AKINDINOV, N. Ghost Cities of Estonia [online]. Brno: Vysoké učení technické v Brně. Fakulta architektury. 2023.
This diploma project is an intervention aim to explore possible solutions and proposals to reuse abandoned villages and towns in the post - Soviet countries, through vision and concept of redeem in phases the most important public spaces and buildings to created a vivid concept for the future possibly new life in the abandoned cities. Strategies and concepts are derived through literature reviews and study of various precedents studies. On the example of one of the well known ghost town in Estonia Viivikonna, student Nikita Akindinov shows on the series of plans the possible approach towards revival this town. I positively assess his sensitive approach to the issue and his respect for preserving the genius loci of this place covering cultural, social, architectural and environmental values. However I think that the student's project would need a little more time to finish and display more architectural details that would better demonstrate the identity of this unique place.
| Kritérium | Známka | Body | Slovní hodnocení |
|---|---|---|---|
| Přístup studenta ke zpracování | B | The submitted diploma project indicates the student's interest in the chosen topic and his knowledge and orientation in the given issue in the post-Soviet countries. I positively evaluate his commitment and his approach during the entire semester. Student Nikita Akindinov worked on a different topic with a different supervisor during the winter semester 2022/2023. Therefore, he did not start working on the topic of Ghost cities until January 2023 and compared to other students he had noticeably less time to process all the analysis and subsequently the entire project. |
The author has chosen a very attractive and important, but also difficult topic. In the theoretical part he has done a great job of processing the data and naming the problems of Estonia and its depopulation. In the practical part, the author chose a specific ghost village where he proposed to revitalize the buildings and spaces in order to attract artists and the public to the village, thus highlighting the theme of ghost villages. In the practical part, however, he neglected to describe the village satisfactorily, i.e. it is not at all clear how many people live there or how the shrinking happened. The author does not use diagrams or schemes to simply explain the individual interventions, so the location of buildings and paths seems random. The atmospheres of the buildings and places in the village are described rather verbally, we don't learn much from the site plans and axonometric view. The collages are atmospheric and describe the village better, but there is no unifying architectural or material element that would give the village an architectural identity.
| Kritérium | Známka | Body | Slovní hodnocení |
|---|---|---|---|
| Urbanistické řešení | D | The author has produced a robust analytical section describing the demographic and socio-economic phenomena in Estonia that produce ghost cities. The analytical section is a good foundation on which to build the proposal. In the proposal, the author seeks to recreate the ghost village of Viivikkona and create a village attractive to artists and the public. The design consists of the revitalization of the main axis, revitalizing individual buildings and placing new objects. Unfortunately, there is a lack of historical and urban analysis of the settlement, we don’t know what are the main public spaces and important directions, where are important buildings or roads, which buildings are abandoned etc. There is absence of schemes and diagrams, the site plan and axonometry don’t clarify the author's concept and proposed atmosphere of the village. | |
| Architektonické řešení | E | The author proposes to use specific objects and buildings to create conditions for the accommodation of artists and to attract the public to the ghost village. These include the renovation of buildings along the main street and their conversion into accommodation for artists and the public, a new square with a museum building, or construction of a new walkway in the landscape with a viewing tower or sauna. However, the architectural design of these buildings is not convincing. There is no unifying element to give the village an identity. It is not clear why three separate buildings are connected together to create a single volume building, which should serve as the artists residence. The author wants to attract the visitors by strong architecture, but the form of the buildings itself is not convincing. There is no clear concept or idea behind the design. | |
| Provozní řešení | D | The author tried to address all the needs of the settlement, including transport needs and electricity supply. In terms of traffic, there are no diagrams or schemes to explain the general movements and flow of pedestrians, bicycles or vehicles. It is hard to understand the location of parking facilities, the road and transport hierarchy. There is unfortunately unsufficient explanation of the location of path in the landscape, where are the specific features and objects on the path, and how the village is connected with the nature. | |
| Technicko konstrukční řešení | E | The author goes into technical and constructional detail in perspective sections. The question arises whether the author has a sufficient understanding of the technical design issues described in the diagrams. Within the buildings, for example, the author proposes, without further explanation, heating the same rooms with radiators and also with floor heating at the same time. Also it is unclear why the author is explaining technical details of buildings, since this is urban design project. | |
| Formální úroveň | D | There is imbalance in the quality of the theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part is of a very high graphical level and is written in a readable form, containing a lot of data, figures and graphs. The practical part is not at such a good visual level, the site plan is difficult to understand, sometimes the are legends and descriptions missing, there is lack of diagrams and schemes, which are essential to urban planning project. The author jumps in between different scales, from scale of the village directly to scale of a building. There is not sufficient description of the scale in between – the public space. |
eVSKP id 151574