43 km from Yakutsk, on the banks of the Kenkeme River, participant of the “Hectare” program Marina Platonova and her family are reviving the traditions of the Sakha people, creating a unique ethnocomplex "UTEEN". The project, which started in 2016, has become not only an example of successful land development, but also a spiritual center that attracts tourists from all over the world. The author of the project told the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (FEDC) about her experience of obtaining land and the specifics of the project.
Marina and her classmates received 8 hectares of land in 2016. “We were among the first to register the plots, on the first try – there were no difficulties,” Marina recalls. The initial idea of living together transformed into a large-scale family project. From scratch, without construction skills, Marina's family built traditional buildings: balagans (houses of the Sakha people) and a unique underground dwelling called Kholomo with natural thermoregulation, which protects from severe frosts in winter, saving firewood, and provides coolness in summer, acting as a natural air conditioner. Local materials were used in the construction - deadwood and a forest plot allocated by the administration.