Before I put some more relevant pictures online, see this! One of our today weekend sights…
Bevor Ich Relevanteres online stelle - dies! Eine unserer heutigen Wochenendattraktionen…
Archive for the 'urban' CategoryPage 2 of 3
Hier eine Fotoserie, die ich kürzlich auf sueddeutsche.de fand:
Städtischer Wandel in Peking…
Ähnlich unserem Thema, wenn auch im Vergleich recht oberflächlich…
First bad experience today, which really put me in a bad mood.. We were given a new assistant by our friend Attila and did some great Interview with her help in a very interesting part of the city. It went all very well until we got back to the city centre after having lunch.
I was interested in one of the houses at Malokhan Park, right in the city centre. They had pulled down everything except the front facade and some ground floor walls in quite a prestige-area.
I had always thought this kind of area was safe from being demolished but I must have been wrong. In fact this building dating back to 19/20th century is (apparently) going to be replaced by a highrise building as we heard later on from one of the builders.
We went inside and were soon stopped by an angry Lady who was probably one of the last inhabitants of these ruins. If she didnt hate us so much, she would have probably been a very interesting interview partner. Instead she kept on accusing us that we were the ones making her life hard, that we were coming to her country buying off the places, “Baku should be for Azeris and not for f… Americans…”
Continue reading ‘Angry lady makes me wonder’
No weekend: Our work is a daily hunt for interesting conversations, gripping photomotives, mapping, exploring every part of the city and getting insights in the inner lifes of houses.
We are talking to people on the street, knocking on doors, drinking chai with welcoming Azeris, doing lots of pantomime for basic conversation, hiding away from security and police in order to get some good shots, going to ambassador dinners, doing research on the internet, in libraries, or interviews with professionals from the building business.
Here some images of our working process:
We found out that a area of about 1/4 km² might be demolished in order to build a park. Even though Baku isn´t a totally dry city this project will hopefully improve local amenities. Therefore this would be considered as a ‘constructive deconstruction’ as opposed to the demolition caused by private investors.
A pity for some real beauties as this house here:
Einige Häuserblöcke (ca. 1/4 km²) werden wahrschenlich zu einem Park umgewandelt werden. Es ist zwar nicht so, als gäbe es in Baku kein Grün, aber dennoch ist dieser zu erwartende Abriß anders einzuschätzen als solche, die von privaten Investoren veranlaßt werden. Da der Park dem Gemeinwohl zugute kommt.
Trotzdem schade um einige Schätzchen:
We also started our street interviews “officially” yesterday and revealed some interesting “facts” about Baku’s development.
In the picture you can see our key to the Azeri/Russian speaking world Darina (Architecture student and great aid in our work process) one of our interview partners and me.
A couple of days ago we visited an interesting project with our potential sponsor SEDUS.
An old Hamam - being reused as an office building, refurbishing and maintaining the historic soviet structures from the 40ies/50ies, revealing the regional limestone on the inside and outside.
This might be a nice example for a developer choosing the advantages of flexible floor plans, a cooling atrium and beautiful high quality stone structures as opposed to demolition and a fast erection of a new high rise building.
Soviet Hamam (1950) being renovated instead torn down / Altes 50er Jahre Soviet-Hamam, das renoviert statt abgerissen wird
A glass self-made raspberry Mojito is excellent for brainstorming and philosophising about Baku’s future..
fresh mint leaves
thin lemon slices
sugar
crushed ice
frozen raspberries
light rum
soda
shake and – ready the “Baku Pirito”
Continue reading ‘Mojito à la Pirouz’
E: Despite my early expectations Baku’s public squares and parks are numerous, populated and green.
A big part of city life is taking place in the atriums of the houses dating back to the first oil boom period (1880—1920) though. These courtyard-typologies are often shared by 5-30 Families and connected to the street by a wide drive-in.
Families meet here when the afternoon sun finally weakens, children play, women wash and hang up their washing, the drive-ins are used for sale of fruits and vegetables, while cats are relaxing next to the bins and men are playing backgammon or domino in front of the house.
These housing typologies are typical for Azerbaijan and its culture and even reoccur in illegal settlements.
For whole article and German text Continue reading ‘Urban Issues’
yesterday we had an excellent guid by an excellent guy: Fuad Akhundov. Driven by any higher might he was dancing with us (8 westerners) through the inner city of Baku, telling enthusiastically interesting stories of “Ali and Nino” the AZ version of Romeo & Julia, showed us the first women school in muslim world, let us be part in his meticulous investigations about the history of many buildings or rather: their owners and their fate.
So thanks Fuad for your strong voice that was enlightening us in spite of the tremendous acoustic pollution of Baku city
Gestern peitschte uns Fuad, bereits durch Orianas Blogeintrag vorbekannt, durch die Innenstadt. Wie ein Besessener zauberte immer wieder verschiede Bilder aus seinem kiloschweren Akkordeon-Ordner und begeisterte uns acht Wessies von “Ali & Nino”, den bakuwinischen Romeo & Julia, klärte uns über die erste muslimische Schule für Mädchen auf, und ließ uns auch sonst ausführlich an seinen akribischen Recherchen teilhaben. Häuser und die Geschichte ihrer Erbauer.
Danke für die lautstarke, dem Verkehrslärm trotzende, beeindruckende Führung Fuad!
Fuad Akhundov in Action, brilliant English does this Harvard graduated man speak
Fuad spricht astrein Englisch, hat in Harvard abgeschlossen
