The very concept of city decoration includes many different aspects. This is a coloristic solution of facades, and landscape design, and architecture of small forms, and artistic illumination of buildings at night, and, of course, works of monumental art. According to Igor Voskresensky, the improvement of the city fulfills an important not only aesthetic, but also a social function - it creates a comfortable living environment and thereby fosters the taste of Muscovites, awakens in them a careful and responsible attitude towards their district and the city as a whole.
Most of the questions were asked to Igor Voskresensky about the new monuments that will appear in the city in the near future. Among the most interesting sculptural premieres, the chief artist of Moscow named a monument to Peter I's associate Kantemir, which will be installed at the entrance to Tsaritsynsky Park, and an equestrian monument to General Skobelev on Slavyanskaya Square. Igor Voskresensky noted with regret that the installation of individual statues is the maximum that the city budget can afford at the moment, while the sculptural decoration of ensembles, for example, squares or parks, is not yet affordable for the capital. An example of a comprehensive improvement so far, perhaps, is only the Europe Square near the Kiev station, decorated by the Belgian sculptor Olivier Strebel.
However, it is not only the budget deficit that prevents the appearance of interesting and necessary monuments for the city. As one of the main reasons, Igor Voskresensky also named the imperfection of the existing system of tenders, which is focused on the choice of projects based on their cost and speed of implementation, rather than aesthetic value. Igor Voskresensky is deeply convinced that the issues of artistic design of the city should be resolved through creative competitions, as well as with the help of the expertise of the Moscow Art Council.
It is possible to argue about whether there are many or few monuments in modern Moscow, but almost everyone agrees with the fact that there is a clear excess of illumination and advertising in the city. At a press conference, Igor Voskresensky was asked to comment on the publication of one of the newspapers, in which the Moscow highlight was called “yellow porridge”. A little offended by this comparison, the chief artist, nevertheless, admitted that some areas of the capital really have to be exempted from excess coverage, after which he reminded reporters that the Guild of Landscape Industry Professionals had been created in Moscow to resolve such issues, which includes about 70 organizations. …
Mr. Voskresensky also spoke about the new concept of a unified light and color environment in the capital. In particular, it provides that white will become the main color of the city within the Garden Ring at night, while colored lighting will be used as actively as possible on the periphery, which will add visual diversity to the environment.
As you know, the city is changing its attitude to the so-called "outdoor". The new approach to advertising in the capital has already been repeatedly discussed at city planning councils and in the press, and Igor Voskresensky only confirmed the authorities' intention by the end of the year to clear advertising structures from the zones of the main historical monuments protected by UNESCO - the Kremlin, Kolomenskoye and Novodevichy convents.
Igor Voskresensky believes that the weakest area of the city's decoration is the design of small architectural forms - stops, benches, lanterns, fences, etc., which, in theory, are designed to unite the different styles of Moscow buildings. The chief artist said that today five stylistic solutions for “urban furniture” have been developed and agreed upon for different zones of Moscow, and his management is not going to stop there.
In conclusion, at the press conference, the topic of "green architecture", which is so demanded in the West, was raised. Of course, Moscow cannot be called a city devoid of green spaces - there are quite a few parks and squares in it, and very decent sums are spent annually on luxurious flower decoration. But the genre of ecological design, involving the greening of roofs, walls and other surfaces of urban objects, is rarely found among the completed buildings. According to Igor Voskresensky, elements of green design appear only in single projects of leading Russian architects and face a number of "buts". Firstly, such gardening is not counted by the standards - only that which grows in the open field is recognized as green spaces, and as a result it completely passes into the sphere of the investor's personal wishes. Secondly, due to the lack of sun, greening of walls in our climate can lead to the appearance in offices and apartments of various unpleasant "inhabitants" - insects. Third, drying roof gardens become fire hazardous. All these problems, of course, are not insurmountable, but so far the city authorities are limited to traditional methods of landscaping - flower beds and trees, and in rare cases, artificial plantings in underground junctions and tunnels. But they do not spare funds for this - so, in the coming years, Igor Voskresensky said, the trees are planned to be returned to almost all central streets of Moscow, including Tverskaya and Garden Ring.
