The purpose of the study is to examine and systematize Russian experience in preserving and adaptively reusing industrial heritage and to identify the most successful approaches to working with it.
For the Vladimir Potanin Foundation, the new study continues many years of systematic work with industrial heritage. This topic emerged in projects and professional discussions supported and initiated by the Foundation long before the launch of a dedicated competition. The experience accumulated over time, together with growing interest in rethinking industrial heritage, led to the launch in 2021 of "Industrial Experiment," a specialized competition under the Museum Without Borders program. Over five competition cycles, 85 projects fr om different regions of Russia have received support.
The Foundation also shares the experience it has accumulated with wider audiences and the professional community. In 2024, the documentary film "Culture Manufacturing" was released, focusing on the second life of former factories and industrial sites in Russian cities. The film featured participants in projects working with industrial heritage, building owners and managers, museum professionals, and experts.
Oksana Oracheva, General Director of the Vladimir Potanin Foundation:
Industrial heritage has long been a focus of the Foundation's attention. We have supported a number of projects in this field, created platforms for professional discussion about the future of industrial sites, and over time the experience we accumulated led us to launch a dedicated competition, 'Industrial Experiment.' Over the years, we have encountered a wide range of approaches to preserving and rethinking industrial heritage and have seen just how diverse its role in contemporary cultural and public life can be. The next step was the film 'Culture Manufacturing,' which allowed us to bring together this broad range of experience and present it to audiences, as well as the study 'Industrial Heritage as a Resource for the Development of Culture, Traditions, and Social Practices.' Now it is important for us to take the next step: to look systematically at the experience accumulated across the country, understand which solutions prove most sustainable and effective, and identify what enables them to work. We hope that the new study will become a useful tool for those who are already working with industrial heritage, as well as those who are only beginning to do so.
The study will result in a catalogue of 100 sites representing different approaches to the preservation, reinterpretation, and contemporary use of industrial heritage. Ten projects will be analyzed in detail. These include Russia's first factory museum dedicated to the history of ferrous metallurgy, the Old Demidov Plant in Nizhny Tagil; Okeanrybflot, the first interactive industrial museum in Kamchatka, located in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky; and the former Unsky sawmill in the Arkhangelsk Region, wh ere a project is being implemented that approaches industrial heritage as an integrated landscape and brings together research, artistic, and commemorative practices.
The study will cover not only industrial buildings and sites but also intangible heritage — technologies, professional language, workers' folklore, traditions, and other evidence of industrial culture — as well as the means and products of production, from equipment to finished goods. This comprehensive approach will make it possible to consider industrial heritage not as a collection of individual surviving sites but as an important part of the history and identity of cities and communities.
The authors of the study will develop a typology of industrial heritage sites and systematize existing practices for working with them. This will make it possible to identify the factors that determine the success of projects and formulate recommendations for developing and disseminating the most effective approaches.
The research will include field studies of a number of sites and interviews with leading professionals in the field of industrial heritage. The experts include architect and heritage specialist Narine Tyutcheva, Academician of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences Margarita Shtiglits, and Alisa Prudnikova, Programme Director of the V–A–C Foundation and GES-2 House of Culture.
Sergey Georgievsky, Co-Founder of the Agency for Strategic Development "CENTER":
Industrial heritage is a resource capable of giving cities a new quality of living environment. It can provide public spaces and areas for comprehensive development, attract investment, and strengthen identity. We have been studying this heritage for many years and have observed a steady increase in interest in it. Now is the time to consolidate the experience that has already been accumulated, analyze it carefully, and draw conclusions: which practices for working with heritage are the most successful, what determines that success, and what reduces the chances of projects being implemented effectively. We are confident that this will create an extensive analytical foundation for further work with industrial heritage.
The study "Analysis of Industrial Heritage Capitalization and Representation Practices" will be completed by the end of 2026. Its interim and final results will be presented at public industry events and discussed with the professional community.
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