The theme of the first architectural biennale, consonant with the national project “affordable housing”, expanded the usual palette of the “Arch of Moscow”, complementing it with more than unexpected facets. At the exhibition, various, if not to say - opposite things, peacefully coexist, in the list of events too. So, part of the program of the biennale was a visiting session of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, which took place on May 27, 2008, on the opening day of the architectural biennale in the conference hall of the Central House of Artists.
The main reason for holding this meeting was the discussion of the draft resolution, which speaks of the need to create a working group under the Government of the Russian Federation on the problems of the formation and life of the middle class in Russia.
The meeting was chaired by Valery Fadeev, editor-in-chief of the Expert magazine and deputy chairman of the commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation on globalism and national development strategy. He called himself a romantic, representing the image of future cities, but scolded the architects as racketeers, complaining about the financial problems of building his own home.
So, the approved text of the resolution states that the participants in the hearings support the development of a state strategy for mass housing construction, and consider it necessary to take into account the initiatives and work of the participants of the Moscow Biennale, as well as experts, participants in the hearings, in particular, the public project "Russian House of the Future" (www. rusdb.ru), which started a year and a half ago. This is a research project initiated by the Expert magazine and supported at the highest level (by the Presidential Expert Council on National Projects and Demographic Policy). We are convinced of this by examining the stand that meets visitors on the first floor of the Central House of Artists to the right of the "Quarterly Issue". The logical connection between the aforementioned neighboring expositions is as follows: all projects submitted for the "Quarterly Issue" competition must be analyzed for compliance with existing urban planning norms within the framework of the "Russian House of the Future" project. Naturally, the winner will be identified and awarded. The research project is carried out by the Institute of Habitat Modeling, its goal is to develop a draft doctrine for the arrangement of the middle class in the Russian Federation. Now the project is at the stage of transition from theory to practice - after a while the construction of the first "polygons" with "houses of the future" should begin. The examination of general plans will provide a theoretical basis for the development of regional, municipal and corporate housing programs, these are the actions declared as aimed at the implementation of the "Doctrine of mass construction of economy class housing in Russia." Thus, the meeting of the Public Chamber was directly connected with the expositions on the first floor of the Central House of Artists and with the participation of the "Russian House of the Future" in the Biennale - together they represent a kind of, conventionally speaking, "Duma-expert" block.
As sounded at the meeting, the working group created in the government will have to deal with a tangle of problems in which the needs of potential buyers (tenants) of housing, the overheating of the real estate market, the need for state control and stimulation of the housing sector are intertwined. This is especially true for Moscow, a center of "colossal economic attraction" that is growing simultaneously intensively and extensively, and in all respects equally unrestrained. Although not only Moscow is dealing with thoughtless urban planning decisions.
The atmosphere of an open meeting of the Public Chamber can be called electrified. The following theses were heard: land should be cheap; the legal unit should be the building together with the land plot; there is a need to consolidate new housing standards; architectural education lags behind the requirements of the times.
Speaking at the meeting, Vyacheslav Leonidovich Glazychev (Doctor of Arts, Chairman of the Public Chamber's Commission for Regional Development) told those present that the middle class, although not sufficiently studied, is definitely there in Russia. The middle class does not fit what is offered by typical housing construction. The word "comfort" has not yet been translated into numbers. Provision of housing for the middle class is possible with the involvement of an appropriate level of business in the production of building materials, but a medium-sized business at the start needs state support.
Bart Goldhoorn in his speech developed and supplemented the curatorial manifesto of the Moscow Biennale of Architecture. He noticed that the mass building industry has changed little since the 1960s - it's still boring architecture. Now the free market dictates prices, but does not seek innovation. And it turns out that the products do not correspond to the price, figuratively speaking, Zhiguli are sold at the price of Mercedes. It is necessary to reduce costs by developing individual design from standard elements. It's time to start building aesthetic, comfortable cities like in Europe. Strikingly, in Russia the number of architects per capita is 3.5 times less than in the Czech Republic and 16 times less than in Germany. Bart Goldhoorn, like other speakers, talked about the need to invest in architecture and urban development.
The application itself - caring for the middle class - automatically evokes sympathy, if not for the blurring of the boundaries of the concept itself and the high degree of risk of lightning-fast movement of these boundaries. It is unclear who in our country constitutes this coveted middle class, and who aspires to it. Sergei Zhuravlev, presenting the project "Russian House of the Future" at the press conference that opened the Biennale, said that, in his opinion, teachers and doctors should be included in the middle class, and the rest should strive for it, which completely confused everything. As a result, the project looks cute, but at least idealistic, designing hypothetical housing for no one knows who. The romantic component of the national project, well, what can you take from it.
