Last clay-wall huts of Kharkiv

For a year the participants of the project have been looking for real clay-wall huts across the city, which are proof of former Cossack fame of Sloboda Ukraine and typical traces of the first migrants who built specifically this kind of houses starting from the 17th century. At times the findings were quite impressive: old-time huts were revealed right in the heart of the city which seems to be thoroughly known – for example, in Rymarska or Nyzhniohyievska Streets. The authors presented at the exhibit the results of their practical research, such as drawings, photos, documents, and history of some of the houses. “The exhibit of clay-wall huts is a window between the past and the future which imprints our time. This is an attempt to merge things which seem to be impossible to merge,” photographer Inna Mozheiko noted at the opening.

  “Clay-wall huts are a symbol of our grandmothers who are gradually leaving us. I have lived in my grandmother’s clay-wall hut for entire childhood – this is a part of my life. It is very important for me to preserve this memory,” historian and artist Leonid Zolotariov shared at the opening. He framed his works with old shabby wooden window frames – as a symbol of real warm dwelling which becomes unneeded with time.

  Kobzar and lyrist Nazar Bozhynsky is sure: modern architects will long have to unriddle the secrets of clay-wall huts built with maximum proximity to the proportions and needs of man. This is a living dwelling which gives you power. “Living in a clay-wall hut is a whole poem. Heating it, arranging everyday life…” the organizers of the historical-cultural research, regional ethnographer Mykhailo Krasykov agrees with the authors. According to him, the project started last year as a competition of student works and later developed into a city exhibit. Students were joined in the search of old-time houses by artists, journalists, architects, historians, and photographers such as Denys Vitchenko, Oleksandr Shekhovtsov, Inna Mozheiko, Volodymyr Ohloblin etc. An impetus to intense work was Stefan Taranushenko’s monograph Old Huts of Kharkiv, which was published in the early 1920s and impressed Mykhailo Krasykov when he was a student. The tradition of clay-wall huts remained unbreakable till the 1980s, after which the huts were no more restored and the masters who knew the art of construction died. Some of the buildings described in this work have already disappeared, the regional ethnographer says. But more houses have been found and now they have been imprinted in the works of art and documents. “We cannot save the clay-wall huts, but we can at least portray them and preserve the memory about them,” the scholar is sure. “The city will lose much without the clay-wall huts, because it will be deprived of Ukrainian features. In our country a clay-wall hut is hardly considered as a real value. Rather it is considered a house for poor people. But this house is very important in terms of aesthetics, let alone the ecological and historical meaning.” He dreams of making an ethnographic museum in one of the huts, but so far lacks money for such a project.