What happened this year on the Rating of Architecture in Nizhny Novgorod has never happened in our memory. After counting the voting results, the curator of the award Marina Ignatushko made an unprecedented decision not to prioritize arithmetic and not to determine the winner based on the formal number of points, but to reward all projects that received a significant score based on the results of the jury's voting. Of the 10 objects included in the short list, these turned out to be not 3 or 5, but as many as 7, i.e. two thirds of the list! This unusual decision, of course, caused an ambiguous reaction among those present at the ceremony, and among the heroes of the rating - the award-winning architects. Someone saw in him a manifestation of the curator's loyalty to the architects, many of whom have already deservedly reached the final of the Rating more than once, but did not become its winners. Someone regarded it as an alternative way to state the absence of an unconditional leader. But it seems to me that in reality everything is more complicated and interesting.
The rating of Nizhny Novgorod architecture was invented in 1997 by journalists (not architects), and, largely thanks to the dedication of its curator Marina Ignatushko, became one of the main prerequisites for the huge success of the Nizhny Novgorod architectural school on the pages of professional magazines. According to the terms of the rating, buildings built over the past 2 years are first selected by the curator, then the list of finalists is determined by open voting on the Internet; The winners according to the short list received by Internet voting are chosen by independent experts - journalists, art historians and architects from other cities and countries. By the way, it was the Nizhny Novgorod rating that introduced Internet voting into the everyday life of architectural critics.
Another feature of the rating is the form of the award, invented in 1999 - a cake in the form of a winning building, which the authors-architects solemnly cut and distribute to everyone who wants to eat. By changing the configuration of the cakes and the amount of cream decorations, it was possible to trace the transformation of architectural trends in the city: the magnificent decor was replaced by verified laconicism, spiced with vigorous work with color and materials. And two years ago the building of the office center "Dandy-Chameleon" (architects Yu. Bolgov, A. Grebennikov) won the rating, which categorically does not fit into the traditional ideas about the Nizhny Novgorod school; not color at all, but very restrained and monochrome. Then we wrote that this victory foreshadows cardinal changes and, as it turned out, we were right.
The old days really ended, but not with a turn to some new direction, but with diversity. Architects are happy to experiment, refusing to follow the notion of the specifics of the regional school formed over the past two decades. Thus, the question that was hanging in the air two years ago - where will Nizhny Novgorod architecture go now, has materialized in the form of seven, according to the number of current laureates, possible paths of development.
The Damba office center (bureau 5 and 5, architect Dmitry Volkov) clearly continues the theme of the powerful, even massive architecture of the Lower late 90s, but in the abundance of glass and plastic of the main curved building, as if hovering over the slope of a ravine, one can feel freedom and skill in working with traditional and modern expressive means. It is a very contextual building, quiet and peaceful.
The residential complex "Maxima" (bureau "5 and 5, architect Stas Zubarev), painted in bright colors in Nizhny Novgorod, in a volumetric-spatial composition is solved extremely laconically. Powerful towers on a common stylobate, clean forms, and - especially when viewed from the side of the ravine - an unexpected resemblance to a fortress.
World Trade Center (NPO Arkhstroy) - carefully, like a good gear, finished high-tech sample. It would have looked great in America and in Germany, the building turned out to be more than international, only it turned out to be right in the center of Nizhny Novgorod.
The multifunctional complex “Lobachevsky Plaza” (TM Bykova) did not have time with the completion of construction to take part in the previous rating. But even two years later, it has not lost its relevance. The glass waterfall above the entrance is beautiful and beautifully sculpted, which is difficult to say about the columns and capitals of the long “street” of multi-colored facades. The almost theatrical effect of architecture divided the inhabitants of the city into its ardent opponents and ardent supporters.
The administrative and residential complex "Parovozik" (TM Nikishina) arose on a quiet street quickly, as if by magic, and, apparently, by magic, it organically integrated into the variegated building, despite the pronounced modernity of the architectural solution. Part of the "camouflage" role was played by the stylish combination of wood and copper on the facades.
Residential building "White Sun" (architects Yu. Bolgov, A. Grebennikov) illuminated the dull grayness of the sleeping area with its yellow-orange facade and won the love of not only local residents, but also experts. The latter were impressed by the masterful turn of the main building relative to the stylobate part, made to improve the insolation of the apartments.
And, finally, the Novenky entertainment center (architect Stanislav Gorshunov, with the participation of Irina Kulikova) demonstrates a new understanding of modernist values bequeathed by Wright and actively used in Soviet architecture of the 70s. It turns out that their relevance has not been devalued in the least. The main thing is precisely found proportions and competent installation in context.
The jury consisted of 23 people (among them, in particular, Moscow journalists and Austrian architects), who voted completely autonomously, giving each of the ten buildings a short-list assessment on a 90-point system, from 10 to 100. Differences in the total amount of points, recruited by each building-challenger turned out to be small, which did not allow recognizing someone's unconditional superiority. But each of the seven awarded buildings was recognized as the best by at least one of the jury members.
Not surprisingly, the curator chose not to deprive her city and its architects of the opportunity to choose for themselves which path to take. Even if it meant to arrange a mini-revolution, breaking the tradition of the rating. Instead of one cake, the guests were presented with a whole street of 7 cakes, honey and cream, chocolate and fruit, for every taste, for every appetite. And everyone chose which piece to try, for which supplement they would return. This ritual and culinary act marked the beginning of a new era in Nizhny Novgorod architecture - an era of freedom from stereotypes, from the dictates of a leader and from a given stylistic reference point.
