One of the burning architectural topics is the design of the Skolkovo innovation city and the opportunity for Russian architects to participate in this work. It must be admitted that it did not provoke a heated discussion even after the speech of Grigory Revzin, the initiator of the organization of Skolkovo contests for Russians, at the end of May at Arch Moscow. Before that, the well-known critic and expert talked about Skolkovo and the competitions in an interview with Snob.ru, and after the announcement at the exhibition on the Skolkovo website, a preliminary registration form for participation in the competitions was opened. We, in turn, have opened a discussion of these contests on Archi.ru. So far, the conversation has focused on two issues: the possibility of participation by non-Moscow architects and the need for foreign participation. Our visitors evaluate the first one pessimistically ("… it's a pity that the main list of project tasks remains in Moscow"), about the second one they speak differently: some greet foreigners under the pretext that ours will not succeed anyway, others are outraged by the fact that foreigners a lot has been given in Skolkovo.
Another topical topic is the modernization of the environment of the Central Park of Culture and Leisure. Gorky, whose concept the Strelka Institute is currently working on. The Village portal now has a map of objects that are currently known to be located in the park. A special blog dedicated to the Central Park of Culture and Leisure was opened on the same portal; one of the last entries there was a project by the Wowhaus bureau, which proposed to create a beach-wave on the Pushkinskaya embankment. In addition to returning to the Park "Girls with an Oar", which was much written about in the press, the Pioneer Alley with sculptures of the 1920s, the Soviet restaurant "Seasons" (Rem Koolhaas himself will be engaged in its revival), the 1923 observatory will be restored in the park, as well as the restored summer, bath and hunting lodges of the Neskuchny Garden of the 18th-19th centuries.
The future of the All-Russian Exhibition Center looks much more vague - the author of the blog boch_boris1953 Boris Bocharnikov published an interesting selection of materials on the reconstruction of the ensemble, which he collected over several months from various sources. Most of all, the connoisseur of the All-Russian Exhibition Center was puzzled by the plans to restore the lost historical fragments, in which there were many absurdities. So, of the two pavilions recreated next to each other “Ural” and “Far East”, for some reason they decided to make one lower than those around them, since they will be recreated without the 1939 superstructure. The newly rebuilt pavilion of the Tajik SSR will be out of place. According to the project, the cash pylons of the Khovanskiy entrance of 1954 will be destroyed, as well as the "Typical estate of the MTS" (machine and tractor station, and not what everyone thought) with part of the ensemble "New in the Village", where interesting buildings of 1939 still remain of the year. And finally, the legendary Montreal Pavilion will become the Opera House.
The latter fact caused a particularly violent reaction. Siorinex writes: “Montreal to the Philharmonic is nonsense! Acoustics, floors … at least it needs to be rebuilt inside, demolishing the floors between floors. And the structure is quite "flying" and the roof will go almost 100% from such abuse! " - “I don’t understand why to recreate what was demolished, and even not in a historical place? Destroyed can not be returned. It would be better to maintain in due form what has been preserved, if they have nowhere to put the money,”annd07 wonders. But boch_boris1953 is sure that one cannot do without reconstruction, as well as "restoring the lost decorative elements of a number of pavilions, where" simplifications "were made. You just have to do it only in its place. And it turns out that in the project the famous restaurant "Golden Ear" is being transformed into a hotel, which means that it can be rebuilt beyond recognition, the author believes.
This spring, the Palace of Pioneers on the Lenin Hills was also among the likely victims of reconstruction and re-profiling. In this light, it is interesting to mention a small essay by Yuri Avvakumov in Snob, in which he, in particular, wrote about the significance of the Palace of Pioneers for several generations of Muscovites - however, without regard to the story with Viner, and at the request of the Afisha magazine, which collects the memoirs of contemporaries about masterpieces of architecture of the 1960s: “I did not study in the circles of the Palace of Pioneers on the Lenin Hills, which was opened for the Children's Day in 1962, much later I learned that it was built by a group of architect Igor Pokrovsky, like the one that he was given the State Prize - I only drove by, but I have the perfect feeling that this palace, like the pavilions with inverted roofs in kindergartens, is mine. The Sochi palaces from Old Man Hottabych are not mine, but this one, unlike anything else: freely set walls in mosaics, stained-glass windows, a flagpole, a green field with a slanting strip is my dear."
While the historicity of the Central Park of Culture and Leisure and the All-Russian Exhibition Center is being restored in Moscow, in St. Petersburg a similar operation is being carried out on the Summer Garden, which, however, is much older than the Moscow parks, and therefore the operation is much more responsible. The project is already being implemented with might and main, and the controversy around it does not subside. Another round of discussion on this topic was provoked by a sharp article by Mikhail Zolotonosov on the Gorod 812 portal, in which the critic accuses the Russian Museum of producing works without an agreed project, wasting copies to replace marble statues, building new fountains, etc. Of course, such critics are not allowed to get to the construction site, and a number of bloggers considered the panic far-fetched, writes the antiterrorist: “Whichever garden is not being restored, the 'suspicions' are the same. They will dig it up, build a restaurant, deprive it of space, etc. You have to watch a finished composition, not a semi-finished product. " grannie supports: “The landscape park in the central city center is nonsense in itself. It is clear that we are used to his appearance, but he did not think so. And what have we lost besides a few trees? But the fountains being recreated are quite historical, on real historical foundations. " terr0rist doesn't think so: “Nonsense is the Fountains in St. Petersburg. We have winter for six months, and what will a person see from October 1 to May 1? Lumps of lifeless granite? " a_ntonina adds: “8 million and 0.5 million - spending is 16 times too high! There are plenty of analogues: the stadium on Krestovsky, the Mariinsky, the metro, expensive rutted roads in six months. Do you have anything to say to this?"
