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How can indigenous building knowledge contribute to contemporary climate resilience strategies in Central Asia? This panel explores the intersection of architecture, environmental governance, and material culture in Uzbekistan, focusing on a low-carbon wooden house prototype designed and constructed as part of the VEGERA project. Drawing on field research, energy performance modeling, and policy review, this session proposes that traditional housing typologies—often dismissed as outdated—hold critical value for post-carbon futures.

The panel invites papers that examine how construction practices rooted in vernacular design can support contemporary sustainability agendas, especially in rapidly urbanizing regions like Uzbekistan. Contributors may address themes such as: the socio-political barriers to reintroducing local materials like wood in modern housing; how community knowledge interfaces with international green standards; the role of institutional actors in enabling or obstructing alternative construction practices; and the evolving perception of traditional vs. modern in public housing aspirations.

Bonu Azizova will present new findings from a comparative building energy simulation, showing that the wooden prototype house reduced operational emissions to one-third of a standard brick house, with even greater impact when PV panels were integrated. However, the research argues that carbon efficiency alone is not enough—social acceptance, regulatory approval, and cultural narratives of “progress” all shape whether such designs can scale.

This panel aims to bridge architectural innovation with critical area studies, situating climate-friendly housing within the broader transformation of post-Soviet spatial identities, governance frameworks, and material imaginaries. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary contributions from anthropology, planning, environmental sociology, and Central Asian studies.

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This research project deals with the issue of housing construction of the Kazakh people in the ХІХ century. It is based on the political, economic, and social factors that caused the Kazakh people to build permanent housing and move to a sedentary lifestyle. The winter cottages of the Kazakh people are considered a form of residential construction. Historical evidence is provided that refutes the one-sided view of Russian colonizers and Soviet historians that "Kazakhs are accustomed only to a nomadic way of life". The research work is intended for a comprehensive study based on archaeological data about residential buildings built in the steppe region in the ХІХ century. In addition to the issues of considering the types of housing construction, local building materials used in building houses, taking into account the natural climatic conditions in housing construction, the succession of generations is revealed by the discovery of sakh stands under the ruined barns of Kazakhs.

The research work is dedicated to the currently relevant issue of using the effective aspects of housing construction, which the communities that lived in the society in the past, left as a legacy to today's generations. As a result of the research, a sketch of a residential house, a barn, a model of a shed that can be built in villages, winter camps where herdsmen live, and fences are proposed.

The purpose of the study: By studying the historical data and archeological researches about the construction of houses in the Kazakh steppe in the ХІХ century, it is proven that the Kazakhs formed their own house-building culture, taking into account the natural-climate, daily lifestyle and household conditions in building winter houses.

Research objectives and methods:

1. conducting a bibliographic review of works related to the research topic

2. determination of the features of the residential houses in winter in the region and comparison of the constructions of the residential houses in the settlements of Zhidebay, Sarkyrama

3. meet scientists and architects, take an interview about Kazakh and modern houses and get their advice;

4. conduct a survey in order to identify and analyze the opinions in the society about the Kazakh architectural culture

5. using the tinkerCAD program, taking into account the advice of architect specialists, a sketch of a barn and housing construction located inside or outside the created winter quarters and a model of a shed that can be used today

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With the proliferation of ethnic accessories and clothing brands in Kazakhstan, individuals started to combine traditional elements with contemporary clothing in everyday settings. In this study, I aim to examine what I refer to as “accessory nationalism”, which is a diffusion of traditional symbols in the realm of daily consumer practices. Specifically, I will focus on how individuals in Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, engage in the meaning-making process of ‘nation’. Through interviews and focus groups, I explore the role of consumer objects, particularly accessories, as ubiquitous tools for cultivating national identity. In addition, to examine whether those consumers are engaging uncritically or intentionally in the reproduction of national identity, I will conduct a visual analysis of advertised traditional accessories. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Banal Nationalism and Everyday Nationhood, this paper will aim to answer questions of why individuals are choosing those traditional accessories, and how the mundane materiality and consumer choice are affecting the engagement of ordinary citizens in forging their national identity. This study will contribute to the existing field by providing a case from a post-Soviet country and serve as another example of how material objects and visuals promote the commercialization of national distinctiveness.

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My contribution deals with new, kaleidoscopic approaches to the multi-perspective reappraisal of over 1,100 Crimean Tatar objects in the Museum of European Cultures (MEK, Berlin), the ‘Türckische Cammer’ (State Art Collections Dresden, Saxony) and other archives, museums and libraries. These include everyday objects, paintings, jewellery, clothing, music, literature and editions of the Koran. Since the collections in Saint Petersburg and Crimea are currently neither accessible nor usable for Crimean Tatar refugees or scholars in the free world, we are working with Crimean Tatar artists, scholars, restorers and human rights activists to develop concepts for the cross-media, international use of Crimean Tatar treasures.

In my lecture, I analyse the potential and resonance of the diverse object groups by presenting their provenance, materiality and symbolic significance using selected examples. In doing so, I focus on the specific collection contexts of each period and their contextualisation against the backdrop of contemporary ethnographic and museum discourses, ranging from (neo-)nationalist currents to questions of cultural appropriation and current decolonisation debates to new approaches to transcultural cooperation. For the first time, Crimean Tatars from three different migration stratifications will work together in an interdisciplinary manner in a project called ‘Qaytarma’ using a kaleidoscopic approach in the social fields of science, civil society and art – as a symbol of free science and a sign of hope, as an example of bilateral cooperation after annexation and hybrid warfare.