Presentation Ceremony for Restoration-Sketch Projects of Shusha City's Architectural Heritage Held

On April 21st, an online presentation ceremony of restoration and sketch projects for the architectural heritage of Shusha city was held at the Azerbaijan University of Architecture and Construction (AzUAC). The event dedicated to International Day for Monuments and Sites was attended by guests from the Ministry of Education, the Milli Majlis (Parliament), the Union of Architects of Azerbaijan, and higher education institutions.

According to AZERTAJ news agency, Gulchohra Mammadova, the rector of the university, provided detailed information to the guests about the projects. The rector noted that the initiative for the development and restoration of the urban planning and historical architectural heritage of Shusha city began a year ago at the Faculty of Architecture, initiated by the students and faculty members. "When our students and teachers started working on the project, Shusha, as well as other regions, was still under occupation. But we believed that those lands would soon return to their rightful owners, and we would implement these projects there. Today, we are very pleased that our aspirations have come true."

Mammadova emphasized that the main purpose of preparing the project was to preserve the architectural heritage of Shusha, a historic city of Azerbaijan, based on the example of historical cities' development and architectural heritage preservation. She expressed confidence that with the new development projects presented by the students for the urban planning structure of Shusha city, modern living conditions in line with contemporary requirements would be restored soon.

The rector highlighted that for approximately a year of preparing this project, students collected historical information about Shusha's monuments and infrastructure from archives, worked with archives, and familiarized themselves with existing archival documents. Students working on the development of the urban planning structure and restoration of monuments were guided by AzUAC associate professor and Honored Architect Yeganea Hajiyeva, while students working on the restoration direction were led by AzUAC professor and Doctor of Architecture Sabina Hajiyeva.

Then the projects were presented to the participants of the ceremony. Yegana Hajiyeva, who guided the students in the direction of the development of the urban planning structure, spoke about the master plan project for Shusha city for the years 2020-2040, and the works done by the students were presented to the audience. It was reported that primarily in the first stage, work was done on public, residential, and non-residential areas, industrial, recreational, and green areas. In the following stage, new residential areas were proposed, the city's existing area was defined along with new borders until 2040, the renewal of the ecotourism route for Shusha, the renovation of the overall green area's recreation zones, allocation of areas for new constructions, division and separation of city surrounding streets into categories, determination of pedestrian tourist routes, and so on were implemented.

Sabina Hajiyeva, providing information on the restoration direction of architectural heritage, noted that there are 165 historical monuments in Shusha in general, but students worked on only a part of them. "When we started the project, Shusha city was under occupation, and we couldn't go there. Students worked only based on information and sketches obtained from archives. The historical and architectural characteristics of individual architectural monuments of Shusha were researched based on sketches, drawings, photographs, etc., taken from archives, and their current situation was investigated through internet resources, and restoration sketches were developed."

Then, students presented restoration sketches for Ashaghi and Yuxkhari Govhar Agha Mosque, the house-museums of Khan's daughter Natavan, Uzeyir Hajibayli, Bulbul, Hasan bey Vezirov, and others, as well as sketches for the restoration of baths, caravanserais, and springs. The 3D view of the monuments presented in the restoration projects was developed by the students.

At the end of the presentation, the students presented the first route to Shusha using modern computer programs as the result of the project.

During the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Education Firudin Gurbanov, Members of the Parliament - Hijran Huseynova, Aydin Mirzazade, and Hikmat Babayev, as well as the rector of the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts, Professor Jeyran Mahmudova, praised the students' initiative and thanked the teachers who contributed to this project. They highly appreciated the work done, emphasizing the necessity of utilizing the potential of AzUAC's professors and students in the process of rebuilding, restoring, and developing our liberated cities and villages.