Since the time when the RBK media holding bought the founder of "Arkhip" publishing house "Salon-press", the award from a purely design award began to evolve into a full-fledged architectural festival. So, last year the award was timed to coincide with the "Russian Day of Architecture" and was accompanied by a conference and lectures by foreign speakers, and the award itself acquired a new nomination in architecture. However, Arkhip did not succeed in “festival” just as successfully this year - although the event continues to position itself as the main architectural event of the year, it has actually returned to what it once began.
Firstly, the ongoing economic crisis has deprived Arkhip of an extensive program - this is again only a prize awarded in four nominations, and a student competition “Home for a Star”. Secondly, “stars” have disappeared from the number of nominees, giving it a more or less solid appearance in the context of world architectural events. At last year's exhibition of nominees, for example, one could come across projects by Claudio Silvestrin and Stephen Hall, but in 2009 - absolutely not a single big name. The ceremony itself has become noticeably more modest. Trying not to notice the crisis and keep the brand, the organizers seem to have carried out everything according to the usual scheme: an exhibition of nominees - a ceremony in the style of a "show" - a banquet. However, a truly interesting show program did not work out, and the banquet held in the covered courtyard of the State Museum of A. S. Pushkin on Prechistenka, the public better known as the studio of the TV show "Cultural Revolution", did not look quite appropriate there.
There was a feeling that the crisis mood predetermined the main choice of the jury - the outwardly very discreet, but innovative sports center, built in the Japanese city of Miki by the project of architect Shuhei Endo, was named the best building of the year. Endo, of course, is not as significant as the Norwegian bureau Snohett, which received the main "Arkhip" last year, but his outlandish research projects with strange names like "rooftecture" or "slowtecture" are well known in Russia. By the way, the rivals of the Japanese architect were very strong projects, such as, for example, "Fusion_park" by Vladimir Plotkin or the Poetry Center of the University of Arizona Les Wallach. The nominees were evaluated by international experts from 26 countries, and, apparently, it was the green building of Shuhei Endo that turned out to be the embodiment of the golden mean that absolutely everyone was satisfied with.
The sports center in Miki is an example of the so-called. "Bubbletecture", another know-how of Endo. The oval-shaped building really most of all resembles a giant bubble dug into the ground, and upon closer examination it turns out that it is composed of smaller bubbles and various functional purposes. Thus, a yellow bubble neatly attached to the man-made hill is the entrance group of the building, and the mesh bubbles-lenses on its roof are light lanterns.
In terms of architectural and planning techniques, one of the main rivals of Shukhei Endo in the competition was the project of the Latvian architect Andris Kronbergs, who also dug his printing house "Britannia" into the ground and made it part of the landscape. True, if for a Japanese a green hill creates a humane and even some kind of playful visual environment, then the Latvian typography presses with northern severity and resemblance to a regime object behind barbed wire. In general, we note that this year the geography of the award in terms of foreign projects has clearly shifted towards the Baltic countries, while there were practically no works by the bureau from central Europe. And in this, if desired, one can also see the detrimental effect of the crisis - with the Baltic bureaus, Salon-press has established long-standing creative contacts, while in the search for nominees from the Old World it would have to invest considerable funds.
By the way, it was the architect from the Baltic States, namely Zane Tetere from Latvia, who received the award in the category "residential building / innovation" - for a very Dutch in spirit object formed by two wooden containers with glazed ends and a central partition. It is curious that the no less modernist house of the architect Pyotr Kostelov, built in the Tver region, was recognized as consistent with the tradition in this nomination. The only material that can be recognized as traditional in this cottage is wood, from which unusual lattice panels are created, which serve the house as shutters, blinds, and walls.
In general, without taking the main prize, Russian architects instead became winners in many interior nominations. Thus, Sergei Tchoban received the award for the best public interior with the project of the Jewish Cultural Center in Berlin - a space whose austere and almost sacred image is created with the most minimal means, for example, wooden wall panels, long narrow sconces resembling slit-like windows of a church, and a central round lamp - a kind of "oculus". For innovation in this nomination, Oleg Popov was awarded for the interior of the Znamenka Business House in Moscow, which is more reminiscent of a gallery of contemporary art with huge panels of abstract graphics in the foyer. The award for the best traditionalist apartment interior was given to the Berlin object of Nina Prudnikova and Pavel Burmakin, and for the innovative one - to the deconstructivist apartment in Los Angeles by the American Peter Zellner.
The so-called "Public Council Prize", i.e. a non-professional jury was awarded the gallant interior of the restaurant "Gusar", the entrance to which is decorated with a triumphal arch, and the main hall - a fragment of the rotunda and an impressive panel of sabers of the Russian army. In this project, the style that attracted the public is not so surprising as the team of authors who worked in it. Among the creators of "Gusar" are the eminent Sergei Barkhin and Dmitry Pshenichnikov, as well as the chief architect of Moscow, Alexander Kuzmin. How can I disagree with Sergei Skuratov, who, presenting the "Arkhip" to Shukhei Endo, said that the work of any architect begins with the interior and the interior ends.
In the student competition "Home for a Star" the most productive was the theme of dwelling for Michael Schumacher. The famous racer inspired two teams to win at once - the first place winners Pavel Prishin and Shamsudin Kerimov and the second place - Albert Baghdasaryan. In both cases, the athlete's house was interpreted as a mobile structure, so that Schumacher could, if desired, make races at least all 24 hours a day. The third prize in this competition was won by Natalya Gubina for a house for football player Andrei Arshavin. And the jury awarded a special prize to the authors of a deeply metaphorical project of the house for Barack Obama, Valeria Pestereva and Roman Kovensky.
