Trajectories of murmansk

REORIENTATIONS reorient |rēˈôrēˌent|verb [ trans. ]change the focus or direction of

A city is complex just like every other space on earth and should not be sim-plified. A place is always changing and it is never finished but always develop-ing with time. During this project I have tried grasping some of the complexity of Murmansk and its surroundings.

The arcticWhen starting this project, I knew that the arctic is struggeling with problems like industrial pollution and climate changes. It will be fatal for the biodi-versity and ourselves. When the ice melts it no longer works as a reflec-tion for the sun, and the permafrost in the earth disappears so that the earth releases carbondioxide. This has rip-

ple effects; the global warming will go even faster and the world will soon look completely different. The biodiver-sity is allready suffering.

Murmansk CityMurmansk is the biggest city in the arctic. It is a young city and was found-ed in 1916. Fisheries, mining and met-allurgy has long been the citys biggest industries. Military forces are also big in the area, but they are mainly located outside the city.

The last decades the population has decreased drastically with 25% in the last 15 years, espesially of the young population. Hearings show that many

more wants to move, but they cannot afford it because of expensive prices in the south.The soviet era is still present in the city, with a slow bureaucracy and peo-ple finding it difficult to take initiative.

The last years there has been dis-covered big areas of oil and gas, e.g. stockman. Some expect the popula-tion and the economy of Murmansk will grow because of oil industry.

SocialThe russians may not be as nature-loving as norwegians, but they like to go sking in the mountains close to the city in the winter and other acticities

are fishing, hiking and sailing. When being there myself, I was told about lacking offers for youth.A special social phenomenon in Rus-sia are their garages, where the men meet and socialise while fixing their cars.

Emerging landscapeThe urban landscape is characterized by a monoculture grounded in the cit-ies leading industries.

Unhuman dimensions, huge build-ings and distances between them; it is made more for industry than for peo-ple.Pollution

I met and talked to the municipality when I was ther myself and they told about their plans for the citys 100th aniversary in 2016; They has planned to build more monuments and a new shopping mall. Other plans included luxury flats, parkinghouses, bicycle routes and a sport scenter. No res-tauration of old buildings was planned even though big parts og the city is de-caying.

During my early research I have re-searched the vulnerability of the ga-rages and looked at several hundred pictures at google earth of Murmansk, the city and the area surrounding Mur-

mansk/Tuloma river. That´s why I also looked up info about vegetation and wildlife, politics, economy, industry, so-ciological aspects and pollution, where I among other things surprisingly found out that the close-to-murmansk millitary cities are facing a new future as Putin is builing up his military sub-marine fleet and paying higher sallar-ies to the millitary.

Wether the population increases or shrinks, which we don´t know, I think something has to be changed in the city.

Forrest

Tundra

Forrest

MURMANSK

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Changing focus

My findings showed that the city is de-veloping in the near future in a way that is not sustainable for the city and the arctic as a whole. Inspired by Gregory Bateson and his ”Steps to an ecology of mind” I concluded that the importance is to be as flexible as pos-sible to overcome the challenges the earth is in. In order to be flexible we have to make sure that we don´t de-stroy the sustanance for animal and human survival.

One way to do this is, in my opinion, to introduce some counteracts to the earththreatening acts taking place to-day; focusing on art and ecological processes.

I am not just aiming for “a happy city”, but hoping that there can be a change in people´s mindset.

I think some of these counteracts could be focusing on diversity, human initiative and ecological processes, which there seem to be a lack of.

My proposal here may not be direct-

ly linked up to climate changes, but hopefully it will give the city something new, something that over time will strengthen it, and strengthen values that are contrary to those ruining our society.

I think art and can change society, and also a better understanding of ecology.That is why I have focused on exactly this.

My interventions are based on rus-sian culture. I want to take some of the

good cultural identity in Murmansk and give it a new possible trajectory for the time to come.

I have focused on the russian garages mentioned earlier and spare-time fish-ing and sailing.

The idea is that I am doing some low scale acts that can have positive ripple effects and develop over time, both spacially, socially, politically and in peoples mindset.

