The announcement that this week the Moscow authorities may announce an open tender for the development of a park zone project on the site of the demolished Rossiya Hotel in Zaryadye has become one of the most discussed topics in the network. In particular, the blog "Hitrovka" published a plan of the lost historic quarter with a detailed listing of all the buildings that were once located here. According to the author of the blog, in the future park it is possible to preserve the historical layout and assign the name of medieval streets to the alleys, and the objects themselves (for example, the buried fragment of the Kitaygorodskaya wall, the foundations of the demolished temples and chambers) can be museumified and opened for display. Pavel Khorovsky already has an approximate development strategy for this site: he proposes to create in Zaryadye a "Museum of Medieval Moscow" with restored architectural monuments and wooden buildings recreated according to projects of that era, and intends to take part in the promised competition with this concept.
The discussion about the future park zone in Zaryadye also took place in the LiveJournal of playwright and journalist Maria Arbatova. Arbatova recalled that the idea voiced by the Prime Minister had previously been repeatedly discussed in the media, in the circle of Moscow city defenders and among bloggers. However, now the author of the concept is not the ordinary coordinator of the Arkhnadzor movement Pyotr Miroshnik, but the deputy head of state, and therefore the idea urgently lost the epithet “romantic fantasy”, and most importantly, it gained a great chance for implementation. In an interview posted on the Nakanune. Ru portal, Petr Miroshnik himself not only describes the details of his project, but also suggests the exact time frame for the creation of the park in Zaryadye.
The city authorities returned to the idea of creating elite housing on the territory of the Krasny Oktyabr confectionery factory. The newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets" was the first to report this, specifying that the land plot plan will be handed over to investors by the end of February 2012, and construction is likely to begin in 2013. This information became the topic of a large-scale discussion on the Project Russia magazine's Facebook page. Most of the participants are sure that the island, built up with expensive housing, will turn into the second Ostozhenka - "an absolutely empty area of expensive, architecturally interesting housing." “Today this place has already become entrenched in the mind as open to everyone, generating ideas and thoughts. After the construction of housing, it will become closed and, sorry, "dead", that is, not inspiring. I'm not just talking about creativity. There are places where you cannot see something happening, but they have energy and people come back to them over and over again - a lot of examples from nature. With housing, it will be enough to visit here once to see and never come back, "- this is how the architect Alexei Ivanov formulates his fears. However, Nikolai Pereslegin, an advisor to the head of the Moscow Heritage Committee, tries to dispel these fears in his blog: “A residential function will be introduced on the territory of Krasny Oktyabr, but it will be elegantly, gracefully and humanely inscribed in the historical environment. It is assumed that it will be a democratic, free and at the same time comfortable cluster - in terms of style, infrastructure, and mood. That is, the nature of the territory will continue to develop as a public space."
In his blog on livejournal.com, Efim Freidin suggests which architectural genres will develop most actively during this year. In his opinion, the demand for the light version should increase, i.e. projects of residential and office buildings that can exist in a developing infrastructure. Reconstruction and restoration projects that will transform residential and administrative buildings should receive equal attention from both developers and municipal authorities. Freidin assumes that the development of territories and buildings belonging to Russian Railways will begin this year, predicts the prosperity of urban park landscapes and hopes that Arhnadzor and VOOPIiK will be able to consolidate their positions in the real estate market - but already in the role of a developer.
Bloggers returned this week to the topic of "Children's World". In particular, Marina Khrustaleva in her blog on the Snob portal published eloquent photographs of the interiors of this famous department store - one dated to 2008, the second to 2012. And if in the first picture "Children's World" is bursting with toys, then in the second one can see only bare structures and snow on the site of the former trading halls. “The point of no return has not yet been passed, it is still possible to preserve and recreate everything in a restoration mode,” Khrustaleva emphasizes in the comments to this publication.
And in the "Community of Architects" they are actively discussing the new building of the Tatar State Puppet Theater "Ekiyat", the construction of which is now being completed in Kazan. The work of Svetlana Mamleeva (State Unitary Enterprise "Tatinvestgrazhdanproekt") caused a mixed reaction. Many noted that the theater building, executed in white and blue colors, is very similar to a puppet palace or to a greatly enlarged scenery for a children's play. In addition, a dark blue glass parallelepiped surrounded by delicate turrets has been criticized for being unwieldy. In general, Kazan, according to bloggers, has once again confirmed the reputation of the city, famous for "extremely controversial construction." It is no coincidence that the photos of the theater were recommended for publication in the marginal_arch community, which has the subtitle "Folk Architecture Today".
