From 22–24 May 2026, the Cities.Building.Culture project participated in the Y-Conference: SPACES in Yerevan, Armenia. Organized by the Yerevan Center for International Education, the conference brought together 154 speakers from 32 countries across 32 thematic sessions to discuss the social, political, and cultural dimensions of space.
As part of the conference, Elena Batunova and Albina Davletshina convened the panel “After the Break: Urban Spaces Between ‘No Longer’ and ‘Not Yet’”. The panel explored spaces whose established functions have been interrupted while their future remains uncertain: abandoned infrastructures, unfinished projects, informal settlements, and places shaped by contested memories.
Although the presentations focused on very different contexts—from an unfinished Soviet hydrotechnical megaproject and deteriorating modernist infrastructures to informal urban expansion in Ulaanbaatar and the memory of a vanished Armenian town—they collectively addressed a common question: what happens to urban space when expected trajectories of development break down? The discussion highlighted how such places often remain socially active despite institutional neglect, how past visions continue to shape present realities, and how residents, memories, and everyday practices give meaning to spaces suspended between inherited pasts and uncertain futures. Together, the papers demonstrated that interruption, incompletion, and unresolved futures are not exceptional conditions but increasingly important dimensions of contemporary urban life.
The panel also provided an opportunity to strengthen cooperation between the Cities.Building.Culture project and the Yerevan Center for International Education. Beyond the academic discussion itself, the conference contributed to ongoing exchanges with colleagues in Yerevan and opened new opportunities for future collaboration.