Nadezhda Snigireva and Dmitry Smirnov, one of the founders of the Vologda Project Group 8, gave a lecture at MARSH school on Tuesday, combined with the presentation of Henry Sanoff's book “Collaborative Design. Practices of public participation in shaping the environment of cities and towns”, the publication of which was initiated and prepared by the architects themselves. The principles outlined in the book have long been followed by Nadezhda and Dmitry themselves, despite the fact that in Russia architecture was traditionally implanted from above. In the rather authoritarian architectural practice of our country, it is not customary to listen to the opinions of users, and even more so to try to involve them in the design process. For several years now, Project Group 8 has been trying to resist the established system, actively involving the residents of Vologda to participate in the life of their native city. About how it turns out, we asked Nadezhda Snigireva, an architect and a specialist in collaborative design, who had already presented her ideas in an article published six months ago on Archi.ru.
Archi.ru:
What do you mean by the concept of "participatory design"?
Nadezhda Snigireva:
- The definition of this concept was given by Vyacheslav Glazychev. But we brought a lot of our own into it. Rejecting such hard-to-pronounce and not quite understandable terms for ordinary people, such as participation or democratic design, we have come up with a capacious and simple name for a complex process. It involves more than just citizens. It is important to cover a variety of disciplines - design, marketing, urban studies, to build a dialogue with the city authorities and the business community. Participatory design is a multi-stakeholder process. And the result of the process, ideally, should be a project that meets the expectations of residents.
How can such a method be useful in the Russian design conditions?
- For us, it all started with the realization that project communications are often absent in the design process. There is no team of specialists, there is no understanding: why the project is being created and who will use it. As a result, the urban environment is formed on the initiative of the investor, but primarily affects the life of the local community, which is often not ready for changes. As a result, there is inevitably a public outcry, discontent of the townspeople, and sometimes a ban on construction. The customer loses money, people get a lot of negative emotions. Our goal is to build the process differently. Research and consideration of all opinions should precede the design and be its basis.
How do you manage to apply this approach in practice?
“In practice, it is not only involvement that is needed. At the initial stage, initiative is needed. One of the illustrative examples of the implementation of this approach is the Drama Theater public transport stop in Vologda. It was an initiative from below. Our bureau took part in a youth forum, where we tried to draw attention to the problems of public transport and the shortage of stops in the city, because of which passengers, while waiting for the bus, had to get wet in the rain. We managed to take first place and receive support for the implementation of our project as a prize. And in just three months, the stop was built.
During this time, we carried out an analysis, collected the opinions of representatives of carriers, departments of the city administration, theater employees who zealously defend the idea of preserving the appearance of the modernist building of the adjacent theater, and, finally, the passengers themselves. They asked people on the street, organized meetings and social events. Extensive discussion made it possible to identify the main preferences of the townspeople and, on their basis, to formulate the key criteria for the typology of urban public transport stops being developed. For example, the majority of residents, instead of plastic and metal pavilions, which are very often exposed to acts of vandalism, wanted to see wooden ones. There is a special attitude towards wood in Vologda.
The constructed stop has been standing safe and sound for two years already. Unfortunately, from the point of view of the quality of implementation, in view of the very limited budget, not everything worked out. But we have shown that the initiative of the townspeople makes sense, and the architect can and should also act as an activist.
The architects played the role of activists just in the "Activation" project. How do you rate this experience?
- The project for the transformation of public spaces in Vologda was implemented in 2012. The architects then acted not only as activists, they designed and built five public zones on their own. It is interesting that the project grew out of nothing, was implemented at the expense of caring citizens and entrepreneurs, but most importantly, it showed that we, architects, can influence the development of the city.
Tell us about your initiative for the improvement of courtyards in Vologda
- We tried to work with courtyards, but the situation was greatly complicated by the lack of a budget. There was no one to implement the solutions offered to residents completely free of charge. And they themselves did not want to take on it. It turned out somewhat better in Ufa. The interest of citizens and city authorities in our experience of participatory design helped to develop the right approach: it is not enough to do a project, it is necessary to explain how to implement it. In the words of one of the residents, “you don’t need to give people fish, it’s better to teach them how to fish”. Why, for example, do residents everywhere make swans from old tires? Not because they really like them. But because everyone knows how to do it. Based on this logic, for one particular yard in Ufa, we have developed step-by-step instructions and registered the implementation queues. At the time of project development, an active group of residents was formed, which helped to involve the rest of the population.
