Adaptive reuse through creative industry tools: case of Uralmash, Yekaterinburg, Russia

Abstract

Uralmash, a cult neighbourhood of Yekaterinburg, Russia, is famous for its heavy industry, high furnaces, military equipment and the production of famous tanks, located within the purist modern architecture from the late 1930s. Today, however, the Uralmash district represents an interesting ground for young alternatives, which are attracted by the former purpose; stack up on the power of collectivization and the creative industry’s methods. The Biennale of Arts is housed, for example, in a former factory halls where visitors can look at works made by workers / secret artists - who instinctively depicted realistic landscapes on their storages-cabinets, to cheer up a little bit their “mornings of steel”. Significance of communion places, a dwelling where people can meet their co-workers or neighbours - set up by Le Corbusier on flat roofs of his “dwelling machine” residential house in Marseille a few decades later; here in Uralmash are visible as an original product. Women were gathering out here on purpose, from 1930s onwards: studying the household, creating art objects, and getting acquainted with women rights guidelines. The essence of these “utility hubs”, which we are aware today as globally missed in housing development, are born here; in the industrial pool of Ural district. Which method of creative industry we could possibly implement more in order to upgrade and gentrification this quarter with a lack of its primarily purpose will be a focus of this paper.