One of the most interesting events of recent days for bloggers was the speech of the famous architectural critic Grigory Revzin at the Polytechnic Museum. The conversation on the topic “Moscow without Luzhkov” was held within the framework of the cycle “From the first person”, organized by the Polit.ru portal. Andrey Barkhin was one of the first to comment on it online. True, the speaker itself was somehow not very interested in the architect, perhaps because at one time Revzin was not interested in the architecture of Barkhin himself (“… two years ago Revzin did not write an article about our exhibition”): “The hall aroused the most interest, the latter was not the left intelligentsia, practically not a single marchish person …”. "And who is he to go to meetings with him, if only it was Kuzmin, who at least decides something!" - Blogger mkie commented on Barkhin's post.
The ru_architect community tried to look at the situation more objectively. “The architects of the Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the Moscow Architectural Institute are still loyal to professional cynicism, which says“we cannot wait for favors from nature,”says applex,“fashionable concepts of sustainable architecture can give rise to ephemeral futuristic visuals, but Alexander Viktorovich has bread, not Grigory Isaakovich. " And further: “Secondly, it is a latent hint that for fifteen years (if you count from the first issues of the Russia Project in the mid-nineties) Grigory Revzin wrote and is now perceived as a figure of speech - but not business. I remember how, in 2000, a booklet - "mao-tssedongchik" of Revzin's selected texts - in a printer printout! - passed from hand to hand. Nowadays it is almost inconceivable. " For whom such lectures are useful, they conclude in the comments to this entry, it is for the intelligentsia: "They are not indifferent to architecture, but they themselves do not understand, and Gregory makes comments available."
There were also comments on the topic of Grigory Revzin's speech in the blogosphere. In particular, sergeykostikov did not agree with the position of the critic in relation to the ex-mayor: “To be honest, I would not blame everything on Luzhkov. He worked with the architects that he had. And I am absolutely not sure that if Moscow had an educated and intelligent mayor, Moscow would have much better architecture. The only thing he could do: save the historical part of the city from architects. " The author sees the preservation of the latter in conservation: “But competent high-quality development - no! Under no circumstances! The wrong school of architecture. From start to finish. From Moscow Architectural Institute to Mosproject….”. Let's clarify that the blogger judges the architecture of the era "after Luzhkov" by the only projects of the notorious kiosks so far released, categorically concluding: "the same shit, only in profile."
On the same evening, February 22, simultaneously with Grigory Revzin's speech, an exhibition of the British architect, architectural historian, photographer and journalist Will Price “Parallels. Wooden architecture yesterday, today and everywhere”, curated by another well-known architectural critic Nikolai Malinin. This project was highly praised by the professional press, but blogs, on the contrary, were practically ignored. Only in the pisma_sebe magazine and the interiors_ru community a couple of notes appeared: one of them tells about Price's mastery in the genre of interior photography, the other - about the architect's attitude to modern glass: “Look at a modern skyscraper. Its facade will live on average 25 years. The internal structure may last for 150 years. A well-designed wooden structure has existed for many centuries."
Perm bloggers at this time were interested in another alarming initiative of the administration to build up the so-called esplanade with some incredible structure. Denis Galitsky announced this in his blog. Links to development projects for this place and its surroundings immediately appeared in the comments. Regarding the construction next to the esplanade, the blogger writes: “The main thing is that around the esplanade, on the slope of Sludskaya Gora and the corners of ul. Popov, one of the Dutch options (i.e. the master plan of the KCAP bureau - N. K.) - high-rise buildings around the perimeter of the esplanade - did not materialize. Then it will turn into a well."
And in Tyumen, representatives of the architectural community spoke out in a very original way against the arbitrariness of the local authorities. Architect Viktor Stankevsky and designer Gennady Vershinin presented two short films about the "disbanded" Tyumen. It turned out that over the past 7 years not a single creative competition has been held in the city, but an incredible number of "endless turrets and spiers on the barracks" elites "made of red brick, the wretched Tyumen" Moulin Rouge " and other monsters who have spoiled the image of the urban space forever”. Gennady Vershinin decided to compare the requirements and regulations of the authorities of Paris, Berlin and Tyumen for new buildings in historical quarters and found out that there are none at all in Tyumen.
But, as the Russian experience shows, even regulations sometimes fail to stop the destruction of monuments. So, the blog of the VOOPIIK branch in the Moscow region reported about the next demolition of the federal monument in Serpukhov - one of the buildings of the merchant's canvas manufactory. On the site of the demolished "stone cellar with a cellar" a dwelling house has already been built. Buildings also threaten the rest of the unique industrial complex of the first half of the 18th century with historic vaulted cellars and decor in the spirit of Peter the Great's Baroque. The blog emphasizes that the customer of the current demolition was already involved in the illegal privatization of the notorious Vyazemsky estate in Pushchino-on-Nara, which during its tenure was brought to an almost complete ruin.
In the same blog, an article appeared on the threat of further development of the territory of the famous Arkhangelskoye estate near Moscow. For almost a year now, heritage protection authorities have been fighting to invalidate lease agreements for a number of plots allocated for building directly on the territory of the landscape park. In particular, experts are trying to prove in court that the estate is not limited only to the ceremonial ensemble with a parterre in front of the palace, and its landscape park is an integral part of the heritage site, which has been repeatedly marked on the maps of the possessions of the 19th century.
A similar situation has developed with the Boblovo estate in the Klinsky district of the Moscow region, associated with the name of Mendeleev, according to the blog "Our Heritage". The defenders of the estate are protesting against the passage of the Central Ring Road directly through the territory, which was supposed to become the Mendeleevsky Reserve and Wildlife Refuge. And the blog of the VOOPIiK branch in Rostov-on-Don published a list of monuments that were deleted from the updated list of identified objects of cultural heritage, recently promulgated by the regional Ministry of Culture. In total, experts have counted more than two hundred such "ownerless" objects!
While some are protesting and are actively trying to stop the transformation of historic cities, others simply state the disappearance of familiar places as an accomplished and, unfortunately, inevitable process. An interesting post appeared in the My Moscow community, in which, by superimposing old photographs on modern ones, one can clearly imagine how the area of the Baumanskaya metro station has changed over the past 30 years.
A publication dedicated to one of the main restoration sites in Moscow - the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, looks quite rare against the background of constant criticism of the protection of monuments and restorers, the authors of which are satisfied with what is happening behind the construction nets. A detailed photo reportage allows you to see the details of the restorers' work: a protective sarcophagus is being erected around the organ, and the steps of the stairs in the foyer have already been restored.
At the end of the review, we will tell you about the First Architectural Radio Station, which began broadcasting on the network. The lion's share of her broadcast is music, but themed architectural programs are also broadcasted every day. For example, recently the studio was visited by the Bureau "Archpole", architects and experts talked about the role of parametric methods and scientific research in the profession. The radio also broadcasts architectural news, a reading cycle of the book "Masters of Soviet Architecture on Architecture" and much more.
