Youth architectural festivals "Goroda" have been held since 2005, when they appeared in the Moscow Region sanatorium of the Union of Architects Sukhanovo. Over the past few years, festivals have been constantly changing their location, trying to get somewhere farther: to Crimea, to Baikal, to Kargopol … According to the organizers, the maximum distance of a place from urban civilization is part of the concept of "Cities". The festivals are held twice a year, in summer and winter, allowing young architects to express themselves in the field of playful land art, and at the same time have plenty of fun in the fresh air. Which is probably why they are invariably popular. "Cities" are well known among their admirers. However, their organizers regularly reminded of themselves also in the off-season, organizing exhibitions at Arch-Moscow and Zodchestvo. There they hung, as a rule, giant photographs of previous festival performances, and sometimes - showing models of future objects.
However, the current program has surpassed in scale all the previous Moscow exhibitions of "Cities". She herself turned into a mini-festival under the roof of VKHUTEMAS. Since April 6, the gallery space has been occupied by the "Cities" retrospective exhibition. Huge posters with images of objects from previous festivals and the faces of their participants hang from the ceiling, dividing the space into three parts like a three-nave basilica. The basilica, as expected, is endowed with a semicircular apse, where a small conference room is arranged - in it for 10 days, from April 14 to April 24, lectures on eco-architecture, woodworking workshops and other events will be held. preparation of the next summer festival in Altai.
The preparations began on April 14 with a press conference at which the organizers of the "Cities" spoke about the concept of the Altai festival. Its main theme will be eco-friendly architecture - in this sense, the future festival continues the past, Kargopol, eco-friendly and anti-crisis, whose participants tried to build cheap dwellings from snow. And although all "Cities" without exception, including the earliest, work in nature and with environmentally friendly materials, now their concept is changing. Previously, they had fun with art objects, but now they began to talk about the crisis, ecology, about using the experience of land art in "big" architecture. Now (starting from Kargopol), the participants are faced with a slightly different task - to model a real home from clean and cheap natural materials.
Thus, the organizers expect a new quality from the Altai festival of eka-architecture, a transition from an artistic joke to something more fundamental. Perhaps the ecological bias that has distinguished all festivals since the start will reach its maximum value in Altai. In the end, in terms of the distance from civilization, this place is practically unmatched (and can only compete with Baikal, where the "Cities" were held in the summer of 2007). According to the organizers, Altai is an ideal eco-sphere for eco-projects, pristine and untouched. The construction of dwellings from natural materials in the pristine environment of mountainous Altai should become an experiment in ideal conditions, allowing to reproduce the initial stage of the emergence and development of architecture, as a refuge from bad weather and wild animals. For 10 days, the participating architects and just guests, sometimes even having nothing to do with architecture, but engulfed in a universal passionate impulse to build, will be likened to the Homo sapiens of the Stone Age, creating for themselves dwellings underground, on land, on trees and on water and a primitive infrastructure (meaning bridges) to survive and gain the upper hand against the forces of nature.
For the first time, the Altai festival will be organized as a real tourist trip, with throwing into the mountains, living in tents, field kitchen and other "delights" of the camping life. Curators of "Gorodov" are going to organize a group transfer from Moscow to Altai by plane and train, in the latter case, thematic lectures and seminars were even promised right in the train carriage. An interesting leisure program is also planned on site in free time from the construction site: lectures, excursions, rafting, there are rumors that an eco-costumes competition will be held for especially creative festival participants.
Already, active preparations are underway for the "City" in Altai. After two weeks of lectures and master classes on eco-architecture and working with wood, there will be a discussion of the issues of tourist training, with a story about the peculiarities of the Altai nature and the dangers that lie in wait there, such as encephalitis mites. For many of us, city dwellers, it will be useful to know what is happening outside our stone city with asphalt streets and artificial lawns. Continuing preparations in June at the Empty Hills non-format music festival, a dress rehearsal of Cities in Altai will take place, where young architects will try to build bridges according to their designs, as well as the Moon Stage, where theatrical performances will be held for the first time this year. The Hollow Hills will be followed by the Summer Cities Festival. Be creative and vaccinate against encephalitis.
It is easy to see that the festival preparation program this time is more than rich - both theoretically and practically. Master classes, talks about ecology and the crisis, tourist training, and most importantly - changing the concept to a more, let's say, pragmatic one. If you try to comprehend all these changes, then it turns out that before the crisis the architects traveled far away to break away from the routine of monolithic capitalist construction, relax and build something fundamentally useless - perhaps in opposition to the too useful square meters awaiting them "here" …
And now they are going there, to the eternal truth of the wild, but after another - to bury themselves in a dugout from the crisis and prove to everyone that in extreme cases it is possible to winter this way. In the latter - the reality of a dugout in Altai as a way out - is hard to believe. In any case, if this primitive communal impulse is taken at least to some extent seriously, then it should be admitted - indeed, very careful preparation is needed. But you shouldn't take it very seriously: most likely, we are dealing with an attempt by young architects to laugh at the crisis, suggesting such a radical way of escape to nature. However, the second side of what is happening is the obvious strengthening of the theoretical and educational part of the festival, all these lectures and seminars, even in the train carriage, demonstrate some very positive process. It all becomes like summer English courses - learn while having fun; and have fun learning.
The program of preparation for the festival "Cities" in Altai at the VKHUTEMAS gallery:
April 15 (Wednesday), 19:00 - master class on working with wood at the Creative Workshop of Kirill Bair
April 16 (Thursday), 19:00 - lecture on ECA architecture by Andrey Asadov
April 17 (Friday), 18:00 - The seminar Rogier van der Heide (head of the lighting design studio ARUP) "Light as an element of architecture that creates individuality" (for example, buildings by Zaha Hadid and others) is transferred to the Architect's House (Granatny lane-7, 3rd floor), directly in front of lecture by Raymar von Meding "The Netherlands. Social housing", which will be held at the same place at 19.00
April 21 (Tuesday), 19:00 - presentation by Oleg Volkov ("Bureau 610") on European eco-architecture, as well as a master class on working with wood by Pavel Galkin
April 22 (Wednesday), 19:00 - discussion of preparations for the summer festival in Altai. Lecture on tour. preparation.
April 24 (Friday), 18:00 - party of the "Children of Iofan" team. More details on vKontakte >>>
