WEBPROJECT: TAA – Tbilisi Architecture Archive

Tbilisi Architecture Archive is a project implemented as part of Tbilisi Common Architecture Biennial. It aims to gather existing planning records and building documentation scattered through various archives and compile them in a form of Open access. The online database will provide an overview of single documents and collections, with an index of names of persons who have been influential to architecture and urban development in Georgia – this means having at least one significant architectural or urban project in the background, as well as providing an important input in architectural theory and education. Concept The archive keeps the documents and records containing real facts and references, forming a common, collective memory. The archive does not describe the past – it organizes the access to information and thus supports the formation of knowledge. The history of architecture is written in the architecture archives as well, despite the fact that compared to other objects, architectural structures cannot be collected. The architecture archive conserves the documentation about the man-made environment and objects that were created in an architectural context – without which constructed Architecture, as such, would not exist. A thorough understanding and research of such resources is an integral precondition of reconstructing cultural memory. The aim of Tbilisi architecture archive The vast abolishment of state planning- or scientific and research instituties after 1990s has destroyed the majority of materials preserved in such establishments. However, a limited number of cataloged projects have survived in the central and municipal archives, as well as in private and family collections. In times when Tbilisi’s architectural landscape is being significantly altered or even demolished, the selection, categorisation, digitalisation, description and placement of existing documents in a digital common space become all the more important. Acquisition of these materials, connecting them and making the database information publicly accessible will first and foremost increace the level of awerness of architecture in Georgia. In adition, it will encourage the exchange of information and thus, create new naratives.

Our future goals include the expansion of common archive of architecture, a constant renewal and enrichment of electronic database; as well as preserving and restoring damaged original documents.

Join Project

Every interested architect, engineer, individual, volunteer, researcher or research organisation can use this space for sharing their collection, thus contributing to and developing the overall database, increasing research process and becoming a co-organisers of the Archive as a matter of fact. The Public Archive is open for cooperation based on research ethics and parity.

Following the initial contact from a party interested in joining the Public Archive space our group will digitize materials according to specific standards, and catalogue detailed information on them. The digitized version, accompanied by the detailed information, will be uploaded to the Archive under a collection attribute to the owner-contributor. A copy of the digitized material will also be handed to the owner.

Contact

Mariam Gegidze, Nino Tchatchkhiani, Natia Abasashvili, Levan Kalandarishvili

Address: Shanidze str. 4 0179 Tbilisi
Phone: +995 577 949708
Email: team@taa.net.ge

Main Page: Sketch by Ramaz Kikandze, Tbilisi 1970 © Ramaz Kiknadze private Archive

Design: arc-gestaltung.de
Website: Storyloop | Lynxtale
Translations: Elene Pasuri, Ana Kiasashvili