>sotsgorod/ aik/ kemerovo

Kemerovo lies in the heart of Siberia, along the river Tom in the Kuznetsky Basin. Its soil contains huge amounts of coal. At the time of the AIK, there was no need to dig; one could just pick it up from the ground. Coal was transported to Magnitogorsk in the Urals, and the train brought back iron ore. Like this the blast furnaces of both cities were fed.

The AIK buildings that remain all stand on the right bank of the river Tom, the high bank where the old mines were located. There are still some terraced houses left, the old school with watertower, the fire department, the bathhouse and some multi-family houses in the woods.

Most of them are in a bad shape. The monument commission tries to preserve them, helped by specialists from the University of Delft. The old head quarter of the AIK, Rutgers¹ house, a masonry house the AIK inherited from a Belgian/French mining combine that was chased away by the Revolution, is now the AIK museum.
shop burned down in 1996

Urban design by Van Loghem

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