Finally it is out, a whole magazine edition on Baku!
The chief editor of the reknowned German architecture and urban planning magazine Bauwelt, Felix Zwoch, found the city as exciting as we did.
Together we could realize an interesting compilation:
Why Baku?
Six young authors portray Baku,
the wild, beautiful city by the
Caspian Sea that has been elected
this year’s cultural capital
of the Islamic world.
Baku has always entertained a
difficult relationship to Azerbaijan,
a country that has changed
its language and script four
times during the 20th century.
.. got you interested?
English speakers can read the articles here
German speakers can download 2 Articles in German here and here
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today the people made me laugh a lot:
I was sitting in front of the main metro station “28th may” on one of those stones as u can see. I sat in a raw with all these sunflower seed-seller having the stuff they sell in front of them. As I had my camera gadgets in front of me - especially the tripod - people came by and asked what kind of a machine this is supposed to be and what I “sell”. As soon as there are two or three, you easily have a whole bunch of people admiring you. Instead of a stupid tourist waiting for somebody I’ve turned to be the entertainer, something that typically is happening here in Azerbaijan (-:
Da sitz ich vor der 28. Mai Metre, DER METRO schlechthin, warte auf einen Kumpel, sitze auf solch einem Steinpoller, wie rechts und links von mir die Sonnenblumenkern-Verkäufer & Co. Ihre “Mini-Verkaufsstände” vor sich, bilden wir so eine schöne Kette vor der Metro. Dieses Schema “da hockt einer, der muss was zum Verkauf anbieten” ließ die Leute gucken, als säße ich nackt dort. Als dann einige näher kamen, entwickelte sich ein kleines Schauspiel: binnen Sekunden standen mindestens 15 Leute um mich und fragten, was das wunderliche Stativ (mit blauer Pet-Flaschen-Verschluß-Käppi oben drauf) sei und was ich also anböte. Hihi, dafür liebe ich es wieder hier zu sein. Aus dem nichts heraus zu entert
Now only in English because the following announcement concerns a local event in Baku:
The British Council invited me to give a pictures illustrated speech on Baku.
And so I do: Sunday, 19 oct. 7 pm at the Landmark Building Lobby, Khagani 45 Str. - no entrance
more information, see here: bc_hazz_batch3b
Comment from 10/26/2008: it was a full success: about 70 interested people appeared and we had an interesting evening during outside a storm blusterd
English/Deutsch weiter unten
The upcoming week is my last one in Azerbaijan and will be very busy.
On the 9th of October we will open our exhibition for the German Embassy on German Architectural Heritage in Baku. It will be shown for 1-2 weeks in Kapellhaus on 28th May street.
Please excuse the lack of entries these days… Prints have to be organised, frames to be washed, hung and adjusted, invitations will have to be sent out, text to be translated…
This exhibition is quite a lot of work but unexpectedly has a lot in common with our topic of ‘urban changes’.
German Architecture in Baku – what exactly is it?
Continue reading ‘German Architecture in Baku today’
Our first public presentation in CRRC Baku…
Describing Urban Changes: Baku in the 21st century
10/07/08
CRRC – Azerbaijan is pleased to invite you to the project presentation on Describing Urban Changes: Baku in the 21st century delivered by Ms. Oriana Kraemer architecture student at Bauhaus University
Date: October 7, 2008
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Location: CRRC-Azerbaijan, Caspian Plaza, 44 J.Jabbarly Street, 7th Floor, Baku
Overview: “Describing urban changes” is a project of two students from Germany who tried to document the transformations of the fast growing capital. Between July and October 2008 the project team was observing the current urban changes that the Caspian Metropolis Baku is going through and its aesthetic, social and environmental impacts. The findings of the project will be exhibited in Baku and Europe, a book on the project will also be published.
Language: The presentation will be conducted in English.
Registration: To attend the presentation, please confirm your participation by writing to the following e-mail address: turana@crrc.az before October 6, 2008.
