Colours of Verhniy Poselok – the “Upper Village” – Bugulma, Tatarstan
Верхний Посёлок, Бугульма, Татарстан
Domestic architecture in Russian villages is typified by wooden houses, which are often painted in bright colours to protect against the hard frosts and equally fierce summer sun. The wood is supplemented by tin for chimneys, aerials and mailboxes, and by heavy steelwork for fences, doors and gates. In Bugulma, a railway town with a large marshalling yard, materials from the rollingstock and tracks are often reclaimed for use. The resulting architecture has its own taxonomy of forms, and a vocabulary and grammar of colours and textures that evolves as the weather leaves its mark. Traditional village building in Russia survived the influence of the Stalinist architecture that swept through city centres, but is now slowly being superseded by concrete and masonry.
Photographs by Giles Hudson, December, 2012
Wandering fence
Frosted glass
Conduction on a metal roof
Study in cerulean, black and white
Vivid lime boards
Parovoz Uramy – Steam Train Street
Variety in chimney forms
Chevron
Study in violet
Silvered eaves
Accidental Rothko
Crest of the Soviet Railways on a wagon reclaimed as a garden shed
Elevator Ur. / Ulitsa Elevatornaya – Street names in Tatar and Russian
33 twice
Traditional wall structure with jointing without nails
Transformers local to each area
Wooden houses are at risk of fire
Salted metal sheets
Variety in aerial forms
Jashik Pochtovyi – Box for mail
Blue garage doors within doors
More unusual matt colours
Transformer 4-33-12
Batman and Robin aerial
Spiders’ web aerial
Wagon sides as a fence
Stitched sheets
Bell and box
Dlia Pochty – For mail
Presumably from a wagon
Dlia Pochty – For mail
Companion trees
Fire damaged
Cut and worked metal
Typical facade
Untreated gates
Bleached greens
Ulitia Gagarina – Gagarin street
Rusted greens
Railway sleepers
Blue on blue
A modern incursion into the traditional village
Fire brigade attending a sauna fire
SETI
Locomotive motifs
Silver chimney
Ul. 28 Panfilovtsev – Street of the 28 Soldiers of the Panfilov Division (Battle of Stalingrad)
Gates of perforated steel sheet
Rusted red lead
Hoarfrost on the cold metal of a north-facing wall
Rising sun
Love letters
Pochta – Post
Fire engine