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Tundra: reindeer, norwegian lem-mings, voles, fox, arctic fox, wolf, grouse, owl.

Forrest: elk, brown bear, marten, fox and squirrel. Birds: grouse, woodpeck-er, warbler, bunting, cuckoo, buzzard, eagle.

Lakes and rivers: insect larvae, worms, air beetles, caddis flies, mos-quitoes, flies, river hydra, leeches,

daphnia, cyclops, salmon, sea trout, carp, perch, pike, burbot,muskrat, ot-ter, mink, water vole.

The coastal waters of the White and Barents seas: herring, cod, haddock, saffron cod, saithe and plaice. All year round the coast are holding seal and sea hare. Every winter, the White Sea seal herds come. Of whales can be seen belugas. In the summer of coast-al waters is killer whale, and in some

months there are baleen whales and graze minkvaly.

Pollution: Report from 2005: In the eastern district (by the sea) there is significant pollution. Almost all year round the average daily concentra-tions exceeded the permissible level in the eastern city.During the anticyclonic circulation, pollutant concentrations in the sur-face layer of the atmosphere was in-

Hydroelectric powerstation

Hydroelectric powerstation

Lake Notozero

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Kola -ancient pomor city

Nuclear power plant

Polyarnyy -Colsed city

Severomorsk -Closed ci

Murmansk

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Mosiac of Murmansk City Mosaic of Murmansk- and Tuloma River

Gregory Bateson´s figure explaining root causes to all human threats.

My idea is to make act with posi-tive ripple effects.

MAPS

HistoryHistorically the garages has meant a lot to the russian men. It goes back to the 70ies when the only privately owned property they had was their car. They built garages for themselves to keep the car inside during the winter and to have a place to fix it. It quickly turned out to be more than a garage; a hangout, a fridge for food and a social meeting place. Some even built sau-nas inside their garages.

The garages today:Because of population decrease, a lot

of garages has been standing empty to rot. This is espesially the garages in the outskirts of the garage areas.

The municipality is planning to remove several of the clusters becuase of lacking space in the city center. They want to build parking houses instead. This is the same destiny the garages has had in other russian cities. They just don´t seem to be able to survive in a modern oil city. Or can they? “The times are changing; a few years ago Russia paid off its debts and the development that has followed is obvi-

THE RUSSIAN GARAGES

Garage clusters that is planned to be moved to make more room in the city.

ous on many levels. The need for car repairs is not as big as it was. In some places the garages become redundant and decay.” -Iwan Thomson

Not all russians see why they should be kept:

“No, I will not miss the garages when they disappear, I like high-tech, so if there is coming something instead of the garages, I´ll be happy”. -Igor

“People call them seashells, I don´t know why because seashells are so beautiful and the garages are sp ugly” -Woman from murmansk

But have they not meant a great deal for the russians? Socially, spacially and individually?

A new trajectory

Murmansk has some museums, theat-ers and an art school and there the first youthhouse is being built now at the time being, though this has its lim-ited capacity. There is still a lack of a common platform for young citizens and a place for them to develop skills.

I suggest that some of the threatened garageclusters can get a new life. As the russians allready have shown, the garages can be used for practically an-ything.

As said before, there is a lack of youth activities in the town. However the the youth are becoming more politically and environmentally concious.Youth in Murmansk seem to need more plac-es to stay and develop. They could be handed a garages and fix it them-selves. By inhabitting the empty areas of the garage clusters, they could bring new life and strength to the garages, without interrupting the other garage owners. There could be arranged ex-hibitions and attract even more people from the cityfrom time to time.

It could turn out as a dynamic living or-ganism changing day by day.

FinanceThe garages are privately owned. The old get to keep their garages, the young can take over the left ones and fix them themselves.

Instead of tearing down the garages and putting up parking houses, I sug-gest that some of the many empty and decaying housing blocks could be torn down and given room for parking houses.

That way the garages can live on. The cost for taking over the abandoned garages cannot not be too expensive. The idea is that they fix them and do practical work themselves. As well as being financially profittable this could also give the garages a new modern touch.

