how we launched a new digital platform to preserve cultural heritage
What kind of project is this
At beeline cloud we have a special approach to security – we are sensitive to the safety and protection of our clients’ data. This philosophy is reflected in the new project “Urban Legends”; it actually became a continuation of our mission to preserve what is most important and valuable.
Realizing the scale of the problem, we decided to digitize the disappearing masterpieces and turn them into a project that unites the past and present. After all, many historical buildings and architectural masterpieces have disappeared from the maps of Russian cities, and some are lost forever. According to “Arkhnadzor” In Moscow alone, over the past 10 years, 320 historical buildings have been destroyed, not to mention objects throughout Russia. Demolition statistics in the capital quadrupled in 2023 compared to 2012, and in St. Petersburg a petition against the demolition of 121 buildings collected more than 32,000 signatures.
Our Urban Legends project will help recreate lost cultural values in different cities of Russia and preserve the memory of them for future generations. Especially for this, we have launched a digital platform where you can see the original appearance of buildings, structures and other objects from different cities of Russia, which by now have changed a lot or even ceased to exist altogether. We restore not only the appearance of the object, but also show how it could fit into modern infrastructure.
Data recovery and preservation are key security aspects that we pay special attention to. At the same time, the preservation of historically significant cultural heritage sites that are important on a global scale defines a similar parallel with business, when data security is brought to the fore. We see a special connection here, and it is reflected in our project. By joining Urban Legends, you are making a significant contribution to the formation of the historical and cultural image, which is especially important for future generations
— Yulia Gusarova, marketing director beeline cloud
A classic example is the Red Gate in Moscow, originally erected by order of Peter I in honor of the victory in the Battle of Poltava and dismantled in 1927 during the expansion of the Garden Ring. Now only paintings, photographs and the name of the square and metro station of the same name remind us of them. We tried to show what the Red Gate could look like now: we recreated it digitally and fit it into the modern landscape. The matter is not limited to Moscow: we have already restored facilities in Kazan, Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk. You can view them and read a brief summary of their history on the interactive map of the project. Next in line are objects from other cities – from Kaliningrad to Yakutsk.
We wanted the project to be able to develop, including through audience participation. Now any user can add their own urban legend (building, structure, object that is of cultural or historical value). After moderation, the “legend” appears on the map and you can vote for it. Every two months we will digitize a new object with the most votes.
How does this work
Urban Legends team: art director, illustrator, designer, project manager. In addition, photographers from different cities of Russia cooperate with us, where we carry out (or are planning to carry out) digitization. The work of recreating an object is a slow process and consists of several stages:
First stage – collecting photographs or images of the lost building from all possible sources. These are historical archives, city forums, news articles and notes. We try to obtain images from different angles in order to collect the most complete picture of what the building looked like, where exactly it was located and how exactly it fit into the landscape of that time.
Second stage — research of the current appearance of the location using modern cartographic services, panoramas, as well as a comparison of historical and modern plans of the city. At this stage, it is important for us to understand how the urban landscape has changed and where the lost building would be located today.
On third stage Based on the research carried out, we form a preliminary sketch, which determines the angle of the building and the shooting point of the location. We choose the shooting point so that the most recognizable part of the building is visible. At the same stage, the illustrator begins work on rendering the object, adapting different projections of the facade from photographs, drawings and drawings to a given angle, recreating the color scheme and textures. At this time, the photographer conducts a photo shoot of the designated locations.
Fourth stage — combining illustrations and photographs and final image processing: adding graphics, color correction, preparation for posting on the site.
In the process of working on the site and the first digitized “legends,” we continued to think about the appearance of the objects and refine them. This is how the idea came up to add a slider so that you could compare archival photos of an object and how it would look in a modern city landscape. We worked for a long time on the appearance of the digitized objects themselves, ensuring that they were, on the one hand, bright and noticeable, and on the other, looked realistic.
Digital agency CreativePeople helped us in implementing the project—we would like to express special gratitude to the team.
This is a very interesting project, which in the process forced us to immerse ourselves in the history of the architecture of the cities of our country, to pay attention to the speed at which the space around us is changing. And how important it is to try to preserve the historical heritage in any way.
There were difficulties with visual materials, since they were as varied as possible – from watercolor illustrations and drawings to b/w photographs of pre-war times. Neural networks produced strong distortions and unexpected additions; with their help, it was not possible to achieve the desired preservation of object recognition, so they visualized the lost objects through illustrations.
And when working on the implementation of KV, we attracted photographers from different cities, some showed genuine enthusiasm, to take cool photographs suitable for the angle and lighting that we used in the project.
— Anastasia Zhukova, art director of CreativePeople
What's next
We hope that concerned citizens will continue to get involved in the project – in many parts of Russia there are crumbling or already lost buildings and structures with a rich history. In some cases, only art historians and tour guides know about them—Proud Legends will help preserve such buildings digitally and introduce them to as many people as possible.
The project has already attracted the attention of professional communities and specialists, including the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments (VOOPIiK), the Union of Artists of Russia, the St. Petersburg Union of Artists, the All-Russian Association of Art Historians and Art Critics (AIS), the International Association of Art Critics, the Academy of Arts, the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, Petrovsky Academy of Sciences and Arts and the “Path your art” school of painting and drawing. These organizations express their support for the project, which emphasizes its significance not only for the general public, but also for professionals involved in the field of cultural heritage conservation.
We plan to further develop our projectand are open to suggestions. You might have some thoughts about where Urban Legends might go. Or you already have ideas about what building or object to add to our map – we will be glad if you join the project or tell us about it in the comments.
