This year the festival has no special motto or slogan. Based on the results of acquaintance with the exposition, it can be assumed that the whole point is that survival in the conditions of the economic crisis is still the most urgent of the arts for the professional community. But do not devote the festival to the theme around which all architectural events revolve in one way or another for the second year in a row! Therefore, the organizers abandoned the topic altogether, and relied on optimism as such. The current ordinal of the festival turned out to be very useful here, making us remember the most ironic roguish novel of the 20th century. However, the event borrowed only a furniture "component" from the creation of Ilf and Petrov - the main creative action "Under the Roof of the House-2010" was a tournament on designing chairs and "what can be called by this word." However, first things first.
The space “Under the Roof of the House” is traditionally divided into two completely different parts - in the conference hall projects and realizations of the festival participants are exhibited, and along the perimeter of the hall of the general plan of Moscow, around the famous model, there are special and commercial expositions. A corridor can be considered a kind of connecting link between them - due to the need to fence off a place for discussions in the conference room, some of the tablets inevitably "spill out" beyond its limits, so the road to the "12 chairs" was paved with architecture this year.
No less traditional for this festival is the absence of any structure within the thematic sections. And if in the case of a designer skit dedicated to furniture intended for seating, and even more so commercial expositions, this does not play a special role, then it has a very negative effect on the section of architectural and interior projects themselves. One would like to paraphrase another great novel of Russian literature: “Everything is confused“Under the Roof of the House”. And the point is not only that realizations and projects are not divorced in any way, but very recent works - with already well-known ones. Much more the perception of the presented works is hampered by the fact that interiors and private houses are interspersed almost in a checkerboard pattern, cottages here and there, upon closer examination, turn out to be economical temporary huts or townhouses, and several village projects have also managed to wedge in between them. In theory, in times of crisis, one would like to pay close attention to the settlements, at least as proof that there are still developers in the country who are ready to invest in the comprehensive and at the same time harmonious development of the territories. However, it is hardly possible to obtain comprehensive information about the projected settlements at the festival - neither the customers nor the estimated implementation time are indicated on the tablets, and the master plans are made on such a small scale that it is difficult to evaluate even the concept itself.
Two things remind at the festival that the economic crisis is still raging outside the window. Firstly, many of its permanent participants and laureates this year decided not to exhibit at all. There is no “Under the Roof of a House”, for example, neither the A. Len company, which usually shows several objects at once, nor the works of such recognized masters of the genre of private architecture as Dmitry Gazhevsky, Vladimir Bindeman, Timur Bashkaev. Secondly, among the projects presented, a considerable part is occupied by the so-called "economy class". And if earlier suburban individual construction was perceived in our country as a way to qualitatively improve our lives and to make good investments, now it is increasingly positioned as a way to save these very funds. The most indicative in this sense is the project "Studio 202", for which the authors even came up with an advertising slogan - "For a" kopeck piece "in Moscow!". In other words, having at their disposal only an amount equivalent to the cost of an ordinary two-room apartment in the capital, the architect Sergey Piletsky and the designer Violetta Karlova were able to design and build a house with an area of 300 square meters in Vidnoye (only 6 km from Moscow!). And it must be admitted that this is a very rationally planned and externally spectacular house, which, behind a round bay window, lined with dark wood, the locals have already nicknamed the "Beer Barrel".
An even more economical option was presented by the Terra Bureau. His "House-autonomous" is a compact, foundationless building that can be erected on a site with any relief and exist completely independently of communications. The shutters - a traditional element of the Russian house - were interpreted by the authors as "carriers" of solar batteries, and batteries, containers for storing drinking and rain water and systems for primary waste processing were installed in the platform on which the volume was installed. The house, built from environmentally friendly, naturally renewable materials based on plant fibers and natural resins, has a flat habitable roof and only one façade with windows, while the rest of the economy and reliability are made almost deaf and decorated with only tiny portholes.
An inexpensive and externally attractive option for finishing facades in his Wood Patchwork House project is also offered by architect Peter Kostelov. The facades of the cottage really seem to be "sewn" from various scraps - the architect imitated the patchwork technology, using all possible methods of wood surface finishing, including, for example, such as mosaics from bars and cuttings from shovels.
Of the interiors presented at the festival, I would especially like to note the "Open Gallery" of Natalia Tamrucha and the apartment "Wabi-sabi" in Krylatskoye by architects Andrey and Maria Gorozhankin. In the first case, the basement of the former communal apartment in Trubnikov Lane was adapted for exhibition space, and in the second, on the contrary, the former attic became a two-level living space. Initially, the architects supplemented the one-level apartment with a mezzanine floor, which is a metal structure suspended on thin pipes to embedded parts in the attic roof. However, if we talk about the interiors presented at the festival in general, we cannot fail to note the excess luxury prevailing in them. Looking at the numerous photographs replete with frills and gilding, you understand how equally exaggerated are the rumors about the catastrophically falling income of Muscovites, and about their taste changing towards European restraint …
The exposition "12 chairs" turned out to be much more homogeneous and positive. In fact, a dozen were made up of works by famous architects specially invited by the organizers to participate in this project - Vera and Alexei Lobanov, Andrey Morin, Eduard Zabuga, Boris Uborevich-Borovsky, Art-Blya bureau and others. Naturally, all the chairs are categorically different from each other, however, the competition was started with the expectation that each participant would feel like a great combinator of form and space. The Lobanovs made a chair on wheels - a symbol of mobility that is so in demand today, Andrei Savin and his colleagues interpreted the chair as a giant comb with curled teeth, Boris Uborevich-Borovsky glued a throne made of cardboard pasted over with photographs of the most famous designer chairs in the world. And Totan Kuzembaev continued to develop the traditional theme of nomadism and his chair likened a rug cut out of felt, and on top he put a touching pillow with an embroidered steam locomotive on it. And yet, as is clear from these brief descriptions, all architects thought in a practical way, and each chair they made can be used for its intended purpose. This is, perhaps, the main difference between the chairs of the masters from the nearby exposition of student works on the same topic. The chairs of the young are more creative installations than pieces of furniture. However, sometimes a chair with a bed of cacti instead of a seat will not hurt at all on the farm.
