Summing up the results of such a solid life and creative path turned out to be surprisingly informal. More than a dozen of the speaking colleagues, friends and customers met with congratulations in 10 minutes. So the bright speeches with warm wishes were more like toasts. From the Union of Moscow Architects, the hero of the day was awarded a commemorative diploma, the official part smoothly turned into a buffet table, and the celebration continued in a cheerful atmosphere among numerous friends.
In the same way, without pathos, the exhibition of the achievements of the architect and his workshop is framed, which does not at all diminish the results achieved in almost a quarter of a century, but rather testifies to the creativity, self-irony and wit of the hero of the occasion. On the walls of the foyer, without reference to chronology and typology, there are photographs of completed objects, photos from models and 3D-pictures in sepia color. The monochrome format definitely gives them the weight of time-tested pieces. Festive garlands from drawings are stretched across the foyer under the ceiling: it is difficult to see them from below, but it is clear that the graphic presentation was delivered in the workshop, both literally and figuratively, at a high level. And between the columns there are colored banners with large images of the most relevant building projects and urban planning concepts of recent times: the Spartak stadium in Sochi, the city center of Nizhny Novgorod, the Zarechye microdistrict, the reconstruction of the Pushkinsky cinema and many others.
“At first I did flashy architecture, then speaking, but now I want to create silent architecture,” Yuri Vissarionov himself admits. - I would like it to speak for itself, like a pyramid - it is silent, but there is a lot of meaning in it. At first it seemed to me that I needed to shake. Then, what needs to be done so that they just hear me. And today I want to work so that, on the contrary, they do not hear. The path in architecture is as follows - you learn a profession, then you learn to lead. And so it seems that architecture is a business, you have to earn money. And then you realize that all this is nonsense - architecture is above everything. The meaning of life is in life itself, and the joy of life is in its process. We must have time to live it."
To our question about what the hero of the day would wish for himself, Yuri Vissarionov replied: “I would like to wish better results for myself and my children: to build more, work more with details. We need to make a beautiful detailed design of the parts. In the meantime, this is how it is with us - they came up with it, quickly made it and put it into production. Probably, this is because it is characteristic of my character. Someone is sharpened for detail, but I came up with an idea, and that's enough for me, then I'm no longer interested. The main thing is that a building has already been built in my head, I have already lived in it. As in the proverb: I built a house, lived my life in it, planted a tree, raised a son … And now I'm building another house, starting another life … My inner state drives me forward. I need to work on myself - to slow down a little. Look at everything around, look around, admire … How the Japanese know how to admire - contemplate one tree."
When asked about his students, Yuri Gennadievich says: “There are very good architects - some of the most talented: Maxim and Dmitry. But they probably won't admit that they are my students. However, Dmitry Ziborov and Maxim Chernyavsky did not renounce the teacher, but warmly agreed that they had already learned a lot and continue to learn from Yu. G. Vissarionov. They believe that they are very lucky - they are involved in all stages of design and construction, starting with the process of the birth of an idea, when everyone proposes their own concept, and the final version includes all successful proposals, and ending with work with the customer and builders: defending the author's idea, up to finishing materials.
Like this! And the head of the workshop lamented that he had missed something. It turns out that nothing is lost, everything is under control and the team of architects created by Vissarionov is successfully coping with all the tasks.
