1. MURMANSK GARAGES: The traditional russian garages have become a big part of Murmansk
city, both in the visible and invisible sense. Visible because it takes up a big part of the city areal
and it is a part of peoples daily lives and invisible because it is a part of the city identity and
peoples mindset and traditions.
The city planners in Murmansk are planning to remove big clusters of garages and building high
parking houses to densify the city and get room for other uses. A common zeitgeist today is that
the garages are out of date and taking too much city space.
So, are the old garages worth keeping? In that case, how and is there a way of keeping the
meaning of the garages in another way than keeping the garages?

2. Today, the garages cover a huge part of the city areal. Most of them are placed on the
outskirts of the city center, near apparment blocks.

3. Plan by the Murmansk municipality showing where new
parking houses are going to be built. All of them are on the site
of the old garage lots.
Many other existing garage areas are replaced with other uses,
such as sportcenter and new appartment areas.

4. Russian garage culture
Many russian men, espesially those of
Murmansk has a di erent relationship
with their garages than most other
places in the world. For them, it is not
only a place to put their cars and store
equipment, but also a place to spend
time with their hobbies, meet friends
and get away from their wives for a
while.

5. “This city is not built for people, it’s built
for the industry. Can we change the view
on our city to make it more human?”
Photo: Iwan Thomson
"It is strange that behind all these doors, inside all these
garages without windows, there is so much going on, like it's a
secret society."
"The men spend a lot of time there, repairing their cars and
Photo: Iwan Thomson
talking politics or gossiping."
"When a car has been repaired they celebrate. It is a tradition to
eat home-made pickles and drink vodka, so in most garages
there is a good store of supplies."
-Russian woman
Photo: Iwan Thomson

6. HISTORY
in 1970s Soviet people were rapidly starting to own cars. They loved
their cars, which was a privately owned possession. They would not
let anything happen to them; therefore they built the garages.
They also needed a place for the car during the snowy winter.
They all repared their cars themselves and this was probably the main
reason why the garages have gone from car storage to warm “second
homes”.
All the garages that were built during the Soviet era were built by
hand, by the people themselves.
People seldom x the cars themselves anymore; they have changed
cars from Volgas and Ladas for other brands. Due to loss in population
many garages stands empty today.
Today the prices of land are rising drastically in the city centre of
Murmansk. There are many interested parties wanting land. The
garages of Murmansk are under high pressure and will soon be gone.
Some have been protesting, but most people just let it happen; they
also think the garages are out of date.

7. Environmental e ects on nature and society
They e ect a big eld of land because of the horizontal place-
ment in the landscape, but they do not explode ground or bore
into the ground; when removed the nature will after a while
return to its original state. The materials used to build are often
leftover materials they nd in the city, so there has been no need
for new material production.
The mere reason that they are home made and private may
in uence the russians to take more care of the building and the
surroundings?
What is more environmental; the garages or a parkinghouse?
Garage Wars
There have been some social con icts in Moscow about the same type of garages. In 1999 there was an article in
“The guardian” called “Russian garage wars heating up”. It told about russians
putting up illegal
garages on public properties. Someone even put them up in playgrounds for kids.
This was a big frustration to others.
The ne if you do this is quite low, and noone really has the right to remove them.
The reason why people do this is because the lack of available land and a long process through the municipality
to get hand of one:
One russian said” - one begins feeling some sympathy for a potential garage owner.
Getting clearance to put one up would take months and probably several bribes.”
She lists the various committees that would have to give permission. As she runs through them - the garage
committee, the re service, the ecological committee, the utilities committee (in case the garage is plonked on top
of an underground pipe or cable) and the borough chairman
"Younger Russians understand that you must have some environmental controls," Dodonov says. "The older
generation remembers the disciplined past. But the middle group just insists on their property rights and refuses
to compromise.
“Sometimes this really do happen”, Dmittri Borovkov

8. GARAGE TYPOLOGIES; towards a new garage architecture.
Typically self-made single Many garages in one. Not Parkinghouses with several
garage, selfmade and usually not as oors. These often still have
High level of personality. personal. private garages with locks on
them , but they don´t contain
the social aspect.

