Alexander Asadov celebrated his sixtieth birthday on May 1, and after a series of May holidays that officially make this month half-day, his many friends, colleagues, and students came to congratulate the architect. The foyer of the Central House of the Architect was literally bursting with flowers and gifts that day: some bouquets and presents were so large that sons, architects Andrey and Nikita Asadov, helped to bring them to the car to the hero of the day.
The monograph, timed to coincide with the "round date", was conceived several years ago. First came the so-called "Asadov-catalog" - an elegant narrow book, which contains more than 140 projects and buildings created by Alexander Asadov over the past 15 years. And on the eve of the anniversary, "TOP-25" arrived from the printing house - a collection of the best works of the architect gathered under a black and scarlet cover, which, on the one hand, received the greatest fame and recognition, and on the other, marked the most important stages in his work for the author.
These 25 projects are from the reconstruction of the library to them. I. S. Turgenev and the tennis court "Olympic Star Kuntsevo" (which in terms of the number of awards seems to be unmatched among everything that was built at the turn of 1990-2000) to the concepts of creating artificial and floating islands - demonstrate incredible diversity genres, styles and typologies in which Alexander Asadov works. Perhaps he is the only one of all the architects of Russia who are actively practicing today, whose work, in principle, cannot be classified. This is also recognized by the authors of the introductory article to "TOP-25" Elena Petukhova and Alexander Zmeul: “Trying to find an original definition that can generalize the non-general is a waste of time. It is much more interesting, and perhaps more important, to try to figure out how an architect was able to form his own unique style without limiting himself to any dogmas, that is, how he could find himself and gain creative freedom."
Diversity as a given, inner freedom as the main creative tool - these are the basic principles of the work of the architect Asadov. It is no coincidence that Alexander Rafailovich's statement about the exceptional need for freedom and inner emancipation is taken as an epigraph both to the book "TOP-25" and to the exhibition of the same name, which will be held at the Central Academy of Arts until May 18. Actually, the latter was made up of the same 25 projects and realizations, but for their exposition the father and son of the Asadovs came up with an effective spatial model.
Firstly, from the very beginning it was decided to abandon standard tablets and layouts - the exhibition will have a big tour of Russian cities, so it should have been made as mobile as possible. Secondly, a resolute "no" was immediately said to the standard hanging of works on the walls of the Central House of Artists - so anyone can report on the 34th anniversary of his creative activity, but not Asadov. The layout of the exposition was based on the letter X: along one of its straight lines were placed realizations, on the second projects, and at the intersection point a gigantic monitor was shining, on which the film “Alexander Asadov. Inner Freedom”, dedicated to the process of searching and creating architectural images. However, the choice of such a composition is dictated not only by the desire to master the exhibition space as dynamically as possible: according to the authors of the monograph "TOP-25", "point> <" is the image that best conveys the essence of the unique creative method of the architect Asadov, never limiting himself by the laws of one genre or style, and drawing inspiration from the diversity of the surrounding world."At this point, the most qualitative, creative transformation of the entire flow of external information into architectural images, structures, forms takes place."
Instead of rigid tablets, the architects chose vertical fabric banners suspended from metal cables, due to which the foyer space was divided into two conditional "funnels": in one of the microphones there was a congratulation of the hero of the day, and official speeches here imperceptibly intertwined with the numbers of a friendly "skit" and songs in another, informal communication was in full swing at the buffet tables. And most of all, the projects submitted in this way resembled multi-colored flags that adorned the hall for the birthday of their author and, with their lightness and mobility, symbolized his amazing openness to everything new and the inescapable desire for freedom.
