Samarkand travelling the silk road, archiving empires
urbanism | uzbek planning by gerald forseth
We travel not for trafficking alone, By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned. For lust of knowing what should not be known We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.
–from The Golden Journey to Samarkand, the final lines of a 1913 poem by James Elroy Flecker
Soviet planning extended to Uzbekistan: in Samarkand the radial planning evident in Moscow is seen on the west side, old Samarkand remains intact
streets, large plazas, immense parks and gardens, gigantic fountains and monumental sculpture. Beaux-art façades were built of local beige brick and stone, continuous and long on the street, with grand doorways, sculpted jambs and headers, and lofty interior rooms. Soviet planning, particularly in the 1950s, installed Corbusian planning theory: isolated, tall, concrete buildings within large green parks surrounded by wide streets specifically scaled for fast-moving automobiles. This planning has led to a continuous, sprawling footprint. Covering west Samarkand on foot requires much traversal of heroic concrete plazas, green parks and long distances. Using public transit is necessary, now handled by thousands of small Daiwoo vans.
Samarkand, Uzbekistan has a growing population over 425,000 of which 50% are 15 years or younger. The city is divided neatly in two: east (old) Samarkand, and west (new) Samarkand, each with a distinct spatiality. East or Old Samarkand Old Samarkand is an Asian town near the mid-point of the ancient Silk Road with tangled alleys on hills and valleys, tightly constructed spaces, hidden courtyards and beautiful, contemplative and reflective public places. The oldest buildings and squares remain important places of pilgrimage and visitation, and close to each other. Walking is easy and pleasurable. The main axis is Tashkent Kuchesi between the sumptuous, historic Registan Madrassah and Maydoni [public square] and the central bazaar – a frenetic and colourful display of shawls, embroidered dresses, traditional coats, western jeans, turbans and hats of every nationality and every era. The west boundary of old Samarkand is Koksarai, a modern Russian-built maydoni on a visible old/new division line running north and south (see above). West or New Samarkand In Central Asia, the Russian imperialists of the late nineteenth century built beside existing towns, leaving the old intact, liveable and protected. In west Samarkand shady European avenues radiate from the Koksarai Maydoni, the modern heart of the city and province, and adjacent to the old heart, the Registan madrassah complex. Russian empire planning contributed underground sanitary services, broad boulevards, tree-lined
opposite: Silk Road changes and transformations
evidence of economic and political eras (opposite column left), and evidence of programmatic transforma- tions (column right). UNESCO World Heritage Sites are all through this region – in Uzbekistan alone Tashkent, Samarkand, Bhukhara, Khiva and the Fergana Valley and desert. UNESCO has limited resources, stretched thin, and relies on local willingness and compliance to protect heritage sites. Each year, some UNESCO-designated sites world- wide are publicly listed for failure to control looting and/ or protection of historic fabric. In Uzbekistan, there ap- pears to be a local willingness to protect and secure; but some carelessness and lawlessness continually threatens important treasures and surfaces. Diligence, similar to that provided by the Soviets before 1993, is now required here more than ever.
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On Site review 20: archives and museums
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