Archi.ru:
How did the UrbanUrban.ru project start?
Egor Korobeinikov:
- The UrbanUrban project has been really active only for the last two years, and began 10 years ago, when I was 18, and I studied strategic management, intending to work in the development department of some large corporation. My hometown, Perm, in which I then lived - a large industrial center without any leisure infrastructure - then seemed to me the best place on earth. And so it continued until I ended up in a volunteer camp in Prague, in the vicinity of a 13th century castle, where every day for two weeks I communicated with my peers from 11 countries. Both the urban environment of a European city and the model of behavior of foreigners, which differs from the closed manner that is historically inherent in Perm, showed me that Perm is not exactly the city in which I would like to live, and it needs changes. Then I began to study what exactly Perm is missing in comparison with other cities.
At what point did you decide to share this knowledge?
- The first attempt to share my knowledge was two articles written by me together with my father, who deals with issues of local self-government. He proposed to transfer the methods of building customer-oriented relationships by companies, which my dissertation was devoted to, to the relationship between the city administration and the townspeople, considering the government as a company that provides services for the townspeople, and the townspeople themselves as clients. The approach we proposed did not receive any resonance at that time, since it was a scientific article and, in addition, in that pre-crisis 2008, no one cared about the quality of the living environment, everyone was busy meeting their primary needs. Later, getting carried away by everything related to the Internet, social media and networking projects, I decided to combine this passion with my interest in the urban environment. And in 2011, having discovered that there was no special resource on urban studies in the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet, I decided to create it, and I had to learn how to do everything myself.
Why exactly "urbanism"?
- After attending the summer educational program at Strelka, I became firmly established in my choice of this topic. The lectures I heard shifted my focus a little: I began to pay attention to the arrangement of parks, cafes, urban design, architecture, people's behavior, and I tried to somehow categorize why I feel comfortable at one point or another.
Here, perhaps, it is still necessary to say what kind of meaning I mean in the concept of "urbanism". It is believed that this term was introduced into the Russian language and began to be actively used by Vyacheslav Leonidovich Glazychev, who gave this name to an interdisciplinary science that studies the complex structure of a city and offers scenarios and tools for its sustainable development. In English, for example, there is no word "urbanism" - instead, there are terms that more accurately reflect certain subject areas: urban planning, urban development, urban sociology, management. In the Russian language, all this and much more, which is associated with various practices implemented in the urban environment, is now referred to as urbanism. Therefore, instead of dividing this activity by subject matter, it is divided, rather, by the scale of the phenomenon: nano, micro, macro. The nano level is about urban interventions and social practices. The improvement of squares and other open spaces is a micro-level. Discussions on how cities should prepare for the FIFA World Cup and how to best manage the money that will be invested in the development of urban infrastructure, how to build the city's development so that the invested money will allow it to enter a new stage of development after the planned events are macro-urban issues.
Alas, now the very word "urbanism" has suffered the same fate as PR, start-ups and contemporary art in due time: it has become almost abusive, people do not understand the meaning of this term at all, and at the same time everyone is "engaged in urbanism", even the janitors, hipsters and contemporary artists. In motivation letters to the resumes sent to me, I come across such phrases: “I am more interested in urban studies than I am fond of” or “it seems to me that now it is very important to write about urban studies in which I live”. It seems to me that this reflects the understanding of the terminology very revealingly.
- What was UrbanUrban.ru composed of?
- I began by deciding to collect articles summarizing foreign experience in the field of urban space arrangement. When a team of enthusiastic translators from different cities gathered on social networks, we began to translate foreign texts. Now we prepare all the materials ourselves, without copying anything. And we work with different formats: from small notes about urban interventions and other pranks to detailed cases of the most significant projects of urban transformations. I like the UrbanUrban website for its atmosphere, presentation style, some kind of energy, visual component - it is a messenger of new urbanism at its best.
- When did you start writing your own lyrics?