In the meantime, another Perm innovation in terms of urban planning - the creation of a pedestrian Kirov street - was a success, in any case, Perm Governor Oleg Chirkunov thinks in his blog: “Most of all I liked the numerous courtyards where a lot of interesting things happen: blacksmiths, gardeners …”. Not everyone agrees with the governor, melkiad, for example, is not satisfied with the transport situation: “Why do we need to cut an entire street out of the city’s infrastructure! Few walking alleys? Improve any - there will be the same effect! " The implementation could have been better, says theo0: “The idea is good. But the street is kind of scanty and the embodiment is wretched. There is no chic or solidity. To begin with, at least a design project was made or something, but it looks like a show or a quick "development" of budget money. " ac3ss wonders what prevents, instead of Kirov Street, “to make a normal, beautiful embankment?”. And a resident of Yekaterinburg, Vladimir Zlokazov, warns about the possibilities of thoughtless development of the promenade: “Will the street have any kind of programming in terms of events or purposeful saturation of it with various functions? For example, we have a pedestrian street in Yekaterinburg - it was built in three stages. So at the last stage, a shopping center entered it as a facade, and on this facade there is nothing except the only entrance, which naturally does not add life to the street."
The dkphoto blog has an interesting conversation about the status of historic cities. The reason was the article by Doctor of Architecture N. P. Kradin, dedicated to the exclusion of the city of Khabarovsk from this list. Kradin writes about the gradual degradation of the historical environment of the city in recent decades and dkphoto agrees: "A very important indicator of attitude to the historical heritage is the volume of architectural monuments, until 1990 it was extremely laconic in relation to Khabarovsk …" placing emphasis on more and less "valuable" buildings, so the author writes that "the largest in the Far East, the Transfiguration Cathedral from the river is closed, like a screen, by a panel plate of the House of Radio …". The fact is that the cathedral is a remake, and it turns out that everyone really likes the late Soviet House of Radio, which is quite understandable, since the importance of constructivist architecture is great in Khabarovsk: “The House of Radio, in fact, was built much earlier than the cathedral. What did you think when the cathedral was designed? " - the anonymous commentator notes. shlyapa_dvb continues: “The elephant in the china shop is just the cathedral on Glory Square. The monument was pushed aside for his sake, and now, look, and the rest hinders him, what is left of the ensemble of the square”. werwolf_1975 also believes that the House of Radio “has long become a symbol of Khabarovsk and is found in all pictures of the city from the river of the last 20 years of the last century. Why, in order to please the new-build church, it is not clear why the already historical building needs to be demolished. IMHO the temple "crushed" st. Lenin, the construction of a theological seminary in the city center is also hardly justified. " periskop makes a gloomy forecast: “Komsomolskaya, if the current ideological line continues in 15 years, will finally become Cathedral, and the monument to the Partisans will be looking for another suitable place, somewhere on the outskirts. If not demolished at all. The Radio House can also be demolished altogether, but the new skyscrapers will not be touched at the same time."
Together with the residents of Khabarovsk, the defenders of the historical Nizhny Novgorod also entered the town-planning discussion - the reason for them was an article by the famous writer Zakhar Prilepin in Ogonyok. Of course, supporters of the policy of Governor Valery Shantsev were also among the comments, writes Racoonbear: “The city is full of old wooden houses that look very dull. Okay, let some of them be of historical value. The question is, what to do with them? " archit_nn is completely anti-historical: “I have never heard from Shantsev any instructions for the demolition of monuments. In almost any case, the surviving monuments are not subject to restoration, which would have at least some economic sense. In such cases, as an option - to disarm, reconstruct and then re-install. " Seguente retorts: “Firstly, monuments do not exist for the economic sense, but for the cultural one. And secondly, such a concept as "temporary demolition" does not make sense, as well as "temporary destruction". Alexdz supports: “Go to Europe, which you love to look at through the prism of progress, and demolish monuments there, and then recreate them. Let's see where you spend the rest of your days. Yes, indeed, it’s a strange thing that the Federal Law on cultural heritage does not provide for the possibility of “temporary absence of a monument”.
And finally - about a loud scandal in the center of Kiev, where the authorities decided to restore the ruins of the Tithe Church, to ennoble and museumize them, creating a modern tourist center around. The concept was to be chosen during the competition, but the final was disrupted due to the fact that the project, lobbied by the local church and supposed to build a remake on the ruins, did not get votes. As a result, only two leaders remained - the first with the construction of a new temple, which would negate the possibility of further archaeological research, and the second with the museumification of the ruins, which fully meets the conditions of the competition. You can see what they are here, and in detail the history of the reconstruction of the Church of the Tithes is covered by the blog of the Museum of Ancient Russian Culture. Andrey Rublev.
