Igarka and Kedrovy are very small towns, one in the Turukhansk region of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the other in the Tomsk region. The population of 5 and 3 thousand people, respectively, is quite small, although it cannot be said that the names of these settlements are so unknown. Both cities participated in the recent competition of the Ministry of Construction for projects for the improvement of small towns and both this year did not pass the selection.
Improvement projects for these cities became the subject of students' work within the framework of the workshop “Variants of new content and understanding of public spaces in small towns of Russia”, curated by the Master's Plan urban planning bureau. For a month, the students worked under the guidance of the head of the bureau, Yulia Zubarik, and the chief architects of the bureau, Stella Politidi and Yulia Nurdinova. The working condition was close interaction with residents and administration.
Igarka
Igarka is located in the Arctic. Only one territory is intended here for holding city events; with a project for its improvement, the city entered the competition of the Ministry of Construction. The results of a survey of the Igarka population showed that in terms of leisure activities, residents lack quiet recreation areas, for which 12% of respondents voted, lighting (12%), a natural landscape park - 9% of citizens voted for it. Playgrounds are missing 10% of residents. 9% of residents voted for the stage for holding citywide holidays. Also, residents want to have a sports ground, jogging tracks, a museum of permafrost, an observation deck for observing the northern lights in the city. All these wishes were taken into account by the group led by the chief architect of Master's Plan projects, Stella Politidi.
The project, created by the students, provides for the organization of cultural and leisure spaces, the creation of a network of pedestrian paths, the renovation of the hotel's facade and the square in front of it.
The architects also tried to reflect the city's identity in its landscaping. Thus, a pavilion of the museum of permafrost appeared in the project, where it is supposed to place a part of the exposition of the "large" museum located outside the city limits. A café with an observation deck is planned, from which in winter the best view of the northern lights - the main natural tourist attraction of the city - will open, and in the summer - of the Yenisei River. Children's and sports grounds, a barbecue area are planned. And if a sports box is difficult to decorate, then the playground resembles yarangas - traditional portable houses of the peoples of the north.
Cedar
The second city, with the space of which the students worked under the guidance of another chief architect of Master's Plan projects, Yulia Nurdinova, is Kedrovy in the Tomsk region.
The peculiarity of the city is its demographic composition: 30% of the population are children under 19 years old. Hence, the task set by the administration is to create a space with a “family bias”. Today in the city there is a House of Culture and a church for leisure, and, of course, we would like residents to spend their leisure time more diversified. For this, it was decided not only to create a public urban space on the proposed site, but also a unified network of a natural route that unites the main green areas, which includes a health trail, a walking area along the new embankment, a summer school pavilion, a stage pavilion, art objects in the forest zone.
“There are no playgrounds or sports grounds in the city - nothing, just a kindergarten and a school. Therefore, we very much hope that both the administration and residents will like our project, and will win the competition next year,”says Yulia Nurdinova.
As for the public space itself, which received the conditional name "Center 2.0", then, according to the workshop participants, it should become a place of leisure for all residents, unite children and adults so that they can spend time together, gaining new experiences.
It is proposed to use natural materials - to build objects from simple wooden structures that will allow you to come up with new scenarios for games and provide contact with nature.
The work of one of the workshop participants, Yulia Kachura, was highly appreciated by the jury at the Open City conference: Yulia was awarded a trip to the Venice Biennale.
Today, participants in both workshops are preparing their works for submission of documents to the All-Russian Competition of Small Towns and Historical Settlements.
materials provided by the organizers of the workshops
