Digital, Workshop

During the Soviet era, around 100 state-run research farms, known as Meurneobas, were established in what is now Georgia as planned model villages of the future, combining agriculture, housing, education, and culture. After the collapse of the USSR, most of them were abandoned, while the remaining structures are now being repurposed and redesigned in many places, partly as village communities or as new homes for displaced persons from Russian-occupied territories.

In several research projects, students and staff at Tbilisi Free University have analyzed and reconstructed some of these farms and, using archival material, have examined historical processes and structures. During a joint expedition with the Free University of Tbilisi and the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, the focus shifts from a historical perspective to present-day and future life and work in the Meurneobas.

futuresofyesterday.org

How is communal life organized within post-Soviet structures? And how do processes of transformation manifest in the local architecture and the activities of the residents? Futures of Yesterday comprises a growing collection of insights into life within the Georgian Meurneobas and conveys the hopes, concerns, and perspectives of the residents.

In Cooperation with:

Free University of Tbilisi, Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences Salzgitter

Project by: