annoying factor is endless transit corridors. The building of the Council is connected by many different corridors and underground passages to the premises of the committees, and they themselves are connected by passages to other buildings. And to get somewhere, you have to go down-up-down several times, and there is no direct passage.
In order to make the building of the Verkhovna Rada fully accessible, repairs are not enough - a complete reconstruction is necessary
Natural light enters the VR session hall through a glass bath and a stained-glass ceiling with a diameter of 16 m. Photo: wikipedia.org
PM: By the way, on the ups and downs: how are you doing with inclusivity? Immediately after the elections, a scandal erupted due to the fact that the parliamentary hall was inaccessible to deputies with limited mobility. Did something get fixed?
G. B.: In order to make the Council building fully accessible, repairs are not enough - a complete reconstruction is necessary. The only thing that appeared was a lift from the dining room to the lobby of the plenary hall.
PM: The level of efficiency, negotiation and efficiency of the parliament depends not only on the planning of the plenary hall, but even on the way of seating. In many parliaments, the idea of seating deputies not by factions or party blocs, but randomly, is being discussed. Perhaps this would increase the responsibility of each of the deputies, and the exchange of thoughts and ideas would be more intense. What is your idea?
G. B.: The commission, which meets after the convocation of the new parliament, deals with the seating of deputies. They are guided by the regulations and then coordinate the project with the factions. Somehow they agree. Now the monomajority is sitting in front, and the rest of the factions are behind them in sectors. Mixing it up is certainly an interesting idea. From the point of view of psychology, perhaps it is justified, because if you are outside your information bubble, you hear different opinions, you engage in critical thinking, and you begin to understand, think. But from a political point of view, this is impossible. If you get into someone else's field, there can be provocations and anything. This is politics - battles without rules.
In addition, when deputies are seated in blocks, the voting results are easily visualized - it is immediately clear who voted how. If the entire hall on the table is colored in different colors, it means that opinions are divided, therefore, the issue is very controversial. But the main thing is to be comfortable among like-minded people. I'll be honest: if I were put in a prison, I wouldn't be able to work there.
PM: And what do you think about the session hall itself, how comfortable is it?
G. B.: It is a very difficult place to work. First of all, it's crowded there. Even though we currently have 25 deputies from non-controlled territories less than there should be, there are still a lot of us. There are small uncomfortable chairs in the hall, on which it is difficult to sit for a long time. You have to get up every hour and stand or walk. And walking around the hall is, as you understand, not very good.
Once I was in the Italian parliament. Their amphitheater hall has a steep slope, you can't walk like that. And the government lodge is arranged differently from ours. In front of the deputies is the table of the government. All ministers work in the hall for the whole plenary day. I asked the tour guide, do they really sit all day? And when do they work? She answered: "Well, it's their job to listen to the deputies." Our Cabinet members come to the Council for just one hour on Fridays. And all communications between deputies and ministers are mostly on paper.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine — the main entrance from Mariinsky Park. Photo: Andriy Vyetoshkin
In Italy, during the consideration of a draft law, the specialized committee goes out and sits down in front of the deputies on the half-moon bench. That is, at the most important moment, all the main actors are sitting in front of you: committee members, ministers, the spokesperson. Therefore, the architecture programs the efficiency of work, and the very model of interaction with committees and the government also affects it.
Not a single deputy in the world is able to read and understand all draft laws that come to the session hall. Someone thoughtlessly relies on the decision of the faction and simply votes. But if you want to understand, then you need consultations. That is why our deputies are constantly walking around the hall. And this is already a very nervous place. Because it's very loud there.
PM: So our session hall also has serious problems with acoustics?
G. B.: Everyone has a morally outdated Rada system installed in their workplace, which is long overdue to be replaced. There are two speakers from which the speaker at the microphone rehearses in your face. There is a volume control, but it does not work. In some places, the echo interferes with understanding the speech of the speaker, and then you have to use headphones. Plus someone shouts from the seat, someone claps their hands. At the same time, everyone is walking and talking. They talk to each other and on the phone. After a few hours, you leave with a splitting headache. I thought that after the plenary sessions I would be able to read the documents. No. The sound load is very strong.
PM: Is the reason due to some constructive miscalculations in terms of acoustics?
G. B.: Hard to say. In silence, everyone will hear the speaker, even if the microphone is turned off. So, maybe the acoustics are good there, but the problem is a lot of different loud sounds.
PM: Let's try to get out of the hall and into the street. There are a number of issues regarding protest spaces. Different countries have different traditions — how and where exactly people protest against the actions of the authorities and politicians. In countries with low levels of democracy, protests are often limited, primarily by depriving people of places to gather. Christmas trees are installed or fairs are opened. And in Russia, they are currently compiling a list of guide parks, that is, rallies can only be held in specific places designated by the government. Do Ukrainians need specially designated places for rallies or do we gather randomly wherever we want?
