Researcher and architect Thomas Ibrahim became interested in the Industrial Pedagogical Technicum in 2016, when he wanted to learn more about its structure and unique characteristics as an example of social modernism architecture. The building was in considerably better shape at that time, and Zurab Tsereteli's relief sculpture was still affixed to its facade.

The Technicum sculpture was stolen between February 2018 and February 2019.
Photos and sketch by Thomas Ibrahim, 2017-2018.

As Ibrahim recalls, the relief began to vanish from the facade in early 2018. Its disappearance led to wider interest in how the lives of the displaced intersected with the building itself, as well as efforts to restore it. During the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial, an installation was made of wire to highlight the missing pieces of the sculpture.

In December of the same year, he launched the Agora Exhibition at Industrial Technicum. The exhibit was part of INHABIT! Tbilisi, post-Soviet, a project that reexamined and explored repurposing former public structures for contemporary use. The Agora Exhibition was the first step in making the space more public and active.
The manually built stairway made the terrace and auditorium publicly accessible and served as an exhibition space, a playground for the children living in the IDP communities, and a workshop area. It even resulted in some graffiti on the walls, indicating that someone had been there recently, rather than decades before. According to the project, in an ideal scenario, this public area would serve the IDP community living in the building and would host activities that would help them further integrate into city life.
“I was initially fascinated by the sculpture by Zurab Tsereteli that was affixed to the auditorium facade of the building. The fact that the relief was stolen catalyzed the process and made me return and investigate. I was also working on a Biennale at that time. Then I became more familiar with the people who live there. I was thinking that it would be valuable to make a public space specially for IDPs living there, so that they could communicate more and be more involved in city life.”

Image Credits: Angus Leadly Brown

“The project was well received at the time by the residents who lived there; we held workshops and the Agora Exhibition there. We first built the staircase to have access to the terrace because I thought it brought the most value for anyone living there. Before you had to climb up beside the building to reach it. We simply cleaned the space; in fact, the municipality came to clean the space. I think that’s what the space needed for that moment. Of course, we wanted to do more there to develop it further.”

​​“People would go up there because they were curious to see the terrace and the view from there. Then we held the workshop there; we had some wood left over from the workshop, so we made the furniture workshop, and we invited some students who were also working on the Architecture Biennial. We started building furniture there with some of the residents. We began to construct some things, including a 7-meter-long gigantic swing. We started making a terrace a little bit like a playground.”
“When the residents knew that I had built the staircase with the purpose of creating a public space for them as well, they became more involved and interested as they had a little more hope that something would happen to transform the space.”

Industrial Pedagogical Technicum also houses Icarus, a professional college that offers courses in tourism-related fields and carries the building’s legacy as a place of higher learning.
The socialist modernist architecture belies the college’s focus on the modern demands of the economy.
Natalia Odikadze, 35, began her studies in 2019 and graduated in 2021. She now works in a local pizzeria and raises her three children.

“I attended Icarus College and majored in the culinary arts. We learned about Georgian, European, and global cuisines. It was not difficult to find work after I graduated. It is much more difficult for those who enter the field without studying. I already had some of the knowledge and experience required for the job from college.”
“This place is somewhat difficult to reach... I used to come here from Rustavi, which is a bit far. Because the pandemic started not long after I started studying, I had to attend the distance learning program part time.”

“When I started studying, the relief sculpture by Zurab Tsereteli that had been affixed to the building's facade had already vanished and collapsed. I have no other clear memory of it. IDPs, as far as I know, occupy the other half of the building, and their living space is separated from the school by a wall. They're on one side, the college is on the other side, and we didn’t have any direct credits with them. There are separate entrances to the building. All my attention was on learning. When you go into the kitchen, you finish one dish and start another; that was my entire focus, and aside from the lecturers and students, I didn't communicate much with the others.”

“When I think back on college, in addition to my profession, the architecture of the building looms large in my mind. I don't understand much about architecture, but it's something different…Once a person enters the building, they will definitely remember it. I recall that when we started studying, I took pictures of the entrance and on the stairs, it seemed so interesting to me.”

