#volga2

[volgavolgavolga]

Lifted Buildings

The buildings of Astrakhan and the Volga delta is lifted above the threat of flood. Foundations or footings are prominent elements of this high-water architecture. From deep basements above ground, to feet that hold buildings above the wet, to barges and boat hulls, solutions are visible everywhere. 

[petrakovaalina]

KAZAN/VOLGA2/THE FLOOD

In 1956 in order to construct the system of water reservoirs, 2300 settlements were flooded. The consequences were immense. Not only did this cause problems with housing, but it also turned out as an ecological disaster for Kazanka river. Parts of the river were cut off from Volga and are now turning into swamps. Also the water flow was damaged. Because of that the river is getting very polluted .

[volgavolgavolga]

SARATOV FAVELAS

The first acquaintance with Saratov started from excursion with Igor, he is local informal ethnographer. Starting point was near the museum of local lore, next stop was street with a lot old half ruined wooden houses, we  were still in the city centre.  Passing by the streets picture haven’t changed, all street has only one-story buildings wood, brick, stone houses, all they look abandoned, ruined, you can't imagine that somebody can live here, some streets even hasn’t got a proper road, there is only mud there.

We had made a turn after some garages , it’s looked like empty space on some periphery, were only one thing you can find is  garages and abandoned cars, felt like it's not unsafely to be there, going down without a road, everything was dirty, everywere mud, after all found ourselves in the concrete road surrounding marsh. On the other side you can find houses,  quite populated. Igor told that actually this is a river Taybalik  and it's was putted inside the collector, and we are standing on it, later we found the hole and saw the river inside.

Moved on, its appeared that this concrete collector is a path, kind of road for locals. Its surrounds by the same type of houses that we saw in the central area streets, they all looks the same ruined with some supplemented small architectural forms, but actually  they are not abandoned at all, all this houses are full of life, they all inhabited.

Walking on the streets of Saratov, peek a sneak into alleyways and courtyards, everywhere in the city center you can find this favelas. Many of them have as a background picture of modern just built sixteen-story buildings. So  you can see this incredible contrast of new buildings and one-story pre-revolutionary houses. All these courtyards and houses equipped well, vast majority has some kinds of improvements, patches, add-ons, extensions, some have flowerbeds, some historic houses has increased volume of balcony, others has attached extra rooms, that are just built from all rubbish things that they could find in surrounding area .

Generally we can specify all the main Saratov favelas characteristics:

1_Most of the time all Saratov favelas you can find near newly built modern 15-20 story buildings, apartments.

2_Its always goes with the courtyard, from the main street you have a nice but quite ruined building of the end of 19 or beginning of 20 century, you go inside and see a courtyard. All rest buildings and shelters are faced to this courtyard. In the centre it can be placed a flower bed, or  some small shared public space for children.

3_ All buildings have some adjusted, completed, modified structures, the intervention, expansion of the new territory. It can be a adjusted room, it can be enlarged entrance, porch and attached loggia or a balcony.

4_ From the first view you all these buildings looks abandoned, but in a closer look you will be able to notice the details, signs of life and comfort such as flowers in window, nice curtains, in some courtyards you will find the clothes hanging on the rope outside.

Generally speaking Saratov has these two controversial vectors, in the one hand it’s seems to be perceived as die out, shrinking city, cause still there are a lot abandoned, burned, ruined houses in it, but in other certainly a lot of houses and districts that seems to be at first sight abandoned and inhabitant are full of life and their own aesthetics.

[volgavolgavolga]

The troubled relationship between Togliatti and the Volga

The town of Togliatti was founded in 1737 by Vasily Tatishev as a fortress to defend the Russian lands from nomads’ raids. Within 100 years starting in the 19th till the early 20th centuries the population of the town didn’t change much. Something that would change with the city’s seriously industrialization.

In the 1950s, with the construction of the Zhigulyovskaya hydroelectric station and the Kyubyshev dam, almost the whole town was flooded and so transferred and rebuilt, in a new place, almost absolutely like the old city. In this moment the old city of Togliatti and it’s existing relationship with the Volga river, died. The city continued to grow in other areas especially with the construction, in 1966, of the largest automobile assembly plant in the USSR. From this point on, the city grew continuously around it’s new industrial center and lost completely its connection with the Volga river.

Nowadays when we “walk” down Togliatti we find a huge empty and natural barrier that prevent us to even reach it. Not only prevents as it even hides it so well and so immaculately that eventually once you reach it, we only have around 10 days to fully enjoy it. After this, quite small season, we will find out that the water level has risen to a level that we won’t be able to lay our towel on the sand or swim without being afraid of being taken away by the flow generated by the open locks at the Zhigulyovskaya hydroelectric station.

But that is not all. Even in the residential areas along the Volga river the promise of a splendid and unique landscape full of life and leisure activities can be found in several outdoors. In this areas the price per square meter is so high that makes it an exclusive condominium.

That, unfortunately, in the end is nothing more than empty and decayed space that suffers from the same problems as any other part of the city: lack of people, good infrastructure and constant water level rising.

[volgavolgavolga]

New Architecture of the Volga

Astrakhan has many 'unifamily' houses, standing alone. While many of these are made of wood and in advanced stages of decay, this is the first city in Russia I've visited where new houses—as opposed to apartment buildings—are being constructed. In most cases, these are brick or some kind of masonry unit, with light roofs above.

The bottom picture in this set shows one of my favorite Astrakhan houses so far. It is built using the materials commonly available in Russia: prefabricated concrete blocks (in the foundation) and panels (for the walls above) and various kinds of brick to fill in the gaps and distinguish the parts of the house. While it looks rough now, it's habitable, and the details are still being finished (note the cement parging covering the seams of the panels, and not yet covering the seam on the second floor where the brick shows.

This house offers a glimpse of a new Russian architecture. In the 20th century, powerful nations mastered the industrialization of building materials and construction. In Russia, the scale of this industrialization was large, from the size of a wall panel up to the size of a microrayon, as opposed to the United States, which focused more often on industrializing materials of a slightly smaller scale (hence 2x4s, nail-guns, drop-ceiling panels). Here, we can see the large scale pieces that Russia produces used to create a unique product at a relatively small scale.     

[volgavolgavolga]

The Last Man on the Island

"I live here. To watch! I saw you, wanted to know what you're photographing. No, you can't photograph me. No. Where are you from. America? I'm Volodya, like Lenin. Nice to meet you Nikolai. There used to be a beach here. A resort. Restaurant, kiosk. A beach. That's my boat. I'm the only one who lives here. But I take turns! But only one man at a time sleeps on the island."

[volgavolgavolga]

Сортиры In Astrakhan

In Russian, the French word "sortir," to "go out" has become a crass word for outhouse. In Astrakhan and the surrounding territory, there are many examples of toilets with minimal interface between humanity and the dirt below. At most, water tanks above offer some kind of sanitary option. This architecture is especially interesting to observe in contrast with other kinds of infrastructure (like electricity, gas heat, buried sewers) but it's rarely pleasant when you need it most.