9. INTERVIEW WITH YULIA
TYPOLOGIES: In `Ufa´ there were many garages like the ones in Murmansk 10 years ago. Today they are moved and parking
houses with several oors has replaced them to use the space better. The parking houses still have private ´garages¨ inside
them. People have their own door with a lock to their garage. But these garages are not so much for hanging out, but more
for storing things and placing their cars.
ECONOMY: They are very expensive; half the price of a small appartment. People have better credit now and therefor have
more cars. Many people buy and sell garages for a pro t; they get cheap garages through their rm.
DEMOGRAPHY: My brother has a garage of the new kind, and my grandfather had a typical old one. They use it mainly for
storage. Everyone knows someone that has a garage. It is typical to get a garage when you are 20-30 years old. There are both
old and young people using them side by side, but I don´t think there is much interaction between them. The typical social
kind of garages you see in Murmansk is more typical for smaller comunities. They don¨t have that many places to go and
meet. They also need the garages more because of the of the cold. If parked outside, their appartments would be snowed in
pretty quickly.
WOMEN AND YOUTH; OTHER USES: Not many women use them but there propably are some. I had my own places for developing my
hobbies both as a kid and as a youth; I had a workshop together with 7 other students when I went to architecture school. I
never wanted a garage. But I do have a romantic feeling about the garages. My boyfriend loved his garage, and we used to
go there together, listening to music and such. The bigger the city is, the younger are the people using the typical old
garages. In my city there are many young mucisians practising in the garages. They are also being used as workshops and
exhibition areas for artists. There are many nightclubs in russia called ´garage´.
SPACE, STRUCTURE AND ESTETICS: For russians the garages are not special, they don´t see it as an interresting phenomenon, and
they also don´t think they are very good looking. The only reason they had painted their garages in di erent colours is
because they have used the colour they had available. You might think they are interresting, but russians have a di erent
perception of beauty.
SURROUNDING LANDSCAPE: The old city is ususally systematic stalin buildings. The garage clusters are usually placed close to
newer concrete blocks in the periphery of the city. Personally I do think the building consept, how they are placed together
in clusters, are exciting.

10. INTERVIEW WITH IGOR SHAYTANOV
1. Er bruken av garasjen som ´et arbeids- og oppholdssted´ en gammel tradisjon i Russland?
Den første bilproduksjon ble etablert i Russlad av FORD rett etter revolusjon. Men det er bare på 50-talle biler kom til
massmarkede. Før det var i brukt bare av militara og de største partiarbeiderne.
Så det var bom på 60-70 talle. Industrialiseringen har nettopp foregikk i Sovjet, og det var masse nye folt i byene. Bilene
de begynte å eie hadde forferdelig kvalitet, å måtte reparerres heletida.
Da tilbringte mannfolk masse tid der. Tradisjon går ut derfra, tror jeg.
2. Sånn som jeg har forstått det, er det vanlig å ha sosiale sammenkomster i garasjene. Stemmer dette, og er det vanlig å
´gå på besøk´hos naboene når de er i garasjen sin, sånn at garasje-området blir et sted der man også møter bekjente og
nye folk?
Ja det stemmer. Som vanlig garasjene tilknyttet til nabobolig (Mikrorajon). I det samme tid nabobolig tilknyttet til et eller
annet industri. Så folk kjenner hverandre i prinsipp. Men det ytter inn nye heletida.
3. De garasjene vi så var malt i forskjellige farger utenpå, og den garasjen vi gikk inn i var innredet med personlige
gjenstander og pynt. Er den garasjen vi var inne i representabel for hvordan de andre garasjene så ut? Er det viktig for
garasje-eierne å lage sitt personlige preg på garasjen, noe som ikke er så lett i blokkene de bor i?
Garasjen vi så var veldig representabelt. Det som gjelder farger og inventar, tror jeg
ikke handler om kunst eller identitet. De brukte sikkert den malinga og de materieler
man hadde tilgang til.
4. Er det bare menn som har garasjer? Vet du hva kvinnene synes om de? Har de (kvinnene) et alternativ til mennenes
garasje, hvor de kan dyrke interesser og være sosiale?
Damene deltar på sosiale sammenkomster i garasjene, det nnes sikkert damer som
har egen garasje. Men ellers kvinners sted er kjøkkenet.
5. Hva er ditt forhold til disse garasjene? Har du et posititvt forhold til dem, har du tilbrakt mye tid i sånne garasjer selv og
isåfall hva gjorde du der?Kjenner du mange som har garasjer?
Så klart at denne tradisjon begynner å forsvinne. Det er ikke så mange som driver med
dette i min generasjon. Ikke jeg heller. Jeg har vært et par ganger på slike party men vil ikke si at jeg har spesielt
positiv forhold.
6. Er det vanskelig å få tak i en garasje? Har de este kjøpt dem eller laget dem selv? Hvis de har laget dem selv, har de