“If I had studied architecture there, I would have seen this building differently, but there are some features that are memorable even for the average visitor, not to mention an architect's eye. It is more than just a college building or a kitchen.”

Demo, 25, has lived in the Industrial Pedagogical Technicum his entire life. His mother is a native of Abkhazia and arrived at the Industrial Pedagogical Technicum in 1992, when she and her family were forced to flee their homes due the war. She was 12.

“This space was originally used as a classroom. There was nothing when we arrived, not even a bathroom or a kitchen. There was only one large space, which we later partitioned with thin walls. We used to live on the other side of the building, in a space a third of this size. We moved around to different parts of the building for the first five to six years, frequently changing addresses (in the same building). We lived on the fourth floor for five years, until my sister was born and then we decided to expand a little, given that we were in such a small space. By this time, the 2008 war had already occurred, the IDPs had been resettled, and the only free room in the building was this one. Dividing space between the neighbors was not an easy task either.”
The space where he lives now with his mother and younger sister used to be a college auditorium, and even after more than 30 years, it still holds traces of its original design. Demo says he realized early on that the family would not be offered better living quarters soon, so they began constructing thin walls to separate the space into several rooms.

However, as Demo points out, this did not occur in a single day; due to the family’s finances, it took a long time, and the family worked on it from one summer to the next. Demo recalls he always struggled to connect with his peers who were not displaced: initially he went to a school in the building for displaced children, but eventually he transferred to a mainstream, public school. But even then, he says it was difficult to make friends and he never brought anyone over. Today he is focused on working and caring for his mother and his sister.

“When I start a family, I most probably won't live here. I don't want my children or significant other to go through what I did. I must do everything in my power to prevent them from seeing and experiencing what I went through. If I have the means, I will take my mother and sister with me as well.”
After he graduated from medical school, he started working in a local hospital and became a personal trainer to earn extra income.
“I began working when I was 16, my mother needed my help and support. I began working in my profession when I was 18, when I went to the clinic. In the medical field, you start at the bottom and work your way up, so that is what I did. I am now a junior doctor at the Republic Hospital's Therapeutic Department. In addition, I have two jobs in different clinics to help me advance in my career. In the future, I hope to work as a pediatric surgeon. In addition, I work part-time as a personal trainer at a gym.”

Not every household has the means to improve the space they were assigned.
“We entered this space in 2008, but we were unable to improve it immediately due to financial reasons. We began doing all of this in stages. We saved money gradually, also we borrowed a little and remodeled step by step. We did the bathroom first because we used the communal bathroom before. It took us more than five years to complete everything step by step.”
“They have promised to give us housing but, like always, it remains just an idea. My mother has always tried to legalize our home or find us a new place to live. However, nothing has ever worked. We must always take care of ourselves. Housing should not, in my opinion, be the subject of such a broad debate today; you either have it or you don't. In our case, it's somewhere in the middle: we have it, and we don't. It's yours, but it's not entirely yours. You also can't rent it or sell it.
As the building belonged to a college, we didn’t have to pay for our electricity before. Then, a tax was imposed. They said it was because we have lived here for so long. In that case, either make the place ours or do something to help us, I thought.”

“Two or three heaters could not heat such a large area. I also needed a room because my little sister ran around, and I needed a place to study.
Finally, we completed the kitchen as well as the divider… to prevent people from entering the kitchen directly from the entrance. I built these walls almost entirely by myself, having learned the craft from scratch.”

“I've lived in this building for as long as I can remember. I've spent 13 years in this exact place. It was difficult to live in the conditions that existed there initially, so we decided to do something about it ourselves, while not knowing whether the government would legalize these quarters for us or provide us with a new place. We have tried to live like ordinary people, and that is why we decided to build little by little. I created nearly everything that you see now. When you live like one of us, you learn to live without the help of others. In some ways, this was useful because I have gained experiences that other people do not have.”