The city authorities announced an open creative competition for the development of a concept for the development of the territory of the former hotel "Russia", which will last until March 15. On the territory of Zaryadye, it is planned to create a park with a pedestrian zone, a concert hall and underground parking. After the end of the competition, the park projects will be presented at the exhibition of the Moscow Committee for Architecture People's architect of the USSR, academician and general director of "Mosproekt-2" Mikhail Posokhin, as well as the public movement "Arkhnadzor" have already expressed their willingness to participate in the competition. At the same time, the coordinator of the movement Natalya Samover believes that it is impossible to form a normal concept in one month, therefore, most likely, the quality of the proposals received as a result of the competition will be low, and those organizations that have already dealt with this territory - "Mosproekt-2" named after M. Posokhin or Andrey Grinev's State Developments company. However, in "Mosproekt-2" the existence of a ready-made project for the development of Zaryadye was denied. The opinion of Natalia Samover is shared by the architectural critic Nikolai Malinin: “The competition is open, which means there will be a lot of ballast; and this is instead of calling smart specialists in landscape urbanism. In the terms of reference - not a single strong gesture, although this very place is a chance, finally, to connect the city with the river, removing the movement under the ground. " According to the president of the Union of Architects of Russia Andrei Bokov, the competition can be of interest to architects only if the right to authorship of the idea is preserved even after the project is completed.
Potential tenants of individual objects of the All-Russian Exhibition Center (VVC) became known this week, according to the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets. Thus, the Agriculture pavilion will be leased to the Polytechnic Museum, which is closed for reconstruction. The Nuclear Energy pavilion is claimed by Rosatom and the Republic of Azerbaijan, while the Cosmos pavilion may have an analogue of the Tate gallery in London. The restoration of these objects will be a prerequisite for new users. "Arkhnadzor" published a report on the meeting of the press club on the topic: "Reconstruction of the VVTs: will the VSKhV-VDNKh-VVTs survive a second birth?" Representatives of the movement are sure that the final project for the reconstruction of the exhibition should be developed only after a historical and cultural examination of all its valuable objects. Removing the status of the security zone and transferring the exhibition territory to the rank of a "landmark" is unacceptable: this will give the green light to the development of the All-Russian Exhibition Center. Investors' press secretary Nadezhda Spiridonova considers Arkhnadzor's statements that the construction will harm architectural monuments as a provocation. She explains: the first thing that is stated in the concept is the restoration of monuments, the second is the infrastructure, the third stage is new construction outside the main territory of the All-Russian Exhibition Center, in which the historical core of the complex will not be affected.
At Strelka on February 1, architects, officials and developers discussed the future of Krasny Oktyabr. The most interesting moments of the conversation were published by the Afisha magazine. Thus, the chief architect of Moscow, Alexander Kuzmin, officially assured the audience: “No managerial decisions on the territory of“Red October”have been taken yet. Specialists have developed regime regulations that do not provide for high-rise construction here. All historical buildings are preserved, half of the buildings are being restored, and others are being reconstructed. "Artem Kuznetsov, general director of the Guta Development company, said that he has ten projects for the development of the Krasny Oktyabr territory from different architects - “from Bernasconi to foreign architects”, and that he is open to any ideas, tenants no one is going to expel from the territory of the former factory. President of the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design Ilya Oskolkov-Tsentsiper emphasized: “Now there is a unique opportunity for the Moscow government, for the mayor, to proclaim that the purpose of this territory is to change the image of Moscow, create a precedent of global significance, make a cultural Centre". The meeting resulted in the developer's decision to suspend the implementation of the project until a consensus is reached between all stakeholders - the city, the developer, tenants and the public. The architectural studio SPEECH Choban & Kuznetsov also published its report on the discussion. Architect Sergei Kuznetsov also attended Strelka.
On Wednesday, a meeting of the working group under the Moscow government was held to consider the implementation of urban planning activities within the boundaries of places of interest and protection zones of cultural heritage sites, the so-called "tolerable" commission. Among the results of the meeting - the approval of the revised concept of the complex in Kadashi, which provides for the construction of three and four-storey buildings near the church, approval of the demolition of several buildings of the Experimental beverage plant in Khamovniki in connection with the construction of a residential complex there, and the refusal of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to demolish the historic building (Nikoloyamskaya str., 19, bldg. 3) for the construction of an energy efficient office called Panda-House.
And in Zurich, the government of the Perm Territory signed a contract with the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor to design a new building for an art gallery in Perm. Thus, the agreement reached last year has been formalized. By January 29, 2013, the architect must submit to the regional administration a draft design, a new concept for the gallery's collection, as well as a concept for the improvement of the embankment, belvedere and several quarters of Perm. Deputy Prime Minister of the Perm Territory Boris Milgram told the journalists about it.
