Moscow Domodedovo Airport in the near future may become the center of a new urban entity - the so-called. aerotropolis, which literally forms around the runway. Domodedovo is already, perhaps, the most modern airport in the capital, but with the expansion of the Moscow borders just in this direction, investors again show increased interest in it. The project, worth 126 billion rubles, involves the construction of an entire city within a radius of 25 km with business parks, shopping malls, hotels, housing, industrial zones and train stations, Gazeta.ru reports. As usual, a foreign consultant, Professor John Kasarda from the University of North Carolina, who, by the way, is the author of the theory of aerotropolises, has been invited for implementation. Kasarda himself explained its essence to journalists as follows: “Earlier the airports were in the cities, they served the cities. And now they are becoming cities themselves…. Airports become not the point of departure, but the point of destination - the final point”, - the professor“Vesti-Moscow”is quoted as saying.
Last week, another megaproject, the Skolkovo Innograd, presented the layout of one of its central districts, the core of which is the University of Science and Technology. According to the Moscow Perspective newspaper, the famous Swiss bureau Herzog & De Meuron Architekten worked on the project, and, of course, their vision of the university is quite innovative. A modern university, according to architects, is, first of all, a space for meetings and communication of scientists and students, therefore there are much fewer traditional classrooms and laboratories than cafes, recreation and public spaces. Scientific clusters are united in four ring-shaped buildings, inside of which the forest and lake are preserved intact. The project, in addition, provides for an information center with a library, housing and a developed infrastructure.
In terms of the number of urban planning innovations, only Perm has recently competed with Moscow, which is either going to live according to the master plan developed by Dutch specialists, or, on the contrary, is not going to. Recently, according to the Kommersant newspaper, the town-planning council, which was very popular under the ex-mayor Igor Shubin, was abolished in the city. The company "Glavstroyindustriya" has proven in court the illegality of the obligatory for developers to agree on project documentation with an advisory body. As one of the members of the now former council, human rights activist Denis Galitsky, notes, the new leaders of Perm, unlike Igor Shubin, who could spend hours discussing their projects with architects, approach architectural issues in a more practical way, they do not need such a “talking shop”. Now the functions of the council will probably be taken over by the public council and the commission for the implementation of the General Plan of Perm, suggests Kommersant. However, public figures are unlikely to discuss private architectural projects; the commission will not be interested in such meetings, so as not to delay the approval. So, it seems that no one will replace the City Council, but whether it will harm the quality of Perm architecture or vice versa, the near future will show.
In the same Perm, the forgotten theme of reconstruction of the square in front of the Theater-Theater, which the architect Yevgeny Ass proposed to cut with a 10-meter wall made of laminated veneer lumber, has surfaced the other day. Let us remind you that the project was strongly opposed by local residents who opposed the demolition of the fountain. The agreements dragged on for several months, and it seemed that the wall had already sunk into oblivion, but at the recent Tekstura theater festival they started talking about it again, according to RIA Novosti. It is quite likely that the "radical intervention", as Ass called his project, will nevertheless take place. The architect is not embarrassed by the protests of local residents - the conflict expressed by the very idea of the wall, in his opinion, is important for the theatrical world.
However, recently the attention of the Perm public has been directed to another "cultural" scandal associated with the eviction of the local art gallery from the Transfiguration Church. But in the nearest neighbor of Perm - the city of Solikamsk, a completely different situation has developed. “Against the background of the process of transfer of real estate objects in Prikamye by the regional authorities to the Orthodox Church in recent years, a reverse trend has emerged,” writes Kommersant. "In particular, the authorities of Solikamsk are asking the Russian government to transfer ownership of three historical buildings of the city, which the Russian Orthodox Church claims." The officials give a very simple argument: the diocese has no money to maintain the Trinity Cathedral, the Epiphany Church and the Voivode's House. Meanwhile, all these objects are architectural monuments, and they house the exposition of the Solikamsk Museum of Local Lore, some of which cannot be taken anywhere. It is interesting that the church, in turn, does not insist on the transfer too much - apparently, the deprivation of federal funding can really ruin buildings, but the precedent is indicative, because this is far from the only case in the country when a museum exists under the vaults of a temple.
In the meantime, the State Duma Committee on Culture finally gathered an expert and advisory council, where officials, restorers, archaeologists discussed a bill providing for amendments to the Federal Law "On Cultural Heritage Objects (Historical and Cultural Monuments) of the Peoples of the Russian Federation", which has been considered in the Duma since March last year. The mission of the working group, which was supposed to collect all the amendments to the bill, has generally been fulfilled, writes Parlamentskaya Gazeta. Thus, the law includes articles on tax incentives for investors investing in the restoration of monuments, the delimitation of the concepts of "overhaul" and "reconstruction of monuments", mandatory for reenactors state historical and cultural expertise, a clause on VAT exemption for restoration and archaeological work, etc. etc. Experts believe that their main achievement is a clear definition of land boundaries of monuments, which will help protect museum-reserves. Now it remains to wait until the deputies finally adopt the law so correct in theory.
In conclusion of today's review - an event from the world of exhibitions: as one of the special projects of the 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, a new exhibition space CISTERNA, designed by the architect and artist Alexander Brodsky, was opened on the site of the former collector on Volgogradsky Prospekt. “As an architect, Brodsky changed the space by closing the overhead light from the hatch-windows, as an artist, he redirected this light,“painted”it where he needed it,” writes Nezavisimaya Gazeta. In CISTERNA Brodsky again returns to the idea of a space that has risen from gray dust, which he had previously created from clay. True, it is not easy to see the architect's creation with your own eyes: for this you have to get out of the center of Moscow to a remote industrial zone.