Sebastian oct 26, 2008: 25 interested people came - CRRC´s room was very full, we had a quite dense hour of speech full of pictures and gave a radio interview afterwards.
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Deutsch - English below
Meine Liebe Maschrutka!
Nun bist Du also weg. Man hat beschlossen, Bakus Verkehrssystem etwas Gutes zu tun und hat dich kurzer Hand von den innerstädtischen Straßen verbannt. Ausrangiert.
Meiner Meinung nach ein Fehler.
Auch wenn du “westlichen Standards” nicht entsprachst, du hattest Charakter, warst kundenorientiert hast es Sebastian und mir ermöglicht in den letzten 2 Monaten unabhängig, flexibel und preiswert unserer Arbeit nachzugehen.
Du warst Museum, Theater und Transportmittel in einem. Mit dir habe ich mich verfahren und die ganze Stadt gesehen. In dir habe ich Azeri gelernt. Ich habe deine Regeln kennen gelernt, deine inoffiziellen Fahrpläne gewusst und mich dadurch gleich ein Stückchen einheimischer gefühlt. Ganz pathetisch könnte man sogar sagen: DU hast aus Baku ein zu Hause gemacht.
Continue reading ‘Ein Nachruf auf den Minibus - Bye bye Marshrutka!’
Ursprünglich wollte ich diesen Blogeintrag “Of cats and rats” nennen, aber nun ist in letzter Minute doch noch das Element Hund hinzugekommen. Mit aus dem Urlaub sind einige Hunde mit zurückgekommen.
Originally I wantedt to write “Of cats and rats”, but in the last moment dogs intruded the species gallery.
Even though I am Vegetarian I am not a really great cats-lover.
Hallo Leute,
der eine oder die andere mag sich vielleicht schon gefragt haben: was fotografiert der Knabe eigentlich noch so ausser Häuser ?!
Da mir “sozial-kram” eh mehr liegt als reine Architektur-Fotografie, habe ich mir inzwischen 5 “Baustellen” gesucht, die ich regelmässig besuche. 1-2 werde ich wohl fallen lassen müssen, weil mir die Sprachbarriere zu große Hürden in den Weg legt, aber dennoch: es handelt sich um ein besetztes Haus, das als ganzes von einer Gruppe bewohnt wird, mit verschwimmenden Grenzen. Eine Wohnung, in einem normalen Haus, die “ganz normal” als Wohnung benutzt wird. Ein großes Hofhaus mit Bakus größten Innenhof, das in einem Jahr abgerissen wird, ein kleiner Innenhof, umrandet von verschiedenen kleinen ge-patchworkten Hausteilen und so eine Art Slum.
Habt Verständnis dafür, dass ich hier im Blog nicht repräsentativ Bilder zeigen kann, das würde spätere Veröffentlichungen gefährden…
Hi folks,
some may have wondered What actually I am shooting except for architecture…
Basically I have around 5 spots that I irregularly visit . It is a squatted house, a flat, a tiny yard sourounded by patchworked one storey detached houses, a huge house, 4 storeys with a big big yard and kind of a refugee-camp being more and more surrounded by highrises.
Understand that for later publications I can´t representativly show my photos on the blog. But some…
I attended a very interesting lecture at CRRC (Caucasus Research Recource Centre) Baku on Monday by a young Urban Developer, Dr. Anar Valiyev.
Based on his research in USA and Eastern Europe he explained the differences of urban development in both continents. Then, from the prospective of U.S. and European experiences, he discussed urban development of Baku city and various strategies to make Baku a competitive city.
This was especially interestig because of the creative and open input the few but engaged visitors gave on the topic. It was a surprisingly small group that day in the Caspian Plaza but with all the more will to educate and enhance things.
In the following text I will write about what I extracted from the lecture and what my own ideas on the topic are.
Continue reading ‘“Comparative Urban Development: Lessons for Baku”’
As usual: read my comments under the pictures!
Wie üblich: unter den Bildern gibt es Bildunterschriften!
