The document discusses the city of Murmansk, Russia. It provides background on the city's history, industries, and population trends. Specifically: 1) Murmansk was founded in 1916 and its main industries have been fisheries, mining, metallurgy, and more recently, oil. The military also has a large presence. 2) The population has declined significantly in recent decades, dropping from 468,039 in 1989 to 307,664 in 2010, with many young people moving away. 3) Traces of the Soviet era are still present with a slow bureaucracy and challenges for citizens to take initiative. However, new oil and gas discoveries may lead to population and economic growth.

1. Trajectories of murmansk
REORIENTATIONS reorient |rēˈôrēˌent|
verb [ trans. ]
change the focus or direction of

2. Compeating interrests
around Tuloma river.
-
Polyarnyy -Colsed city
Severomorsk -Closed ci
Murmansk
Kola -ancient pomor city
Nuclear power plant
Hydroelectric
powerstation
Lake Notozero
Hydroelectric
powerstation
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The arctic earth and should not be simplified. The last decades the population has Social Emerging landscape
When starting this project, I knew that A place is always changing and it is decreased drastically with 25% in the Even though the indiginous samis ear- Throughout this semester I have re- I met and talked to the municipal-
the arctic is struggeling with problems never finished but always developing last 15 years, from 468,039 in 1989 to lier lived in the area Murmansk lies searched the vulnerability of the ga- ity when I was there myself and they
like industrial pollution and climate with time. During this project I have 307,664 in 2010. Espesially the young today, they are not numerous in the rages in Murmansk, as well as veg- told me about their plans for the citys
changes. It will be fatal for the biodi- tried grasping some of the complexity population is moving away. Hearings region. The nationalities are Russian etation and wildlife, politics, economy, 100th aniversary in 2016; They have
versity and ourselves. When the ice of Murmansk and its surroundings and show that many more wants to move, 85.2%, Ukrainians 6.4%, other nation- industry, sociological aspects, pollu- planned to build more monuments and
melts it no longer works as a reflec- and showing my thoughts for the fu- but they cannot afford it because of alities 8.4%. The inhabitants are not tionton and the armed forces. a new shopping mall. Other plans in-
tion for the sun, and the permafrost in ture. expensive prices in the south. known for mountain hiking and entu- cluded luxury flats, parkinghouses,
the earth disappears so that the earth siasim for nature activities, but they The urban landscape is characterized bicycle routes and a sport scenter.
releases carbondioxide. This has rip- Murmansk City The soviet era is still present in the like to go skiing in the mountains close by a monoculture grounded in the cit- No restauration of old buildings was
ple effects; the global warming will go Murmansk is the biggest city in the city, with a slow bureaucracy and peo- to the city in the winter and some peo- ies leading industries, a slow bureau- planned even though big parts of the
even faster and the world will soon arctic. It is a young and was founded ple finding it difficult to take initiative. ple enjoy fishing, hiking and sailing. cracy and a declining population. city is decaying.
look completely different. The biodiver- in 1916. Fisheries, mining and metal- There is a lack in offers for youth.
sity is allready suffering. lurgy has long been the citys biggest The last years there has been dis- It is hard to get ideas acconmplished, Wether the population increases or
industries. Military forces are also big covered big areas of oil and gas, e.g. A special social phenomenon in Rus- the population is declining, Putin is shrinks, which we don´t know, I think
I have looked more into the arctic´s in the area, but they are mainly located stockman. Some expect the popula- sia are their garages, where the men building up the military and the archi- something has to be changed in the
biggest city, Murmansk. A city is com- at close-by neighbour cities. tion and the economy of Murmansk meet and socialise while fixing their tecture is made more for industry than city.
plex just like every other space on will grow because of the oil industry. cars. for people.

3. eagle.
Lakes and rivers: insect larvae,
worms, air beetles, caddis flies, mos-
quitoes, flies, river hydra, leeches,
daphnia, cyclops, salmon, sea trout,
´ carp, perch, pike, burbot,muskrat, ot-
ter, mink, water vole.
The coastal waters of the White and
Barents seas: herring, cod, haddock,
saffron cod, saithe and plaice. All year
round the coast are holding seal and
-
sea hare. Belugas whales. Every win-
ter, the White Sea seal herds come.
In the summer of coastal waters: killer
whale, and in some months there are
baleen whales.
Pollution:
Mosiac of Murmansk City Mosaic of Murmansk-
In the eastern district (harbour) there
and Tuloma River is significant pollution. Almost all year
round the average daily concentra-
New Hierarchies and metallurgy industries and now oil tions exceeded the permissible level in
-
Murmansk and its surrounding area industry. This all, even the very house
- Tundra: reindeer, norwegian lem- the eastern city.
are as all places full of contrasting in- they live in effects the ecosystem in mings, voles, fox, arctic fox, wolf,
terests that are all linked together in some way. And it is important to re- grouse, owl. “Black carbon is the biggest threat to Maps
one system. We humans often forget member that we are all dependent on the climate changes and is emittet Right: map of Murmansk in the
what is not a part of our own daily life. eachother for survival. Some of the Forrest: elk, brown bear, marten, fox landscape, by Murmansk river.
from both diesel cars and coal mines, Above: map of the locations for my
Murmansk river has several hydropow- other interrests, vegetation and ani- and squirrel. Birds: grouse, woodpeck- which there are many of in Mur- kick-offs for change.
er plants, nuclear power plants, coal mals are listed bellow. er, warbler, bunting, cuckoo, buzzard,
mansk.”

