Dark Reconstruction, or russian* Worlding: Architecture-after-Urbicide in Ukraine, Chechnya, and Syria

• In Event: Infrastructures of Occupation I: Apparatuses of *russian (Re)coloniality

Abstract

This paper delves into the visions for “reconstruction” articulated by the russian federal ministry of construction for the temporarily-occupied cities and towns of eastern and southern Ukraine: Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Mariupol. The paper interprets these speculative visions of "dark reconstruction" - in territories whose future continues to hang in the balance - in the context of already-implemented architectural and infrastructural projects led by state and private actors in territories laid to waste by russia and its allies, focusing on Chechnya and Syria. Further, it lays out some starting points for a comparative research agenda on the specificities of 21st century russia-led "dark reconstruction", seen against the background of commensurable projects of reconstruction-after-urbicide implemented by the US and Israel in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.

Author

• Michał Murawski, U College London (UK)