G. B.: When I arrive in any new city for me, I ask: where are you going? Every city has one, at most two squares, where people gather purposefully to protest. Most often, this is the square in front of the regional administration, city or village council. In Kyiv, the place of protest against the actions of the state is the Maidan. Maidans used to be held on Sofiyivska Square in the upper city, which was due to the development of Kyiv.
There was no place to gather on Duma Square, Lypky and Pechersk were rather military settlements, and there were no administrative buildings on Podil. And all the intelligentsia of the upper city gathered near the main city temple and went from there either to the Duma or to Pechersk. With the appearance of the Independence Square, it became the main place for protests. And so, in my opinion, it should remain. Our task is to make the square convenient for protesters.
And other city squares should finally become convenient for walking with children and relaxing. Although if people suddenly want to go out for a protest, and the Maidan is closed, nothing will stop them. No flower beds, no benches, no park.
The tent city on Independence Square was dismantled only a few months after the Revolution of Dignity — in August 2014. Aerial photography: ©Yuriy Buriak (www.pizzatravel.com.ua)
PM: And how exactly can the square be made convenient for rallies?
G. B.: Competitive practice - as always. In 2014, the Terra Dignitas ideas competition was held, and then the project of a team from Taiwan won in the nomination "Public space of the Maidan and the core of Kyiv". This project was aimed at the future, and although it is impossible to implement, it is interesting in its concept. The architects proposed to create, in fact, the most expensive public space, filling the square with small, multi-colored granite fraction, which would be delivered from different regions, from different quarries of Ukraine. To show how huge the country is and how many inhabitants it has. But cleaning, sorting, sifting these pebbles is very expensive.
The authors of the concept followed our Revolution of Dignity and remembered the motto of the French student revolution of 1968: Sous les galets, la plage, which can be translated into Ukrainian as "Under the cobblestone beach." These architects were sure that our revolution solved the main problem of Ukrainian society, and after the crisis there would be no more bloodshed. They believed in it so much that they showed visions of a very distant future - pure and beautiful. And they won the first prize with their philosophical idea.
PM: We are not implementing this project because it is too expensive, or is there another reason?
G. B.: Also because no one from our current government is ideologically ready for such a project. I'm not sure that the townspeople are ready either. There will still be protests. We are only at the beginning of democracy. And here it is necessary to understand that the place itself has become so politicized that the city does not dare to simply close it with a fence and start reconstruction. First, close communication with the state and the community is needed. It is necessary to explain to everyone what and why this will happen, that the fence was installed not in order to deprive the citizens of Kyiv of a meeting place, but precisely in order to create it. Recently, the KMDA announced the renovation of the Maidan. But you can't do without repairs here.
If people suddenly want to protest uncontrollably, and the Maidan is closed, nothing will stop them. No flower beds, no benches, no park
The traditional place of protests in Kyiv is part of the Maidan around the Independence Monument. Aerial photography: ©Yuriy Buriak (www.pizzatravel.com.ua)
PM: And regarding the security of the space itself, to what extent has this aspect been discussed at all?
G. B.: The security aspect was included in the technical task. Another thing is who decided it and how. Ukrainian architects were more focused on ideology. Foreign - on a spatial solution. The most important condition for the safety of the square is its accessibility. No curbs, stairs, so as not to fall or trip, no sharp fences. Gentle slope for water to run off, non-slip surface. Some pretty simple stuff.
PM: So the Maidan in its current form is extremely dangerous?
G. B.: There are many differences in height, barriers and steps. It is necessary to clean everything in a good way. At the same tender, there was a proposal to raise the level of the carriageway between the two sections of the square, so that cars would slow down and stop, and pedestrians could pass without going down into the underpass. Unite this currently divided space. But every land crossing is so difficult for us that the KMDA is simply afraid to even stop cars on Khreshchatyk.
Hotel "Ukraine" closes the space of Maidan Nezalezhnosti from the south side. Aerial photography: ©Yuriy Buriak (www.pizzatravel.com.ua)
PM: And finally, I would like to know what the definition of "democratic architecture" means to you?
G. B.: First of all, this is an architecture that does not oppress visually. These are buildings in which you feel like a person, not an ant. For example, the President's Administration is a very difficult place in this sense. In narrow and high corridors, you feel like a mouse in a maze, and it's uncomfortable. Another characteristic of democratic architecture is its flexibility. Ability to transform. If you choose a style, it is probably modernism in all its manifestations.
PM: The architect's taste is understandable, but what if the residents themselves prefer houses with columns?
G. B.: Yes, the main thing is not the facade, but that people inside this building feel safe and can express themselves. But if you want to influence architecture, then enter the faculty of architecture, study and influence. The street never chooses the exterior of the building. Professionals do it all over the world.
/The material is published on the pages #29 of volume PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA/