11. kjøpt tomten, eller bare funnet en ledig kommunal plass å sette den opp?
De este har fått tomten under sovjettida. Da var det gratis. Nå kjøper man entet en tomt eller en garasje. Jeg tror mest
parten av de garasjene vi så selvlaget. Men det er mulig å leie inn arbeidskraft.
Du kan ikke bygge garasje hvor som helst, hvis der er det du spør.
7. Jeg leste en artikkel om noen som hadde satt opp en garasje på en lekeplass til stor fortvilelse for beboerne i
nærområdet. Er det vanlig at det oppstår sånne problemer?
Nei det er uvanlig. Jeg har aldri hørt om det. Det kan godt skje i Moskva eller St. Peterburg, men det handler om
marginalismet.
8. Kommer du til å savne garasjene hvis de forsvinner? Er det noe du ville gjort for å forandre/forbedre garasje
situasjonen?
Nei, jeg kommer ikke til å sanve dem. Helt klart. Jeg er veldig glad i Hi-Tec, så hvis
det blir noe annet istedenfor garasjene, jeg er med. Det eneste er at jeg er mot å
miste nasjonalidentitet. Garasjene en del av vår hverdagskultur. Så jeg mener at
denne saken bør tas forsiktig.
9. Yulia sa at i Ufa har noen ungdomer tatt ibruk noen av garasjene, og bruker dem som verksted og øvingslokale og
galleri for kunst. Har du hørt om dette i Murmansk, eller er garasjene stort sett forbeholdt bil-interreserte menn?
Vi har en del garasje-rock kultur over alt i Russland. Det er litt upraktisk å bruke
garasjen som et galeri i Murmansk. Men jeg har hørt om at noen maler dem utenpå.

12. 10. Tror du russerne som eier garasjene komme til å protestere hvis garasjene blir ernet? Vet du om garasje-
eierne får noe tilbake når garasjene deres blir revet? Kanskje de ytter de til et annet sted?
Vi har et spesielt form av demokrati i Russland, så det er ganske sikkert at noen kommer til å protestere men
jeg er litt usikkert at det påvirker noe. Så klart de får noe tilbake, det er jo eiendommen nå. Myndighetene kan
ikke erne noe uten å spørre eiere.
11. Hva synes du, har de tradisjonelle garasjene noen verdi? Ifølge Yulia har de nye parkeringshusene også
personlige garasjer inni seg, men disse brukes kun til oppbevaring av bil og utstyr, og ikke til å reparere og
sosialt samvær. Finnes det andre steder man kan gjøre disse tingene? Vil det å drikke vodka på en bar noen
gang bli det samme som å drikke vodka i garasjen? ;)
Nei det blir ikke det samme. Men kulturfenomen forsvinner og neste generasjon skal
sikkert bruke garasjene på den vanlig måte. Så det vil si at de har verdi i kul-
turhistorisk og antropologisk aspekt som et fenomen. Men ikke noe praktisk
verdi i denne sammenheng.
Russian garage rock culture
25. og 26. april i år arrangerte Priroda i
Moldezh (PiM) en festival for å vise sin
motstand mot bruken av atomkraft. Over 300
russiske ungdommer besøkte festivalen, som
var den første av sitt slag i Murmanskre-
gionen.
In my city there are many young mucisians practising in the garages. They are also being used as workshops and
exhibition areas for artists. There are many nightclubs in russia called ´garage´.