Inspired by these results, we launched an initiative for the comprehensive improvement of residential areas in Vologda. Next summer, we plan to issue instructions for citizens, including a twelve-step model that will help residents tidy up their courtyards, assess the quality of landscaping, and learn how to manage their territory. This summer we plan to take part in the city educational project - "School of Landscape Design", which helps people to acquire basic knowledge and skills in the field of landscaping. Also, our team, together with the Seliger and PLRK architectural bureaus, is participating in the work on the transformation of two courtyards together with initiative residents within the framework of the Art-Dvor program for the Art-Ovrag festival in Vyksa, partial implementation of improvement projects is already planned this summer.
Probably the most ambitious project involving your bureau is New School, where you are trying to create a very flexible program for such a tightly limited institution. Again, based on the opinions and wishes of the townspeople. Tell us about it
- The construction of a new school in Vologda is a real event, and an extremely important one. The "New School" program was developed in the fall of 2014 at the initiative of the city authorities, I worked on a study for this project, which ultimately formed the basis of the design specification.
The principle of operation in this case was similar to the analysis carried out during the design of the stop: meetings, workshops, interviews with teachers, students and their parents, brainstorming sessions, research and design games. In total, over 400 people took part in the project, who formulated more than 500 proposals. We worked with schoolchildren of different ages. The children were asked to answer simple questions about what they like and dislike about their school, and what they think it should be. The most amusing point of view was formulated by a primary school student: "The school should be such that it would be a pity to undermine it." The children also worked in groups, assessing the territory, facades, interiors, recreation and suggesting their own ideas for improving the space. There are three main proposals. Primary school students focused on the classroom. The middle link came up with an island school, where recreation is the sea, along which you can travel from one island class to another. High school students, on the other hand, took the central place to recreation, which turned into a huge atrium with recreation areas and cafes, while the classes were in the background.
Based on the data obtained, ten key principles were developed that were included in the TOR. For example, the principle of spatial diversity - when all rooms are different from each other and demonstrate the merits of a particular object. The project is still under development, but we hope that our research will be taken into account.
You mentioned the experience of working in Ufa. In what other cities, besides Vologda, have you ever introduced your participatory approach to design?
- We have worked in many cities. We took part in a competition in Kazan. We held a workshop for architects in Yekaterinburg. We developed a project with the involvement of local residents for the development of the village of Borisovo-Sudskoye in the Vologda region. We took part in organizing a forum for teenagers in Kargopol. In Moscow, we managed to take part in the competition for the concept of reconstruction of the Voskhod and Varshava cinemas.
Not so long ago, embankments in the central part of the city were reconstructed in Vologda. It is planned to reconstruct several more sections along the river with the felling of trees and the destruction of the existing landscape. It is quite obvious that not all townspeople were enthusiastic about this project. Isn't this a case where initiative from below would be extremely necessary?
- In the provinces, for some reason, it is believed that concrete embankments are good. But you cannot take the St. Petersburg embankment and move it to Vologda. Because of this, all identity of the place is lost. I know that people were skeptical about the project. As soon as the city's plans became known, our team tried to intervene. We analyzed the situation and realized that, unfortunately, we could not change anything. This is a federal program. And, as they explained to me, even the tile article cannot be changed in the developed project. There are times when any initiative is powerless. But still, if we talk about the implemented site, we should try to collect the opinions of the townspeople, and, for example, try to "revive" the embankment, making it completely pedestrian, supplementing it with urban furniture, plants, trees. As for the next stages of the project, in my opinion, it is simply necessary to establish a dialogue with residents and take into account the mistakes that have already been made. We very much hope that this will be done and not in the mode of formal public hearings. For our part, we are ready to actively participate and help involve citizens in the discussion and search for solutions.