4. Changing focus THE RUSSIAN GARAGES
My findings showed that the city is de-
veloping in a way that is not sustain-
able for the city and the arctic as a
whole. Inspired by Gregory Bateson;
The importance is to be as flexible as
possible to overcome the challenges
the earth is in. In order to be flexible
we have to make sure that we don´t
destroy the sustanance for animal and
human survival.
I am not just aiming for “a happy city”,
but hoping that there can be a change Gregory Bateson´s figure explaining My idea is to make act with posi-
in the “hubris”, people´s mindset. root causes to all human threats. tive ripple effects.
History to rot. This is espesially the garages in
The way I have chosen to approach that are contrary to those ruining our I have focused on the russian garages Historically the garages has meant a the outskirts of the garage areas.
this problem is to introduce some society. mentioned earlier and spare-time fish- lot to the russian men. It goes back
counteracts to the earththreatening ing and sailing. to the 70ies when the only privately The municipality is planning to remove
acts taking place today like pollution I want to focus on art and ecological owned property they had was their car. several of the clusters becuase of
from technology and industries and processes. I think art can change so- I am doing some low scale acts that They built garages for themselves to lacking space in the city center. They
overusing the earth´s resources, by ciety, and so can a closer relationshop have active forms; Active forms may keep the car inside during the winter want to build parking houses instead.
focusing on diversity, human initiative to and better understanding of ecol- describe the way some small change and to have a place to fix it. It quickly This is the same destiny the garages
and ecological processes, which there ogy. That is why I have focused on ex- performs within a group, multiplies turned out to be more than a garage; a has had in other russian cities. They
is a lack of at the moment. actly this. across a field, reconditions a popula- hangout, a fridge for food and a social just don´t seem to be able to survive in
tion, or generates a network. meeting place. Some even built sau- a modern oil city. Or can they?
My proposal here may not be direct- My interventions are based on rus- nas inside their garages.
ly linked up to climate changes, but sian culture. I want to take some of the Hopefully they will have positive ripple “The times are changing; a few years
hopefully it will give the city something good cultural identity in Murmansk and effects and develop over time, both The garages today: ago Russia paid off its debts and the
new, something that over time will give it a new possible trajectory for the spacially, socially, politically and in Because of population decrease, a lot development that has followed is obvi- Garage clusters that is planned to be moved to
time to come. peoples mindset. make more room in the city.
strengthen it, and strengthen values of garages has been standing empty ous on many levels. The need for car

5. repairs is not as big as it was. In some I suggest that some of the threatened and putting up parking houses, I sug-
places the garages become redundant garageclusters can get a new life. As gest that some of the many empty
and decay.” -Iwan Thomson the russians allready have shown, the and decaying housing blocks could be
garages can be used for practically an- torn down and given room for parking
Not all russians see why they should ything. houses.
be kept:
As said before, there is a lack of youth That way the garages can live on. The
“No, I will not miss the garages when activities in the town. However the the cost for taking over the abandoned
they disappear, I like high-tech, so if youth are becoming more politically garages cannot not be too expensive.
there is coming something instead of and environmentally concious.Youth in The idea is that they fix them and do
the garages, I´ll be happy”. -Igor Murmansk seem to need more plac- practical work themselves. As well as
es to stay and develop. They could being financially profittable this could
“People call them seashells, I don´t be handed a garages and fix it them- also give the garages a new modern
know why because seashells are so selves. By inhabitting the empty areas touch.
beautiful and the garages are sp ugly” of the garage clusters, they could bring
-Woman from murmansk new life and strength to the garages, A small first time fee could come from
without interrupting the other garage norwegian investors and in time, some
But have they not meant a great deal owners. There could be arranged ex- investments from the municipality.
2
for the russians? Socially, spacially hibitions and attract even more people
and individually? from the cityfrom time to time. Architectural value against which we struggle with laws,
As well as an historical and cultural rules, conventions, politics and provivi-
A new trajectory It could turn out as a dynamic living or- value, the garages also have a spa- onal hegemony, but at the same time
ganism changing day by day. cial value. The structure of the garage it is a chance, a chance to change, to
Murmansk has some museums, theat- clusters has a smaller scale than the destablize. Chaos is at once a risk and
1 3 4 5
ers and an art school and there the Finance rest of the buildings in the city, they a chance” Derrida
first youthhouse is being built now at The garages are privately owned. are flexible and create a variety of
the time being, though this has its lim- The old get to keep their garages, the space in between them. “Architecture can avoid the traps of
ited capacity. There is still a lack of a young can take over the left ones and prescriptive formmaking whilst re-
common platform for young citizens fix them themselves. “This chaos and instability, which is leasing the potentials of the INCOM-
“It is a map, and a space, which leaves openings for something new”.
and a place for them to develop skills. fundamental, founding and irreduc- PLETE, of the yet-to-be” Andrew Ben-
1. Showing all the garages and 2.the one I chose to work further with. 3.,4.,5. The
Instead of tearing down the garages ible, is at once naturally the worst jamin
empty garages in the periphery that the youth can take over.