A small first time fee could come from norwegian investors and in time, some investments from the municipality.

Architectural valueAs well as an historical and cultural value, the garages also have a spa-cial value. The structure of the garage clusters has a smaller scale than the rest of the buildings in the city, they are flexible and create a variety of space in between them.

“This chaos and instability, which is fundamental, founding and irreduc-

ible, is at once naturally the worst against which we struggle with laws, rules, conventions, politics and provivi-onal hegemony, but at the same time it is a chance, a chance to change, to destablize. Chaos is at once a risk and a chance” Derrida

“Architecture can avoid the traps of pre-scriptive formmaking whilst releasing the potentials of the INCOMPLETE, of the yet-to-be” Andrew Benjamin

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“It is a map, and a space, which leaves openings for something new”.1. Showing all the garages and 2.the one I chose to work further with. 3.,4.,5. The empty garages in the periphery that the youth can take over.

Garagerock and artstudiosI am suggesting that determined youth from murmansk could be handed a ga-rage as a studio for whatever creative field they are pursuing.

It could become an exhchange for ide-as and a strong participant to the cul-tural life in Murmansk.It is not sure how this project would develop over time, but hopefully the initiative and work by the youth would

keep the area alive

It would change with at times of the year from the cold snowy winter, with skiing and indoors-life to a green and colourful garden with plants in the summer.

Over time, it might change peoples at-titides to destrying industries and cli-mate changes.

and lakes near Murmansk shows high to extreme levels of pollution. This is not good, and it sure has effects on creatures living in the water and the salmon should propably not be eaten either.

“With the aquisition of 63,5 percent of the shares in the Russian Arctic port, the coal company SDS-Ugol secures full control of the maritime hub, the second biggest in Northwest Russia

The Russian state controls another 25 percent of the port. However, this

stake will soon be up for privatization.”Shtokman will contribute to long-term energy security on the local, European and international markets supplying sizable portion the gas to meet grow-ing demand for energy.

Introducing some counter actsMy idea is to make the citizens closer to the Murmansk river by building a pier far out on the river where they can get closer to the water element and sit and watch the city from the water. Hopefully, watching the city from this industrial site can make people realise

the horrible effect all this industry has on the environment and what tragic outcome it can have. Maybe then peo-ple would work harder to keep the riv-er clean.

Maybe they would require a new salm-on lift and salmon stairs to get the numerous fish back? Or maybe they would require more environmental work proceidures by the indutreies at the harbour?

ArchitectureThe pier could easily be made, even

Murmansk riverThe positioning of Murmansk by the fjord and its long seaport gives Mur-mansk great opportunities go fishing in the barentz sea. However, there are quite a lot of salmon in the river, and citizens sometimes go fishing in the river both summer and in the win-ter, doing ice-fishing.This in spite of the waterpollution. However this is not made easy for them because of the huge industrial area. There are lots of docks and piers, but noone made for the human body instead of industrial ships.

Even though there still are salmon in Murmansk river, there used to be a lot more. The Tuloma river has been dras-tically reduced due to the Hydro Power Stations ruining the migration routes.

A salmon lift and salmon stairs was built, but did not work well.

It does not help for the salmon that the Murmansk river has suffered from se-vere pollution and this is still a prob-lem.

TodayA new study on water quality in rivers

INTO THE WATER

ArchitectureThe pier could easily be made, even by the youth in the garage cluster nearby, by putting together floating materials and per say driftwood, and anchor it some places.This way it could be built longer, adding “branch-es” or have parts taken away.They can go fishing, bathing, tie thei canoes to it and in the winter , ice-fishing, ice-skating and sit whatching the city from afar,

In the far future it may also be installed an underwater salmoncamera like they have installed in Suldal, so people can look at them and take a part in their life under water, like they have succesfully done in Suldal kommune in Norway.

It could even have been designed esp-

esially for the fish and birds..

The idea by introducing this pier is not merely to “improve” the city space, but hopefully to make people think about pollution an have something to fight for.