Nine well-known architectural firms, including Swanke Hayden Connell Architects, ABD Architects, Sergey Estrin Architectural Workshop and UNK project architects, refused this week to participate in a tender for the development of the Mail.ru headquarters. However, the leading postal Internet resource of Russia has nothing to do with it - the architects do not agree with the business ethics of the Aurora Group, which won the competition for project management. It should be noted that this is a completely unprecedented case for domestic architectural practice: it would seem that in the post-crisis era, nothing can force workshops to sacrifice the opportunity to receive such a large order (we are talking about designing an object with an area of about 30,000 sq. M.), But the moral and ethical side turned out to be more important for architects than material. The essence of the claims of the professional community to "Aurora Group" is very simple: in the last three tenders held by the company, the architectural bureau BDG, affiliated with it, received the right to design on the objects it manages. This precedent itself and its possible consequences for the domestic market of commercial interiors are actively discussed in more detail in the blog UNK project architects on facebook. It also published the very open letter of the bureau chiefs who publicly refused to deal with the unscrupulous company.
New information about the possible future of Zaryadye attracted no less attention from the network community. According to the blog project The Village, on the territory of the former hotel "Russia" there may appear a non-commercial development, a large park, the project of which is now being developed by the State Development company. Zaryadye and the adjacent GUM are promised to be completely pedestrianized, and there will be intercepting underground parking for cars. Judging by how actively this project is being discussed, the idea of creating a new green oasis in the center of Moscow has already gained many supporters. True, many of them seriously doubt that such a noble initiative will find understanding among the city authorities.
But against another Moscow construction site, not hypothetical, but quite real, the residents of Lefortovo are protesting, dissatisfied with what is happening now on the territory of the Stroganovs' estate. “The destruction of the manor park of the 18th century violates the constitutional rights of residents to health protection, a favorable environment and access to cultural values,” - such a quote from a lawsuit filed by residents, is quoted by Arhnadzor in his LiveJournal, monitoring this situation.
In St. Petersburg, the rights of citizens to the historical appearance of the Northern capital are traditionally defended by the “Living City” urban protection movement. Not so long ago, it turned to Internet users via livejournal.com, asking St. Petersburgers and everyone who loves this city to provide addresses and send photographs of houses located in the center, whose architectural appearance has been disfigured by billboards and banners. The collection of these addresses is now in full swing.
Meanwhile, the restoration work of the Oranienbaum garden and palace complex is being completed in the Leningrad Region. A photo report from the scene was posted on Elena Gonzalez's blog on facebook. According to Gonzalez herself, “The Chinese palace leaves a very pleasant authentic impression, there is no such terrible restoration, which, unfortunately, is now found everywhere - and in Europe too. The quality of the work is extremely high, no plastic. Of course, technologies have changed, but where possible, traditional ones have been applied. Numerous blog readers analyze the posted photos and discuss the current practice of restoring heritage sites in general.
But the monuments of wooden architecture in Vologda were under threat of death. The city program for the preservation of cultural heritage sites once again did not allocate funds for their restoration, and now "the unique architecture of the 19th-20th centuries is brought to an emergency state, and then demolished under the guise of" dilapidated housing ". An open letter in defense of these objects can be signed in the live journal.
Well, Perm became the undisputed record holder for the number of architectural events this week, where they simultaneously discuss the concept of the opera and ballet theater under construction and the problem of urban heights, look for the culprits of the arson of the local art gallery and wonder who and why needed the dismantling of the famous "Red Men" on the main square of the city.
The famous conductor Teodor Currentzis, who has been the theater's artistic director since January 2011, proposed to improve the reconstruction project of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theater, developed by David Chipperfield. In his opinion, one of the rehearsals can be replaced with a full-fledged hall intended for symphony orchestras. On this occasion, the hottest discussion immediately flared up: the Russian part of the project team was against such a change in the architectural concept, the western part, including Chipperfield's representatives, on the contrary, supported Currentzis and even sketched out a new version of the project. It has not yet been possible to reach a complete compromise on this issue, however, all the developers agreed that the appearance of the theater building should not radically change. The Governor of the Perm Territory Oleg Chirkunov, who took part in one of the recent discussions about the future of the theater, spoke about this in more detail in his blog.
Meanwhile, the well-known Perm blogger and local historian Denis Galitsky continues to discuss the upcoming project to reduce the height of residential buildings in the city. Galitsky has repeatedly expressed his negative attitude to this idea, backing it up with various arguments. His new post is dedicated to the problem of already built houses, which, when accepting a new project, will turn out to be too high. The blogger fears that “the reconstruction of houses that will be higher than the maximum height will actually be blocked. Not only nine-storey buildings of 20-30 years ago will be higher, but also quite old 4-5-storey buildings, since in all peripheral areas the height is planned to be limited to 3-4 floors”.
Other material is about a fire at a local art gallery. The fire on November 25 partially destroyed the wooden dome of the former church building, which now houses the museum. It was impossible to extinguish the dome from the hydrant, because a collection of unique wooden sculptures could have suffered from the streams of water, and therefore the dome smoked for a long time and as a result was badly damaged. “The dome has a good stone vault. But with frost the water can freeze there and cracks will appear. An examination is supposed to determine whether to close the vault or not,”writes museum curator Yevgenia Shaburova in the blog of this cultural institution. User starcom68, the first to publish a report from the scene, reports that "sparks from a grinder during the installation of a new dome with a cross were the cause of the fire." And Denis Galitsky, who conducted his own mini-investigation, claims that the company that performed this work does not have a license. “Someone saved money and hired non-professionals. I'm not even talking about the fact that in order to carry out these works, a survey of the monument had to be carried out and a restoration project was developed”.
Another event that took place in Perm on the night of November 26-27 attracted the attention of not only local bloggers. We are talking about the dismantling of the art object "Red Men", which was placed in front of the government of the Perm Territory in September 2010 within the framework of the program "Perm - the cultural capital of Europe". Funny headless figurines, which are very popular with Internet users and have become the unofficial symbol of Perm, are now in a warehouse on the outskirts of the city. Most bloggers did not like this sudden and unreasoned dismantling, but so far the future of the "red men" is still in question. They can return to their place, move to Izhevsk, whose authorities are happy to install this object, or decorate a private collection.