6. Garagerock and artstudios keep the area alive
I am suggesting that determined youth
from murmansk could be handed a ga- It would change with at times of the
rage as a studio for whatever creative year from the cold snowy winter, with
field they are pursuing. skiing and indoors-life to a green and
colourful garden with plants in the
It could become an exhchange for ide- summer.
as and a strong participant to the cul-
tural life in Murmansk. Over time, it might change peoples at-
It is not sure how this project would titides to destrying industries and cli-
develop over time, but hopefully the mate changes.
initiative and work by the youth would

7. INTO THE WATER
creatures living in the water and the and international markets supplying would require more environmental
salmon should propably not be eaten sizable portion the gas to meet grow- work proceidures by the industries at
either. ing demand for energy. the harbour?
The dock is owned by private compa- Introducing counter acts Architecture
nies. There are not many places to go My idea is to make the citizens closer The pier could easily be made, even
Murmansk river tically reduced due to the Hydro Power
down to tha waterfront. to the Murmansk river by building a by the youth in the garage cluster
The positioning of Murmansk by the Stations ruining the migration routes.
pier far out on the river where they can nearby, by putting together floating
fjord and its long seaport gives Mur-
“With the aquisition of 63,5 percent of get closer to the water element and materials and per say driftwood, and
mansk great opportunities to go fishing A salmon lift and salmon stairs was
the shares in the Russian Arctic port, sit and watch the city from the water. anchor it some places.This way it
in the river, and some people do. How- built, but did not work well.
the coal company SDS-Ugol secures Hopefully, watching the city from this could be built longer, adding “branch-
ever; 1. The amount of fish is small
full control of the maritime hub, the industrial site can make people realise es” or have parts taken away.They
due to Hydropower stations, 2. the wa- It does not help for the salmon that the
second biggest in Northwest Russia the horrible effect all this industry has can go fishing, bathing, tie their ca-
ter is pollutied, 3. The Coal- and ship- Murmansk river has suffered from se-
on the environment and what tragic noes to it and in the winter , ice-fish-
ping industry is taking over most of the vere pollution and this is still a prob-
The Russian state controls another outcome it can have. Maybe then peo- ing, ice-skating and sit watching the
harbour. There are lots of docks and lem.
25 percent of the port. However, this ple would work harder to keep the river city from afar.
piers, but all are made for big industrial
stake will soon be up for privatization.” clean.
ships. Today
-Barentsobserver The idea is that it could be designed
A new study on water quality in rivers
Maybe they would require a new salm- to also suit animals, the fish and birds.
Even though there still are salmon in and lakes near Murmansk shows high
Shtokman will contribute to long-term on lift and salmon stairs to get the There is not ususally seals in the mur-
Murmansk river, there used to be a lot to extreme levels of pollution. This is
energy security on the local, European numerous fish back? Or maybe they mansk fjord, but if/when there is, it-
more. The Tuloma river has been dras- not good, and it sure has effects on

8. could attract them to the pier, like they ducing this pier is not merely to “im-
have done in L.A (picture above). prove” the city space, but making a
bigger amount of people see the con-
In the far future it may also be installed sequenses of pollution while watch-
an underwater salmoncamera like they ing it and seeing what it does to na-
have installed in Suldal, so people can ture, and hopefully make them want to
look at them and take a part in their life work harder to keep the water and fish
under water, like they have succesfully healthy.
done in Suldal kommune in Norway.
Yes, people need jobs, but there are
The idea is to make a collective activ- lots of ways the industries and emit
ity offer to the city, that may change less pollutants, and to make people
how the city works and think. Intro- work more intact with ecology.