Koncha Zaspa

The office arranged a management offsite. It took place in Koncha Zaspa, allegedly an elite village 20 km south of Kiev.

Once upon a time the place was a natural reserve. Now it is a residential playground for local rich and famous. The feeling that one enters the special place is very visual - the road is fenced by high iron fences. It creates a creepy feeling in the beginning. But after I saw some houses with not such a high fence - I concluded it's perhaps for overall good that some constructions are well hidden behind a thick iron.

"De gustibus non est disputandum" or as in Chekhov "de gustibus aut bene, aut nihil".

Taste aside - I was taken aback with the status of the road and only a small shop. But after I took a walk along the road in the evening I figured no one lives in these houses. Nevertheless each house has a guard who sits in a small room next to the entrance and watches TV. The guard is most likely not paid much. But still to build an expensive house only for a guard to watch TV seems as an expensive way of a job creation.

The rich and famous in Koncha Zaspa either do not care about decent living conditions or have to figure out what it means. For example organized garbage disposal is not in place yet. Currently garbage is dumped along the road (photo 36) and at the end of the village (photo 45). There is a pile of construction rubble next to few yachts (photo 41).

None of the houses has a nice garden. No trees or flowers for KZ residents. However one resident has gas pipes in front of his entrance (photo 32 and 33). Seems his budget have not included grounding gas pipes in front of his house on which he most likely spent hundreds of thousands of dollars (Ukraine is dollarized economy). Or gas pipes are conceptual art piece?

All in all - a strange concept of an elite residential place.