The past year is the first crisis year. If only because for more than half of the year everyone was expecting a repeat of financial problems by September. Nothing so terrible happened in September, which is good news. But it didn't get much better either. How bad it is is harder to determine. In October, the Union of Architects presented the results of the survey
128 architectural workshops. According to the survey, by October, the architectural design market fell by 58%, i.e. slightly more than half. This version of assessing the situation is the most optimistic. So, according to the data cited by Grigory Revzin, the market has decreased not by half, but 10 times. The spread is great; however, it probably depends on how you count. The fact that the economic problems hit the architects especially hard is obvious. We asked several famous architects to rate the past year “in a nutshell”, but in the end we got one word - “difficult”. You can't argue with that.
True, the state of affairs is different for everyone, and this is normal. Some regularity can be traced - the workshops of "one actor", concentrated around one charismatic personality, suffered the most. To a lesser extent, economic problems have affected architectural bureaus, organized according to the principle of "companies" and able to boast of competent process administration. Some of them have even hired new employees to replace those laid off. There are few of them, more victims. But here's what's interesting: few of the architects changed the order structure. Only a few - and those who have previously worked with country houses or interiors, have returned from large projects to small ones. Many have laid off employees (often hundreds), but do not seek to change the profile of the workshops. Maybe there is a lot we don’t know. But the feeling is that the majority of architects are still working on a knurled basis: they are doing what they did before and are waiting for changes for the better. The architectural practice seemed to have frozen and "buried in the sand" - no special activity in overcoming the crisis is observed.
The hopes for state aid, which were expressed at the end of last year, were completely and completely not justified: no attempts to support the architectural profession were even announced. This is not to say that this is completely bad: government assistance is not an easy thing, it can at any moment turn into a stagnation in large institutions - a life to which not all talented architects can adapt.
On the other hand, again at the end of last year, hopes for the "cleansing" power of the crisis were expressed many times (mainly by critics, but even by some architects; however, as a rule, with little practice). Hopes that now, everything bad will now vanish like a haze, inspired by excessively large money, and everything will become bright and clean, and architects will go to create paper imperishable things. It's hard to say, maybe you need to wait a little longer; fifteen or even forty that way; maybe not all at once. But so far, high-profile development projects are leaving, and fundamentally others are not being born. It is especially tight with the imperishable; unless Cyril Ass - wrote poems for the New Year. And so the incorruptible does not mold and it is not even very clear where to expect it from. This year the whole ArchMoscow was dedicated to the new generation; according to the results of this "ArchMoscow" - all the more it is not clear from where; because there is definitely a new generation, but it does not promise a big breakthrough, a 180-degree turn. Although from this "ArchMoscow" was born, of course, a good Russian project in the framework of the Rotterdam Biennale.
In contrast to architectural practice, public life, even professional life, cannot afford to be mothballed in order to “overwinter” economic problems. There seemed to be more festivals this year than last. It is very fruitful for festivals this year. There are even positive shifts - the main one of which is the appointment of Yuri Avvakumov as the curator of Zodchestvo. Although this has nothing to do with the crisis, Avvakumov was invited by the new president of the Union of Architects, Andrei Bokov. He invited me on time: the new curator managed to put things in order in the usual diversity of the union festival with the help of simple paper fences. Something like the hostess, desperate to deal with the trash, shoves it into the drawers in the closet. This did not bring any radical changes, but Zodchestvo got a place for two significant exhibitions: about ecology and about the Venice Biennale. Yuri Avvakumov held a competition and chose a project by Sergei Tchoban and Irina Shipova for the Russian pavilion of the future Venice Biennale. Now everyone is intrigued and waiting to see how this story will end next year.
