“Zodchestvo” has been running since 1993, and until very recently it remained a festival that everyone was talking about - “originally from the 90s”. Being a not too digestible alloy of pathos and kondowliness, it served as the only platform for acquaintance with all the new buildings of the immense homeland, and by and large, nothing was expected from him beyond that. The situation changed when the Union of Architects of Russia had a new leader - Andrei Bokov really wanted to show the professional community tangible evidence that cardinal changes in the industry are not only desirable, but also possible, and the international festival was perfect for this role. Yuri Avvakumov was entrusted with taking care of the "rebranding", and it must be admitted that this most experienced curator succeeded in the most important thing from the first try - "Zodchestvo" does not look like itself from the late nineties and last year. Zodchestvo-2009 is completely different.
Perhaps the main thing that always annoyed me in this festival before was the lack of a single concept in the design of the exposition. Chaos reigned constantly in the Manezh: the central alley was covered with plastic grass and filled with a dozen fountains, various stands of regions and individual design organizations invitingly opened their arms to meet them, and the abundance of general plans and monstrous photographs of buildings rippled in their eyes. Where to go, where what to look for - if there was an answer to these questions, it was only by the method of long wanderings or no less lengthy study of the festival catalog. And therefore, the first thing for which Avvakumov can and should erect a monument is for putting things in order. Finally, the space of the restored Manege sounds on its own, finally you can see it! The curator did, in essence, a very simple thing, but absolutely necessary for Zodchestvo: he divided all the participants of the festival into several groups, and allocated each of them its own area, isolated from the common space with the help of partitions.
In the main hall of the Manege, Avvakumov built 12 huge white cubes, the height of which reaches the beams of the wooden roof structures. Their walls are made of thin, almost transparent fabric that sways from any, even a slight breeze. Tents outside and labyrinths inside - there are several entrances in each cube, and their internal space is divided into unequal sections, which are occupied by expositions of various bureaus and companies. Further, however, all the same, the corporate confusion begins, and it is almost impossible to grasp the principle by which the participants were selected into the blocks. For example, I was greatly surprised by the Studio pavilion, in which from the side of the main entrance there was an exposition of the State Architectural Institute and the Golden Section, and from the back - the stand of Giprogor with bronze sculptures brought to the Manezh in honor of the 80th anniversary of the Institute.
However, there were even stronger surprises. For example, the entire St. Petersburg pavilion is occupied by the reconstruction project of the East Wing of the General Staff Building, carried out by Studio 44. On the one hand, this is one of the most stylish expositions at the festival, in which there is nothing superfluous and which is both meaningful for a professional and extremely entertaining and interesting for an amateur. In general, the project is wonderful and deservedly promoted to the status of a symbol and brand. But on the other hand, I somehow do not want to believe that nothing else has happened in the architecture of St. Petersburg this year.
However, it is enough to go to the pavilion called "Moscow", and doubts about the appropriateness of the "monographic" exposition disappear by themselves. Because "Moscow" is a traditional for "Zodchestvo" warehouse of general plans and town planning concepts for the development of individual districts, which, in the eyes of a person unprepared for thoughtful reading of town documentation, do not differ much from each other. And all those who are interested in the news not of urban regulation, but of the architecture of the capital, in this pavilion, alas, has absolutely nothing to do. Something similar can be said about the Regions pavilions, in which a total of 12 regions and republics are represented.
But these are questions of content - if some fundamentally different form of demonstration of the architectural and urban planning achievements of the provinces is developed, then, of course, not in one year. And do these "reports" need some kind of breakthrough form of material presentation? Perhaps not, provided, of course, that the festival has enough other spectacular sections. And in this direction Yuri Avvakumov really took several very important and fundamental steps.
Firstly, Zodchestvo has a cross-cutting theme (Sustainability Index), and secondly, conceptual curatorial pavilions. One of them is called simply and tastefully - "Russia" - and a special competition of concepts was held for its exposition before the festival, in which Sergei Tchoban won. The second is the loudly announced Green house of Vladimir Belogolovsky, which has collected 12 of the world's most interesting projects in the field of environmental architecture and the use of energy-saving technologies. All these green roofs and breathing houses are supposed to convince Russian architects that this is true sustainability. In the meantime, while advanced technologies are slowly moving to Russia, everything that has already been designed and built is becoming our “sustainability index”. Sections "Projects" and "Buildings" stretched along the entire exposition, located between the pavilions and walls, and since we traditionally have fewer buildings, a number of tablets with realizations have been supplemented with sections "Young architects" and "Students".
Another know-how of this year is separate stands with projects and buildings included in the short-list of applicants for gold, silver and bronze diplomas of Zodchestvo. If anyone has forgotten, before these very applicants had to look for themselves in a motley, different-sized exposition, but now - please, all the cream has been skimmed and close the perspective of the main alley.
However, the very set of applicants for diplomas of various denominations and, in the long term, the main award of the festival - "Crystal Daedalus" - surprises with its typological and architectural diversity, if not motley. So, for the "bronze", for example, the trade and exhibition complex Wave ("A. Len", St. Petersburg), the residential complex "Kristall" in Kazan ("Architectural and artistic workshops of architects Velichkin and Golovanov") and the interior of the new office are competing Bureau "Studio 44". Among the applicants for "silver" there is no less choice of genres - "Barkli-Plaza" ("Skuratov Architects"), the educational theater GITIS ("Mosproekt-4") and the St. Petersburg metro station "Spasskaya". Alas, in this “Zodchestvo”, which has always been distinguished by indifference to the typological and geographical differences of competing projects, remains true to itself.
In conclusion, a few words about the possible "gold". In the section "Buildings", Sergey Skuratov's "Danilovsky Fort" claims it, in "Projects" - his "Garden Quarters" (the concept of building up the territory of the "Kauchuk" plant). But the most interesting thing is what projects compete with them. In "Stroyki" this building of the Moscow school number 1414 (CJSC "ARST") is a postmodern variation on the theme of the Russian avant-garde, and in "Projects" - the complex of the Chechen State University (group of companies "Style"), outwardly like two drops of water similar to hanging next door "Garden Quarters". And one can only guess where, in the opinion of the festival jury, the sustainability index manifests itself more effectively - in high-quality architecture or in the appearance, albeit borrowed, but not standard projects of secondary and higher educational institutions.
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