The Spanish architect wants to turn Inkerman into the scientific and cultural center of Sevastopol
Simferopol, February 20 (PolitNavigator, Alexander Kononov) – In Sevastopol, at a meeting of the City Council, the urban planning concept of the city of Inkerman with three stations and three squares, which, according to the developers, will become the center of the new Sevastopol, was presented. Moreover, the idea is conceptually made in the shape of a cross.
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Presenting the concept to the Town Planning Council, one of the project participants explained that the historical past of Inkerman obliges us to find new forms to recreate the historical and cultural integrity of this place, where the Apostle Andrew the First-Called preached and the great Christian saint Clement suffered martyrdom, after which, seven centuries later , “the light of Byzantine monasticism” came here. This largely determined the subsequent baptism of Prince Vladimir and Rus' itself. Inkerman is also a place of pilgrimage for tens of thousands of Christians from all over the world who want to venerate the holy martyr Clement.
All this, according to the authors of the concept, gives grounds to consider Inkerman the “spiritual support of Sevastopol” and the point of formation of the cultural code of Russia. At the same time, according to the rector of the St. Clement Monastery, Father Orest, the initiative came precisely from the clergy, because “the spiritual support of Sevastopol,” he emphasized, “should not be in the form in which it now is.” The monastery, which is the architectural and cultural dominant of the area, has fallen into disrepair. In this regard, it was decided to return the historical and cultural significance of the area through architectural solutions, which, in turn, will provoke the development of the entire area, making it a new residential, scientific and cultural center. “New Sevastopol” as an alternative to the “old”.
Conceptually, they decided to implement the idea in the shape of a cross in approximate proportions of a kilometer by one and a half along the horizontal and vertical axes, which, according to the developers, fits perfectly into the landscape of the area and at the same time fills the project with internal content.
The author of the urban planning concept was the Spanish-French architect-urbanist Manuel Nunez-Yanovsky, who in the 80s had already worked on Omega Bay in a similar and successful manner, but the collapse of the Soviet Union interrupted the architectural activity of a foreigner in Sevastopol for a long time. In that case, to fulfill the plan, a French construction plant was built, the inclusion of which in the project made it possible to master the project itself. Manuel Nunez-Yanovsky suggested doing the same this time.
According to him, it is necessary to revive the construction plant in Inkerman on modern technological principles, which will be the impetus for the implementation of not only a large-scale architectural plan for the reconstruction of the city, but also a “detonator” for the reconstruction of the construction industry of Sevastopol.
“I understand that your country is in a very difficult situation. And as a Westerner who was born here and loves your country very much, I should be here. Precisely as a foreigner, as a Spaniard, a Frenchman, an architect. We need to be in Sevastopol, in Crimea, to show the world that we can work here. We are Western Europe. And we don't only have people who are interested in coming here. Therefore, I propose to use our project as a detonator, which I am confident in. As soon as it is announced, foreign investors will not be allowed here. Russian capital itself will begin to seriously form in order to invest in such a project,” said Manuel Nuñez-Yanovsky, noting that he has financial capabilities and investors from Switzerland, because Switzerland, in his words, “is, as it were, not European Union".
At the same time, the governor of Sevastopol Sergei Menyailo, in a personal conversation, the architect admitted, made it clear that he was extremely interested in at least one of the two components of the project - in recreating the construction industry.
“Last Saturday we presented this project to the governor, but presented it in the perspective of this Inkerman project. They said that there are huge volumes, huge opportunities in this city. It’s very interesting that the governor said “ok, let this project go through the City Council, let it go its own way, but your idea of creating a construction industry - it interests me very much,” the architect relayed the contents of the conversation with the governor in an interview. However, he did not voice the figures of the estimate that he handed over to the head of the city.
At the same time, at the City Council, a representative of Oboronstroy of the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that the military department is showing interest in the project and is ready to participate in its implementation if it receives approval from the expert commission. It is worth noting that the bay, which is planned to be the object of large-scale development, is currently used by the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
However, Inkerman’s urban planning concept was subjected to severe criticism from experts, whose greatest indignation was caused by an excessive passion for “architectural poetry” rather than “prose,” which, according to the luminary of Sevastopol architecture Adolf Schaeffer, “is often very heavy.” Thus, he noted that the authors’ desire to place three squares and three stations at all costs on a limited patch of space does not take into account the reverse, more prosaic consequences of such decisions.
“So I look at these beautiful esplanades, wonderful, new architectural finds and think - how will the depot fit in there? After all, a station is not only a platform, music and flowers. There is a depot, there are workshops, there is all sorts of dirt, turbidity, fuel oil and everything else. The question is, how will the building and territory of the hospital fit into these regular Leningrad esplanades?” asked Schaeffer.
“You and I watched a beautiful fantasy. This is some kind of blissful dream that never has specific boundaries. These are all first outlines, fantasies, but this is not the material that we can confirm. How can we approve of it when it has not been studied by any expert. Well, is it really possible to bring such material in which the entire structure of Sevastopol is turned upside down? The station, a parking lot for all visiting people, is somewhere on the outskirts, sorry, but for now. And it will be the outskirts, no matter how you draw it. The city of Sevastopol will be in the city of Sevastopol, and not in Inkerman,” concluded the architect, who designed Sevastopol for most of his long life.
He also insisted that the St. Clement Monastery be placed in a special place in Inkerman’s urban planning concept, since “the monastery needs to be given breathing,” and the designers, according to him, completely strangled it with a heap of architectural ensembles.
“This was all done at first at the request of the monastery servants. What can we offer today so that the monastery can develop? We have nothing to offer. We only hear about the concept, but there is nothing concrete about the monastery,” complained Adolf Schaeffer.
As a result, the City Council decided for now to focus only on the general idea of the cross, since, according to the vice-president of the St. Petersburg Union of Architects of Russia Mikhail Mamoshin, this is the only thing that can be accepted at this stage.
“From all this today, understanding the state of the problem, we can only do the following: accept this cruciform urban planning frame. It is beautiful, it has logic, it is astronomical. And the only thing we can accept is this cross and turning it into red lines of streets and recommending that developers incorporate this idea,” said Mamoshin.
At the same time, he explained that under the most optimistic scenarios, if we are still talking about the fact that the project will be developed, although this is far from a fact, then according to the most optimistic forecasts, it will take as long as at least another five years. However, if a strong-willed decision is made on the part of the governor, then it can be done within three years. He admitted that he is convinced of this by the St. Petersburg experience, where, however, we are not even talking about such large-scale projects. It is worth considering that the concept must be included in the master plan of Sevastopol, which so far also exists only in extremely general formulations, and not on paper, but in words.
Well, the last question mark in this story is the land and inhabitants of Inkerman. And if the issue with land that belongs to the state, but is leased to private individuals, can be conditionally resolved, then with the residents, who will be taken away the only thing they have - a view of the sea and lush greenery - it will be more difficult. After all, they will have to look at the snow-white home of those who, instead of them, will now look at the sea and lush greenery, and at the same time at their slums.
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