13. CHAOS VERSUS STRUCTURE, stable vs exible, closure vs openness
“This chaos and instability, which is fundamental, founding and irreducible, is at once naturally the worst
against which we struggle with laws, rules, conventions, politics and provivional hegemony, but at the
same time it is a chance, a chance to change, to destablize. Chaos is at once a risk and a chance” Derrida
1996
Structure in Chaos/
Thrown-togetherness:
Flexible
In constant change
Human scale
Density
Indiviual and unique
“Architecture can avoid the traps of prescriptive formmaking whilst releasing the potentials of the INCOM-
PLETE, of the yet-to-be” Andrew Benjamin 1999
“He wanted to create spaces where you might come upon the unexpexted, have chance encounters (that mixture
of order and accident which, as we have seen, he called labyrinthe clarity”. Doreen Massey of Aldo Van Eyck

16. New forms appear by this kind of thrown-
togerherness. Voids are lled in and densi es
the city. Unthought of shapes appear.
“Disorder can, of course produce variety, excitement and its own hit-and-miss beauty. ..those of us who cannot
abide supermarkets ... love the messy vitality of street markets”.
Static, closed and “industrial scale”.
Flexible, human scale, each one unique and has carracter,
in constant change.

17. TIME-SPACES
-They take up a huge part of the city areal.
-There is an interrest in densifying the city center.
-They sometimes bring con icts (the garage wars), and
the area around/nature gets ruined.
-The russians see them as a part of their history and identity ans som garage owners protest against removing them, but most
russians think that they have outplayed their role and that it is time for something new to replace them.
Most russians don´t see any architectural value in them. So why on earth should they think about keeping them?
The socio-garages we see today are full of soul and have been very meaningful to many russians, but they are part of a time
that is now vanishing. Shouldn´t we just let this happen? If there is need for more space in the city, shouldnt we just build
parking houses and go on?
Or maybe there is away of making the social meaning of the garages live on without the garages? Could the social life of the
garages be moved somewhere else? The bar? Does the architecture of the garages have any meaning without the historical
social content?
Based on the mapping I have done, I think yes.
However, this raises tons of new quesitions. How should this be done?
Planning stability and structure? Keeping the seemingly passé?
Flexibilty and humans scale.

18. THE QUESTION OF INTERFERENCE
“One thing is certain, there will be change”.
We cannot prevent changes. What the garages was yesterday they are not today. Still, I think the garages have so many
unique and positive sides, socially and architecturally, that it would be worth it trying to preserve them in one way or
another. This way Murmansk could keep some of their identity and keep a more human scale architecture.
But how should we go forward in preserving them? Should we do nothing and let them live their own lives like they
have seemingly done so far, or should we make a ew plans and guidelines for the future? Or would this ruin the
whole idea about preserving?
This is a very di cult question, and needs to be handeled with deep care and understanding. However I allow myself
to through out a few aspects I think should be taken into consideration about possible futures:
How to prevent that they just become a symbol of the past (like modern sami lavo architecture)?
If the garages is gonna be a big part of the city, could there be a way of modernising the garages in a way that they
give something to other citizens than men who owns cars?
If so, what program is needed in Murmansk? Something for youth and women? Could this be a new city hangout for all
of Murmansk?
The garage structure could be more open and inviting?
Towards a western globalisation, What should be the underlying
e ciency and the market? values while planning for the
future?