- I started by coming up with headings, for example, "View of the City", which were accompanied by a suitable video. The real first material came out when I did an interview with Oleg Chirkunov, the governor of the Perm Territory, asking him about it on Twitter. Oleg Chirkunov initiated the creation of a strategic master plan for the city, which was completely new for Russian practice - using the example of Perm, the first attempt was made to comprehend the processes of urban planning, linking together socio-economic and spatial development, and I was curious to find out how this would be implemented. Ufa, Moscow, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk - all of them are now developing similar master plans for their cities.
It turns out that you worked alone for a very long time, not counting the translators?
- At first there was one, later like-minded people appeared, who began to write materials. Once I was invited to the “DelaiSummit”, and after the lecture, Maxim Motin, who had just been elected as a deputy of the municipal assembly of the Pechatniki district, approached me with a proposal for cooperation. When Sergei Sobyanin expanded his parliamentary powers and allocated an additional budget for the improvement of all districts of Moscow (each district was given from 20 to 40 million rubles and a decision period of 3 days), Maxim called me and said that he wanted to do something useful. Together with Gleb Vitkov from the Graduate School of Urban Studies and Olya Duka, we made up a presentation in two nights, showing simple examples of beautiful urban design, calculating how much it might cost, and presenting it at the municipal meeting. The deputies frowned, but on the whole they liked the idea, and they suggested that we take the most ordinary courtyard in the sleeping area of Pechatnikov and develop a solution for it. We were given two weeks for the project and promised to implement it, but nothing came of it. But journalists actively followed him, and deputies from other municipalities began to contact us. We really managed to work with two of them, and now projects are being implemented in Mitino and Troparevo-Nikulino.
Why do you think such projects are a widespread practice in the West, and only special cases in Russia?
- Urban planning is needed where there are market relations. More precisely, it is needed everywhere, but, in fact, it is nothing more than a method of finding a balance of interests between different stakeholders: citizens, municipality, investors, etc. They claim the same resources in the city, and it is necessary to find a compromise between these parties and ensure the city's sustainable and balanced development. Therefore, it is important to introduce different mechanisms of management, search and management of the balance of interests. In a directive economy, everything is planned based on the tasks of the state, and not on the needs of a person in a comfortable environment. In the USSR, a workers' settlement arose around the established enterprise - this is an example of a city-forming enterprise. But the market mechanisms for the attractiveness of the city and the living environment did not work then.
But the enterprise itself was a point of attraction?
- The question is, was this enterprise needed in this format? Norilsk, in which 177 thousand people live, did not need to be built as a city and to develop the entire infrastructure, because this is a great economic burden. In countries where fields are being developed on a rotational basis, they create temporary infrastructure that people need for a short period of time. It is more cost effective. Norilsk has already come to this model. There are no pensioners there, they are given 5 million rubles, the pensioner buys an apartment in the Moscow region and leaves. Norilsk assumes no obligations for hospitals, clinics and other social support.
Another example is Pikalevo. Business tried to curtail production, but residents managed to defend the city and get the authorities to intervene
- In this case, the state has taken on increased social obligations. As an economic subject, Pikalevo is not profitable or, at least, economically unstable, but people were brought there, and now no one needs them where they came from. And if business leaves Pikalevo, people will be left behind. This is a very complex story that demonstrates the distortions of national policies in the field of economic and spatial development.
Do you think there are any successful examples of urban development in Russia?
- I like what is happening now in Kaluga: on the initiative of the administration, over the past few years, they have managed to build an economy of a new order, for which they developed a special investment program, created conditions for manufacturers to build a plant in their area. Now several brands of cars are being assembled there, a Samsung technopark has been opened, and there is talk about building an international airport for the management of factories, consisting of foreigners. The presence of people of a different culture in a city also has a strong impact on the environment.
How does Nikola-Lenivets fit into the concept of this turbulent economy?
- This project is developing correctly, requesting not grants, but funds for development: give us a billion rubles and we will arrange people living in the nearest villages to work, and in 10 years we will return this billion to you, or at least we will provide ourselves … Any project must be economically sustainable, I always tell city activists about this.
And yet, on the scale of Russian territories, even "Nikola-Lenivets" is more of a micro. Can we talk about the possibility of macro changes?
