A previously abandoned place in the Kaluga region, thanks to the efforts of artists Nikolai Polissky and Vasily Shchetinin, became a place of growth of landscape objects and a pilgrimage for the Moscow architectural and artistic community. Some time ago, young curators Anton Kochurkin and Yulia Bychkova took over the baton, creating the Arch-Stoyanie festival, which has been held in winter and summer for two years now.
This year, the festival has moved from the picturesque banks of the historic Ugra river - partly - to the water. Previously, people could only admire the river, but now architectural structures floated along it - five rafts designed by Russian and foreign architects and artists. They became the main attraction of the festival and the embodiment of its theme - the result of the reflections of famous authors on the topic of how to build "Noah's Ark" and escape from the flood. The rafting stretched along the Ugra for 15 kilometers, from the remains of a sapper bridge near the village of Pakhomovo to a defile on the roadstead off the banks of Nikola-Lenivets. The raft parade took place near Nikolo-Lenivets near the village of Zvizzhi. Grateful nature, feeling that people of art are preparing for water disasters, reciprocated and poured rain on the entire Kaluga region as a whole and Nikolo-Lenivets in particular, making the conditions as close as possible to a real flood.
But the flood was not scary for the rafts - they were built on pontoon pillows made by the Atoll company from hollow plastic boxes, which are joined according to the principle of a designer. The structures turned out to be very stable - such a pontoon can withstand up to 22.5 tons of weight and can take on board up to a hundred people. Therefore, various architectural structures easily and naturally floated on the water, only from time to time losing orientation due to the fast river flow. But not all “arks” protected from water from above, from rain.
The most successful in terms of saving from the rain was the raft of the artist Alexander Ponomarev PAPA-S. The reconnaissance raft, deliberately made to resemble the Stealth aircraft, moved ahead of the flotilla, and its author was appointed "parade commander", that is, the solemn ceremony of rafting. A relatively small 2-tiered object made of wood, painted black, a compact polyhedron of cubic shapes - a real invisible warship. At the same time, the inner space of the raft, as closed as possible, turned out to be very compact, warm and … dry, and this makes it especially cozy.
The house in Vladimir Plotkin's "ark" was raised high above the water on thin wooden legs - as if a forest house on stilts had been taken out of the water and put on a raft. Everything looked very unstable, just like a challenge to traditional shipbuilding huddling to the deck - but it floated great. The walls of the upper cylindrical volume were assembled by Vladimir Plotkin from delicately crossed boards in such a way that at the slightest movement they move softly and in waves, enhancing the feeling of the ephemerality of the entire structure. The range of possible associations that this raft evokes is wide - from the Tatlin tower to Soviet diving towers.
The Kondodom raft of Totan Kuzenbaev in such a neighborhood looked like a fortress house: large (it occupied almost the entire plane of the pontoon base), rectangular, covered with a traditional gable roof. On this, however, conservatism ends - the facades consist of alternating surfaces of light wood and plastic ikeevsky boxes for storing things. A very functional idea of the "rescue ark", in it you can not only collect everything, but also put it on the shelves. The raft glowed very effectively at night, when candles were lit in each box.
A spiral structure made of white fabric stretched over a frame - the Screw me raft of the French bureau R & Sie (n) François Rocher and Stéphane Laveau - was dubbed by the festival participants "the French bride". The R & Sie (n) design turned out to be the lightest both visually and physically - in essence, it is a large, tower-like tent, twisted into a spiral. In the architects' own words, this work should be seen as an homage to the legacy of Russian constructivism.
The B RAFT facility by one of the finest contemporary Finnish architects, Sami Rintala, is foundational in Scandinavian style. It is not as maneuverable as Ponomarev's "reconnaissance raft", not as light and air-permeable as the "French bride", but he is the most comfortable for life. This raft is equipped with everything you need, including a sauna, and a real pine tree is planted on the upper deck.
As for the viability of the presented art rafts, the festival curators Anton Kochurkin and Yulia Bychkova have repeatedly emphasized that the Noah's Ark project is not only a demonstration of design capabilities, but quite functional summer design hotels that develop the idea of autonomous, existing in a system of full self-sufficiency eco - houses. The idea of a mobile, possibly floating, compact house, with communications arranged according to the principle of a closed loop, is widespread in Europe, but we have this one of the few, and therefore especially promising projects. In addition, the houses are completely environmentally friendly.
If the rafts answered the question "How to be saved?", Then the second part of the festival was devoted to an equally important problem - and what, in fact, to save? This question was answered by the photo exhibition "Noah's Ark / Main", in which they participated as recognized masters - Alexander Shaburov, Vyacheslav Mizin (group "Blue Noses"), Oleg Kulik, Vladislav Efimov, Igor Mukhin, Yuri Avvakumov, Yuri Palmin, Alexander Ponomarev, and novice authors. Everyone was thinking about what in our world is worthy of salvation in the first place. The visual solutions turned out to be different, but everyone agreed that the main ones are still faith, mercy, love, attempts among all the “creatures” to find a “mate” for themselves.
The third project of the festival was the "Platform for observing the clouds", designed by Anton Kochurkin for the partner of the festival, the Cloudwatcher group. In the context of a festival dedicated to dramatic natural disasters, the Cloudwatchers project invites you to move away from the usual hustle and bustle, relax and observe the beauty of the world around you. The design of the chill-out, that is, the equipped outdoor area, is simple but expressive. The white mesh stretched over various stiffening ribs creates a bionic shape that itself resembles clouds that have landed on the grass.
