Since 1986, the UNESCO agency UN Habitat, which deals with environmental issues, in the broadest sense of human settlements, celebrates World Habitat Day, which is becoming the occasion for various events. This day coincides with the first Monday in October. In 1996, the International Union of Architects decided to join this initiative, declaring the same day as the World Day of Architecture, which, of course, must be recognized as one of the noticeable components of the environment of any settlement. Holidays are celebrated in a similar way - the "parent organization" sets the theme to which various meetings, speeches and round tables are timed. This year the theme of the day of architecture was ecology.
The Unions of Architects of Russia and Moscow celebrated the professional holiday by presenting an alternative urban planning concept for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Until yesterday, only one concept for the Olympic development of Sochi was known - the one shown by the IOC in an application that competed with proposals from other cities in early July. In addition to general words, this document, available on the website of the Sochi 2014 Bid Committee, contains a lot of specifics, in particular, a detailed development plan developed by an American architectural company known for its specialization in projects of this kind - which probably was one of the factors that drove the committee towards Sochi. The Olympic objects presented in the application have quite definite outlines, moreover, after the victory of the Sochi application, their design continues, according to the chairman of the Union of Architects of Russia Yuri Gnedovsky, with the participation of designers from Italy, Germany and South Africa. No one invited famous Russian architects to design the Olympic facilities in the city of Sochi.
In September, having gathered in the holiday home of the Union of Architects "Sukhanovo", the architects carefully studied the development project included in the application, identified its weak points and created their own version of the urban planning solution, which was presented on October 1 by Yuri Gnedovsky.
The differences between the Russian project and the one that appears in the application and is now accepted as a working one are quite large and fit well with the date of its presentation - this year the theme of the day of architecture is ecology, and it was on this side of the issue that Yuri Gnedovsky emphasized, demonstrating the concept. We are talking about the development of the seaside zone - the Lower Imeretinskaya Valley. This is the territory between the sea, the railway, which runs at some distance along the coast, the Abkhaz border and Adler. The coastline here bends beautifully and one of its promontories, the most noticeable, has a wonderful rounded shape. The American project from the Olympic application accepted by the IOC places most of the seaside buildings on this cape, inscribing the layout in the correct circle, which turns out to be the semantic center of the Olympics.
However, Russian architects note, there is a settlement of Old Believers in this place next to the sea, there is an Old Believer cemetery nearby, and in addition, in the depths of the territory there are several lakes that we would like to preserve.
In the new Russian project, all this is taken into account - the cape is completely vacated, the Olympic buildings are removed from the coast and are lined up approximately in the middle between the beaches and the railway. The lakes are not only left in their places, but are also continued by a chain of ponds to the east. At the same time, the authors of the concept took into account the specific buildings presented in the IOC application, only rearranging them in places - which, probably, is intended to emphasize the absence of complaints about the design of objects, which is now in full swing, but only to the city concept, which was completed and handed over before the victory of the Sochi Olympic applications.
The project is indeed more environmentally friendly and sensitive to the autochthonous population of the city. From the point of view of a person who is not involved in organizing this large-scale event, it is completely incomprehensible why it is impossible to hold the Olympics without infringing on the rights of local residents. It is definitely made in line with the most popular European values today.
It is more difficult to say how much the project is more profitable and more convenient for playing games. It is easy to see that the objects of the "Americans" crowded into a seaside town, in the Russian version, lined up in a line, vividly reminiscent of the Olympic Avenue built in Moscow by 1980. When placed far from the sea, they lose part of their romantic surroundings, and in return a large park appears between the sea and the city. The park itself is much nicer to me personally, both before the competition, and during, after. However, it is noticeable that in the shown Russian project, the PR-aggressive "Olympic" component is noticeably, if not to say - demonstratively pushed aside, giving way to social and natural values. From which the plan becomes somehow very "unesque" and it begins to seem that its main goal is to highlight the shortcomings of a working application solution, and not to offer something constructive.
Another key problem is the authorship of the shown project. The concept was presented by Yuri Gnedovsky, on behalf of the union of architects in general, and as the story progresses, a touch of anonymity that usually haunts any collective work became more noticeable. Complaining about the lack of promotion of Russian "stars", the representatives of the union did not at all seek to make public the authors' collective of the demonstrated concept. Usually such things are written directly on tablets, but here they are not. Only in response to a question from the correspondent of the Agency for Architectural News did the chairman of the union give names, and some of them are really personalities - Alexander Asadov, Andrey Bokov, Alexander Skokan, Mikhail Khazanov, this is a corresponding member. RAASN Vladilen Krasilnikov and chief architect of the Institute "Yuzhproektkommunstroy" Oleg Kozinsky. Another part is made up of organizations, these are two Soviet urban planning institutes - the Research Institute of Urban Studies and Giprogor.
According to Yuri Gnedovsky, the participants were divided into 6 teams and made 6 projects. Then, getting back together again, the architects found that the versions coincided in many ways, and created one final version based on them. All this, of course, evokes thoughts of striving for absolute perfection by combining the best, but on the other hand, it is completely unclear what, for example, Bokov suggested, what was Asadov, and what was Giprogor. The designated "stars" are drowning in the matter of collective creativity tending towards absolute, which in a sense gives an answer to the question posed here at the press conference: why are not their stars appreciated.
Now the state of the "alternative plan" of the Olympic Sochi is approximately the following. The project was designed and proposed to show the supreme power, decisions on its account were expected last Friday. But after the reshuffle in the government, his entire path "to the top" must be started anew, so the architectural unions decided to publish the project now - which was what we owed to its appearance yesterday at the joint press conference of the CAP and AIA.
In addition to the general plan of Sochi buildings, the press conference participants spoke about the plans of the unions of architects to restore the licensing of architectural activities, canceled about a year ago, and also reminded those present that the Zodchestvo festival is opening on October 18 in the Manege.
