As part of his thesis, Yulian Postavnichev-Harry, a student from the Department of Physical Geography and Landscape Optimisation, designed a renovation project for the university's park. According to Yulian’s idea, the renovated area should include a stadium with a sports ground, comfortable benches, and memorial and walking areas.
In 2020, Chairman of the Students’ Union of VSU Andrey Startsev suggested renovating the park of the main VSU building and offered his idea to the Faculty of Geography, Geoecology, and Tourism. Yulian’s research supervisor Olga Bykovskaya thought that Yulian could use this project for his thesis.
“I’ve always been interested in landscape design, and it was interesting to prove myself in a practical task. First, I surveyed 71 students and employees of VSU, and it turned out that many of them were not happy with the current state of the park, especially the benches and paving tiles,” said Yulian Postavnichev-Harry.
Before designing the project, Yulian had to measure the park.
“I conducted a survey of the trees: I measured the height of the trees, the width of their trunks at the height of one and a half metres, and then I determined the state of each tree. I had to decide which ones to remove and which ones to leave, and this is one of the main factors in a landscape project design. Now the park is dominated by native species which are typical for the natural area of the Voronezh Region. But there are also some invasive ones, such as eastern white-cedar and red ash. Since some of them were in good condition, I decided that they must be preserved,” explained the author of the project.
Having studied the area, Yulian drew up a location plan that showed how the park looks at the moment. To do that, he combined a plan of VSU’s land plot with some drone photographs combined at the same scale.
Yulian also examined the soil of the park and brought a sample of it to the Department of Geoecology and Environmental Monitoring. Senior students conducted a chemical analysis and presented the results of their study to Yulian.
“The data from my colleagues helped me understand what the condition of the soil was, how it could be improved, and what trees could be planted in the park.”
The central part of the project was a sports ground with a jogging path.
“The area of the park was not enough for a classic 400-metre track. It took me a long time to find a solution: I tried to shorten the path to an estimated length of 200 metres, but it still did not fit in the park. A little later I found a way to make it happen because I discovered that there was a 166.67-metre plan for the area. It was perfect for the land I was working with,” said Yulian.
He designed the renovation project using geoinformation systems and graphic editors and presented it using several types of plans: a functional area plan, a layout plan, a planting plan, and, of course, a general plan.
According to the author of the project, its implementation will cost over 11 million roubles. For now, the project has been put on pause. Yulian hopes his work has not been in vain and is open to any discussions on the renovation of the area.
Text: Irina Golik