- Consciousness from above will change when consciousness from below changes. As long as ordinary citizens do not realize that by paying taxes, they can treat the authorities as servants, and not as stewards, they will continue to drive with flashing lights in the opposite lane, no matter how much is said about public spaces, bike paths, petanque. Everything that is being done now, alas, is mostly a screen. These are not structural, not systemic changes. The fact that Gorky Park has appeared does not mean that the decision-making system has changed. Urban space is where people themselves determine what they will do in a given place within the framework of the law. And when they are told where they hold rallies, where they walk their dogs, and where they listen to music, it seems to me inadequate.
All the time you need to ask questions: why, why exactly? What is the expediency of making certain decisions, how much they change the situation and whether they will spoil it in 5 years. If we take the example of Perm, then there the new cultural environment was not institutionalized, the infrastructure was not created so that people could express themselves in this. Moscow cultural traders came, but nothing happened to the local community, there was only an antagonism between what Moscow knows and how Perm artists do not know and lagged behind the world. But when these kulturtragers left, there was nothing left. Hangover for four years.
Well, is there something good left?
- Good people. This is the only thing that inspires me now. Our school for urban activists, organized jointly with the Graduate School of Urbanism, is the best thing that has happened to me in recent years. This project gave me new strength and a little hope that we have the opportunity to change our cities.
Did people come there with any specific projects?
- The school only accepted participants with projects. It consisted of two streams - theoretical and practical. As part of the theoretical course, we gave lectures, trying to show the full breadth of the scope of the city activist, as well as the basics of legislation, business modeling, media promotion, about which many had no idea.
What projects did you find the most striking?
“I liked the Urban Carpet project, which we called“Kurban Carpet”: it is designed to solve the problem of the lack of prayer spaces during Muslim holidays. The author of the second project developed an art space in the very center of Nalchik and came with questions about what to do with it next and how to make money on it. We have developed specific recommendations, and in February he invites us to this event. There was also a very useful project in Veliky Novgorod, where the guys make a convenient pedestrian crossing through the railway tracks. Now Russian Railways has promised to build this crossing.
And to what extent do you think the educational program of the Center for Territorial Initiatives "Archpolis" will be in demand?
- This program prepares “smart developers” who will approach the development of territories a little more meaningfully, having the baggage of successful foreign and Russian cases and understanding what tools can be used to effectively manage the territory in our Russian realities. I really like the Nikola-Lenivets case as an example of this approach, and I believe that this scenario is quite applicable to other territories in Russia that are not very attractive so far. It seems to me that the more professionals appear at different levels, the more we will speak the same language, the easier it will be for us to negotiate and develop a common vision. Many Western people do not need to explain some things, because they already know them from childhood, their level of civic consciousness is much higher. Such programs help us to get closer to this, at least to understand how a city, a territory works, what can or cannot be done with it.
How has the portal's rubricator changed after UrbanUrban began cooperation with Archpolis?
- We have identified for ourselves five main topics that we intend to cover comprehensively. The first theme is related to the temporary use and rethinking of spaces and bringing new meaning to old spaces. This is all about the former industrial zones, wastelands, etc. The second topic is related to the development of local communities, urban activism, with the participation of people in making important urban decisions that subsequently affect their lives. The third thing we intend to monitor is information technology and technologies in a broad sense that are changing life in cities. Another major topic is education in the field of urban studies and urban planning. And, finally, social entrepreneurship as a tool and a set of practices that allow in a new way, from an economic point of view, to meet important social and urban challenges.
Have you found any outstanding projects that have changed the environment and can serve as role models?
- We started looking for new heroes outside the Moscow Ring Road and found them in Penza, Vologda, St. Petersburg and other cities, realizing that now there are a huge number of people who are changing their environment. It seems to me that we are a platform for young people to be recognized. It is important to show the emerging trend and make it popular. This helps activists to continue their activities, and in readers they can find future partners.
In addition, we deliberately continue to talk about what similar issues are being addressed in London, Barcelona, Rome and other cities around the world, including our closest neighbors from former socialist countries. I want people to feel unbearable from the way they live. And at the same time give them hope, show examples that demonstrate that everything depends on them. If they want to live like in New York or Berlin, then no one will do it for them. Everyone can participate in this improvement process: someone can plant a lawn, someone can give a soft loan, and someone just smile.
