PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA: Now the presidents of countries, mayors, heads of municipalities operate with such a term as "happiness index" - they are proud of it, compare it, include it in strategic plans. And what is the main criterion of a happy city in your opinion?
Viktor Zotov: It seems to me that it is productive to invent a little and borrow a lot. That is, a rational approach to producing something beautiful. There is no need to invent quality of life criteria. There is a Mercer consulting agency, The Economist Intelligence Unit, Monocle Magazine and others that have already spent resources on this. Their ratings largely coincide. I even tried to compare them 10 years ago, and it turned out that one of the main criteria for the quality of life is safety. This is a very good word that can be interpreted broadly, starting with the "absence of a direct threat to life" in our cities and ending with a more subtle cultural context.
Viktor Zotov. Photo: Margo Didychenko
PM: Security in architecture — what is it?
V.Z.: From the point of view of an architect or urban planner, who are shaping the living environment in cities, safety is connected with spatial characteristics, with the quality of the artificial environment. The sector is extensive, but I can give a simple example. The transport system is similar to the bloodstream, and mobility here occupies a key position when we talk about the quality of the city. This is the circulation of urban energy. Traditionally, in the post-Soviet territory and in Ukraine in particular, it is customary to emphasize "cosmetics", on the external formal side.
For example, at the train station, the most important thing is fast and comfortable movement from point A to point B, the entire spatial organization should contribute to the solution of this task as much as possible. Instead, I have stalls with chebureks on my way, advertising (including audio) instead of navigation (a dark board or blinding light), steps abundantly decorated with "design" delights.
PM: But now urbanists are defending the abolition of underground passages. And they run into a misunderstanding: it was always believed that underground passages are safer.
V.Z.: Since the 70s In the last century, the absolute majority of civilized countries turned from car-centric development to human-centric, the conditions for motorists are getting worse and better for pedestrians. The trend is already 50 years old, and it's time for us to support it. By making the carriageway wider, organizing intersections with a convenient turning radius, we increase the speed of transport and reduce safety for both the driver and, above all, for the pedestrian. The old woman understands that the probability of falling on the steps in the underground passage is very high, and risks going where it is forbidden. And it can get under the wheels. Like any person who is in a hurry. I live near the "Arsenalnaya" metro station, and there is no overpass on the section to Slavy Square. But there is enough service on both sides of the street. People, including me, often run across the road, because going in the opposite direction and then going underground is uncomfortable.
People should live above, and cars should be driven underground, these are already strict civilized rules, let's use them.
To create a balance between traffic and pedestrians, it is worth going to simple life, downshifting
PM: What should we start with in Kyiv — with restrictions for motorists or with the development of public transport?
V.Z.: These are synchronous processes. The question "where to start?" immediately causes discussions - let's, they say, first win the war, and then we'll talk about landscaping and other minor matters. In fact, everything happens at once in life. Or nothing. Life is multi-layered, and culture is total. If something is locked, then a second exit must be provided. Parallel processes — we limit access to motorists, create comfortable public transport, cultivate a healthy lifestyle: teach people to walk more, travel by bicycle.
PM: It seems to me that our mentality has a tendency to skew one way or the other. For example, I often come across proposals to "close the city center for road transport". This sounds very radical. Or not?
V.Z.: Distortions are the theme of the duality of the world. As soon as you take the extreme position, your boat overturns. Therefore, in any question, we must be ready to choose one of the shades of gray, not white or black. A threatened population with a traumatic past, like ours, is often guided by the herd instinct. If, returning to the discussion of mobility, we propose to "close the center", then it is obvious that a collapse is possible if we do not put anything on the other side of the scales. We need to understand how to balance the situation, to achieve a balance. This is how to maintain balance on a bicycle - you need to avoid skewing. Maybe in order to create a balance between traffic and pedestrians, it is worth going to simple life, downshifting.
The concept of reconstruction of Sobornaya Street in Nikolaev with the organization of safe pedestrian zones. Project of ZOTOV&CO architectural bureau, 2017.
PM: Young urbanists in their plans and proposals are based on the fact that we all want to live in a comfortable and non-aggressive environment. But for many, an aggressive, toxic environment is just a natural habitat. And there are many such people. Is our society ready to live in a non-aggressive environment? Do planners and architects take into account the opinion of this fate of society in their calculations?
V.Z.: If you ask the question "do you want to live in an aggressive environment?", I think no one will answer positively. But in general I agree. Yes, most people feel more comfortable in the environment that exists today. Aggression is rather a consequence, and the cause is fear. Ukrainian tragic history gave birth to a society of fear, and it continues to be artificially cultivated. Now they are representatives of a parasitic business that benefits from a frightened person. This is a very convenient consumer who makes rash decisions. Therefore, consumerism in our society is expressed like nowhere else in the world.
How radically is it possible to change something, including in urban planning, in conditions of mutual mistrust? After all, if the majority does not support the reforms, then they have a low efficiency. But for a chain reaction of changes, the support of the majority is not mandatory, 5-10% is enough. Or even 2% support is enough to start irreversible positive processes. But, it seems, we do not even reach this figure.
The mission of CANactions, from my point of view, is to achieve the intersection of the European and Ukrainian worlds.
PM: To avoid culture shock?