The crisis had a greater impact on some architectural awards: strange things began to happen to them. This year the awards were given to buildings two, three, or even five years old. In the spring, Qualitative Architecture was awarded, among others, to the restaurant “95 degrees” by Alexander Brodsky, and in the fall at the Building festival, the main prize was awarded to the Hermitage Plaza, which has been decorated with an order for several years; and even the famous Cooper house was among the nominees. This tendency is understandable - there are few projects, there are even fewer new buildings, and I want to reward something reliable (in a crisis I want stability so much …). Although new buildings continued to arrive during this year (let's say, by inertia - they were designed earlier): Vladimir Plotkin finished the Aeroflot office building, Sergey Skuratov - Danilovsky Fort, Boris Levyant - Metropolis and White Square.
In our life there are such topics that are being discussed for so long that even a year does not seem like a period. In the field of architecture, there seem to be especially many of them; from time to time they have exacerbations. This is what happened this year with the Moscow General Plan - they had been talking about its actualization for a long time, I remember, the exhibition was held the summer before last on Krymsky Val. According to the new City Code, the General Plan had to be adopted by the beginning of 2010, otherwise all construction in Moscow would have become illegal. Therefore, all the organized debates, and then not so organized, but heated protests fell on the past year. The adoption of the General Plan was postponed. Another topic - the replacement of licensing by membership in self-regulatory organizations, on the contrary, has been exhausted just in time - in two days all old licenses, if anyone has them, will become invalid.
Long-running architectural themes include “large” projects. The youngest of them - the reconstruction of the Pushkin Museum, is developing dynamically, but Foster there smells less and more of the Russian spirit. The project "Orange" two years ago (almost) in November turned into a resolution on the demolition of the Central House of Artists, three years ago the project "Gazpromskreb" turned into a threat of destruction of the remains of Nyenskans, with the Bolshoi Theater it is somehow sad … The crisis did not affect the no less major scandals. And for a replica of the palace in Kolomenskoye, and for the Assumption Cathedral in Yaroslavl and other things, apparently, there will be enough money. This is, by the way, about "clearing by crisis" - it's difficult, oh, it's hard to count on it.
And the monuments are burning more and more actively, sensitively reacting to the nuances of the possibilities hidden in the legislation. But in the matter of their protection, in my opinion, one of the most positive events of the year happened: the Arkhnadzor movement emerged from a multitude of relatively young projects, which immediately began to act. These actions are as active as they are diverse: from old-fashioned pickets, press conferences and exhibitions, and ending with completely unexpected forms - for example, detailed proposals for improving the decrees of the Moscow government. In addition to activity, this activity has acquired a very robust structure and organization, which is especially pleasing and allows us to hope that after what time (maybe!) The various authorities will begin to take the movement more seriously.
Another pleasant acquisition of the past year is the Internet magazine Eka, dedicated to ecological architecture and putting forward very nice ideas - for example, about an affordable wooden house, “a log house for $ 25,000”. It should be noted that the environmental theme has given a particularly vigorous growth in the past year. More precisely, its popularity has grown exponentially since the last Venice Biennale of Architecture. The biennale coincided in time with the onset of the economic crisis, and its theme 'architecture beyond building' played in tune with the desire of a financially unstable society to cling to something reliable. It is even possible that it was the crisis that made the boring architecture of attractions finally unfashionable and brought 'sustainability' in its place. It is downright surprising that in our country this change was reacted sensitively and quickly, and not as usual 15 years after the start: a new professional journal appeared; and Yuri Avvakumov dedicated Zodchestvo to sustainability. While this is a reaction from critics and curators, the same sensitivity is not felt in real architecture. In real architecture, the Shanghai pavilion of Levon Airapetov is being built, a beautiful and bright thing, but a typical "attraction" (however, finally, an attraction! It looks very good among the pavilions of other countries at the same Expo-2010).
So, alas. Not much new. Despite the collapsed poverty, everyone is more interested in how to wait out, overwinter and quickly regain glamor. "Cheaper" construction projects are not turning into a reasonable compromise of economy and convenience, but into a new incarnation of panel houses, which are not being sold cheaply. With the search for original and inexpensive solutions, with the individual design of social facilities - with things diligently promoted at progressive exhibitions - things are still not going well. Well, let's spend the winter, it will be clear, maybe there will be more new things in the new year.