From the very beginning of its existence, Arch Moscow presented certificates to the participants. This is what any self-respecting large exhibition does: those who want to turn their stand into something special are awarded diplomas. It must be said that the Arch of Moscow awards are quoted quite high - in any case, many decorate the walls with them. And the quality of the awarded expositions is also, as a rule, quite high - after all, the exhibition is architectural. The heroes of the awards, however, are all somehow the same, for some of them it is time not to hang letters on the walls, but to put them in a pile. So Grigory Revzin is right when he said that according to the composition of the main usual participants, the exhibition should be called not ‘next’, but ‘previous’.
However, the whole special program of Bart Goldhorn (actually ‘Next’) was dedicated to the young and the new this year. About its winners and, in general, about the laureates associated with this program - a little later, but for now - about the "traditional" laureates.
This year, the awards ceremony took place in the lobby of the Central House of Artists, in front of the stairs, which proved to be a good kind of amphitheater - many of the next generation sat on the steps. It turned out well - the microphones were turned in this direction, and the usual participants-laureates of the Arch of Moscow addressed all their speeches to this impromptu auditorium, humbly calling themselves old people and generally assuring others that it was time for them to retire. Not without guile, I must admit that after walking through the exhibition of the new generation and paying attention to the CVs of young people posted there, it is easy to make sure that almost the entire ‘next’ generation works in the bureau of those very humble “old men”, forty and fifty years old. So the words of Alexandra Pavlova (“Megan”) said at the ceremony that the younger generation will soon “knock out” the old, is still hard to believe. On the contrary, everything is logical: talented young people work and learn from leaders, and at the same time participate in contests like Next. Honestly, the classics of the genre have nothing to fear.
We have already said that this year, obviously due to the crisis, the exposition has become lighter and more concise. The list of diplomas was also reduced and was brought to the denominator of the early 2000s. In it remained: stands of architectural workshops, commercial stands and a non-commercial exhibition.
The first place for the architectural stand of the Arch of Moscow jury was awarded by Tsimailo Lyashenko & Partners. He meets us at the entrance to the main hall on the second floor, on the left. Apart from the MAO, this stand is the most spacious in the architectural part. And very, very laconic. Therefore, the first thought that comes to mind in our time when looking at this stand is that its authors demonstrate that they are not afraid of the crisis, since they bought so much space and used it on such a luxurious scale.
One project is exhibited at the stand, a spa center near Moscow with an area of 21,000 sq. M. meters. Spa centers are different, but it seems that this is a very large area for such a building. Their distant predecessors, the Roman baths, were built on such a scale, and maybe even a little less.
Apparently, keeping in mind the kinship with the terms, the authors made the project a restrained classic. According to the apt remark of the editor-in-chief of the Architectural Bulletin Dmitry Fesenko, it looks like a simple colonnade by David Chipperfield. However, the diploma was given not for the project, but for the stand, that is, for the submission. On the model, buildings are buried in a vast toy landscape of cracked clay. If we continue with foreign analogies, it is noticeable that the authors visited the Venice Biennale and, in any case, saw an installation by Frank Gehry made of similar clay. Geri plus Chipperfield. The jury liked it all very much.
The same cannot be said about ordinary visitors. On all days of the exhibition, a curious picture was observed at the entrance to the hall: in front of the awarded stand with cracked clay - empty, not a person, as if visitors were specifically trying to pass by as quickly as possible. On the other hand, there is a small, oversaturated stand by Dmitry Pshenichnikov (four models in different styles with backlighting). There, visitors literally crowded, something attracted them there. Here it is, the difference between the opinion of the layperson and the jury.
The diploma of the second degree was quite rightly received by the Meganom stand. By the way, he was almost as large as the stand of Tsimailo and Lyashenko, and he also exhibited one project - a new stage of the Taganka theater. Two years ago, the authors showed it in the Arch Catalog, but on paper. Now - the layout. Beautiful, orange and glows. It "holds" the center of the hall and attracts visitors. I must admit, this is a more successful way to show one thing - quite laconic, and at the same time fascinating, not repelling visitors. The kids were crazy about the many human figures and truck models in the underground areas. As you know, Meganom is a loyal and active participant in Arch of Moscow. In 2007 they were “architects of the year”, they were invariably invited to the “Arch catalog” until it was replaced by the next generation, and “Meganom” constantly arranged its own stands and, as a rule, received some certificates for them.
Vladislav Savinkin and Vladimir Kuzmin were congratulated on the anniversary of the Pole-design workshop (she is 10 years old) and awarded a third degree diploma for their own stand Fields, consisting of transparent plastic sculptures with images of their most famous works: for example, Nikolo-Lenivets's Ukha "And the recent" whatnot ". These authors are probably the most active at Arch Moscow. Now they are: the authors of the ‘next-a’ idea and the experts of the exhibition; jury members of the ‘next’ program; as well as the authors of four, in total, stands on the second floor - their own, the Arkh-Bab stand (in the form of three colored women, the top of which is hidden in a box with holes), the Koriana stand (they have been decorating it for several years) and, finally, the stand of the "World of Parquet" company.
This latter, decorated with a completely natural parquet globe, also received a 2nd degree diploma in the category of commercial stands.
The first place in this nomination was awarded to "Garden of Stone" from the Italian Institute of Foreign Trade - a large and highly perfumed exhibition, consistently depicting all the provinces of the country. All together it advertised the Italian stone and looked impressive, albeit a little ponderous.
But there were three diplomas of the third degree: the stand of the Astarta company, on which the project of designer Sergei Skachkov "Wandering City" was built from office partitions, which looked like a ship from some romantic film. Another two third places were shared by red stands with photos of swimming goggles from Expoproject - and Ante's booth planted with live grass.
And finally, from non-commercial exhibitions, the whole of Denmark was awarded, showing two projects: Moments of Architecture, dedicated to the most fashionable but difficult to translate theme of sustainability architecture. These enduring moments, as mentioned earlier, were enclosed within a corridor of plywood apple crates. The second exhibition, which seemed to many more amusing, was devoted to the introduction of cycling in the city. I really would like it to be "implemented" in Moscow someday … Thus, Denmark came to teach us, and Italy - to earn extra money here, to sell the stone, taking into account the love of Russian customers for solid solutions. However, this is the first experience of the "Arch of Moscow" in organizing national "days", previously there were only thematic ones.
In addition to the traditional diplomas, several diplomas related to the Next program appeared - however, where the jury awarded in addition to the competition, it preferred to reward everyone and not single out anyone. Diplomas were awarded to all three architectural schools represented at the exhibition, and to the authors of all exhibited (pre-selected for the exhibition) diploma works.