V.Z.: There will be no culture shock. The historical flywheel is arranged in such a way that it strategically slows down some processes, which leads to averaging and avoids some mistakes. Do you want drastic changes? Me too, I have the image of such a dissatisfied person with inflated demands and expectations.
I notice a lot of problems, many of which, as it seems to me, can be easily fixed, and for this, neither time nor money is needed. For example, the doors in "Silpo" are sealed with an opaque film, and the person leaving cannot see the person entering, people are often injured. The question is, why did you stick the film? Remove her! It's simple! It is possible to divide all approaches, proposals for qualitative changes into two categories - those that require and those that do not require resources.
And in general: two things are fundamentally important for productive changes.
- You will see a beautiful distant, even abstract goal. Let it be a broad and vague direction, but it is a direction, a vector.
- It is very clear to understand the next step, even a very small one. The first does not work without the second, and vice versa. In general, everything is controlled by desire, "progress is driven by interest."
Emptiness is inevitably filled with vital energy, more meaningful and important for urban processes
PM: Our formal urbanists and officials often complain about the lack of initiative from below, grassroots requests. Civilizations are built by the rich, and since our society is poor, it simply does not want to live better?
V.Z.: Now it is fashionable to say that it is the fault of the bottom, the fools. But this is again one-sided: in nature, in the animal world, there is a hierarchy, and in successful human societies there is always a leader. I really like the comparison of the social structure with the human body, when there is a head, stomach, arms, legs. The head is the ruler, the chest is the warriors, the merchants are the stomach, the legs are the artisans, the hard workers. And it is obvious that the legs are your support, you don't have to fight with them. If you damage your finger, your head will be bad.
It is true about the initiative from below, but we really lack order from above.
PM: Another of the popular urban trends that are being actively promoted in Western Europe and the Scandinavian countries is the increase in the number of public spaces in cities. But our cities are densely populated, and they will become even denser, and here it is rightly said about the lack of privacy. Do you see a conflict in this?
V.Z.: In general, our density is not very high, this is not a problem. I perceive public space rather not as compaction, but as emptiness. Emptiness is close to freedom. Our people do not like empty space, because they are not ready for freedom, because it is a responsibility. Therefore, everything that is free is immediately filled with something, mostly shit (again, like in the body): fences, decorations, fakes. Европейская городская площадь is primarily an empty, stone-paved territory. But it is precisely on this territory that urban life arises. Emptiness is inevitably filled, not with forms, but with vital energy, more meaningful and important for urban processes. Starting with Jane Jacobs, urbanists demonstrate that open spaces are more safe.
It seems obvious to me that public spaces improve our lives. The duality of personal and public is a separate topic for discussion. I am sure that today the shift in the balance towards public will help the society to recover. Perhaps the moment will come when we want to talk about the opposite, but it will not be soon.
CANactions School workflow. Photo: Margo Didychenko
PM: Swedes and Danes think the same and operate in the categories of communities and even communes. And for us, the very word "commune" causes rejection on an emotional level. Perhaps the post-Soviet society has not yet experienced the collective trauma of collectivization?
V.Z.: Yes, this may be the reason for our separation. We are so traumatized by the "scoop", the experience of violent collectivization, that any mention of it causes repulsion. It is not easy to come to a common opinion even among the employees of my wonderful team of like-minded people. Try to get people out into the street, onto the Maidan — you won't gather more than a few dozen. We are so diverse. Slogan for today: "Find something common with a second person." This is a thesis to which all foreign institutions represented in Ukraine are pushing us, including with the help of our CANactions. After all, it is no coincidence that the theme of this year's festival is "Communities". Let's try to do something together!
In Between, between the apartment doors and the street, the most important social processes are born
PM: It often happens that even if we have common goals with our neighbors, we see the ways to achieve them so differently that we quarrel already at the discussion stage. Here, for example, a discussion arose in our small residential complex - how to make sure that there are enough parking spaces for everyone. They started with questions and ended with personal insults. As a result, the banal problem was not solved. What is the error?
V.Z.: The reason for gathering is not important. Once we visited our Swiss friends in Zurich. It started with a staircase party. Residents come out to the beautiful bright staircase with pies and wine to chat. There was a gallerist there - a very wealthy man, next to him - a family of poor migrants. The social level of residents is very different. The four-year research of Swiss urbanist colleagues as part of the In Between program was based on the study of the role of the space between the apartment doors and the street. It turned out that the most important social processes are born here. Switzerland is an old democracy, they know how important it is for the whole country to negotiate with neighbors about a bench at the entrance. Our CANactions also implements a similar practice, acting not so much as architects, but as moderators. The city is people.
Miriam Niemeyer, program curator of CANactions School, founding partner of the Helsinki Zürich Office. Photo: Margo Didychenko
PM: And if we lower the city codes from above?
V.Z.: Human relations must change, otherwise you cannot change the garden. Okay, rapid external changes are possible in an authoritarian society. Recently, we went to Minsk to present CANactions: we saw beautiful roads in the city, landscaping. But there are no people on the street. That is, you cannot fully launch these top-down processes. Transformations "from above" can be very effective. No matter how hostile we are to Putin, to Russia, to their totalitarian and aggressive regime, look at how much has been done in Moscow recently! There, the streets on the outskirts sometimes look better than the center of Kyiv. Totalitarianism is always much more productive than democracy. True, until now.
/Published in #10 volume Pragmatika, April 2019/
