Fundraiser seeks to save iconic Old Town staircase in Tbilisi
The construction is found attached to a residential house on the street and provides access to upper floors for residents. Photo via Kibe Project organisers.
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A team of young Georgian and foreign architects, artists and organisers is seeking to save a piece of iconic 19th century Old Town architecture in Tbilisi, with their online crowdfunding project collecting donations for conservation of a wooden staircase that has been featured in classic Georgian cinema.
Aiming not only to preserve the construction - "one of the last wooden spiral staircases in the city" - but also enable the community of residents in the Old Town courtyard that uses it to take part in the work, the initiative was launched last month and hopes to be able to carry out the effort this summer.
The object in question is the exquisitely designed staircase leading residents of 7 Dzmebi Kakabadzeebi Street - a typical 19th century Tbilisi "Italian" inner yard - from the ground to the upper floors of the house it is attached to. The street is part of the Vera district, a section of the capital widely captured on lens in 20th century films of the Georgian scene.
Itself featured in a number of Soviet Georgian cinema classics - including the 1959 feature The Last Day, the First Day by director Siko Dolidze - the piece of architecture has fallen into a dilapidated state after decades without required maintenance, tied to resources not available to the residents.
The organisers of the fundraising drive said their conservation project aimed to not only preserve the piece of the city's urban heritage but also ensure safety of the locals who still have to use the staircase to gain access to homes, despite its grave condition.
[The state of the staircase] not only presents the issue of losing valuable cultural heritage in a city, which is rapidly losing its historical character, but is also an evident hazard to the community
- Kibe Project organisers
The team plans to hold a "participative conservation workshop" involving professionals of conservation, carpentry and architecture along with volunteers and the residents of the yard, with the effort supported by the Georgian chapter of the European Architecture Student’s Assembly (EASA), MAUDI, and ICOMOS Georgia.
Titled Kibe Project (for the Georgian term for "staircase"), the crowdfunding drive is hosted on the popular GoFundMe platform, with a separate official page for the initiative offering details about the project and the team.