The first stage of the competition for the development of the Zaryadye territory on the site of the former hotel "Russia" has ended. The expert jury, which includes the architect Sergei Skuratov, the chief artist of Moscow Igor Voskresensky, the president of the Union of Architects of Russia Andrei Bokov, the dean of the Higher School of Urbanism Alexander Vysokovsky and others, selected 118 projects that are striking in their diversity. Some authors propose to create a park on the site of the former hotel "Russia", others focus on what objects it can be built up with. Thus, the Green Acropolis project involves the creation of a green hill, under which a concert hall, museums, etc. will be located. The developers of another project propose to build a five-story cinema and concert hall and several cafes in the form of Easter eggs. There is also a proposal to set up the park under a dome made of transparent material, which would always ensure good weather. Also, the architects came up with parks with artificial rocks, water canals, Tatlin's tower, a hall in the form of a two-headed eagle and a white bell. All works can be seen in the Moscow architectural and construction center "House on Brestskaya", where they are exhibited until April 6. You can vote for your favorite option both at the exhibition and on the Moskomarkhitektura website: officials promise to take into account the opinion of the public. It is planned that the public space itself will be created by 2015.
The first ideas for the development of "Big Moscow" were also announced last weekend. Representatives of all 10 competing teams shared them at a two-day international workshop for the developers of the master plan of the agglomeration. Several foreign teams at once proposed to focus on the "blue frame", that is, rivers, in the development of the region. They are OMA, Urban Design Associates, L'AUC and Antoine Grumbach et Associes. Some of the teams see solving transport problems as their primary task. Thus, representatives of OMA propose to focus on railways, and Urban design associates - on metro and bicycle transport. Studio Ass Secci-Vigano and L'AUC plan to design free and pedestrian-friendly spaces. The most environmentally friendly ideas were formulated by Ricardo Bofill, who proposed creating "green corridors" along all railways and highways, and L'AUC, for whom sustainable development and a "green" future for Moscow are paramount. Part of the bureau sees its further work in the maximum consideration of the environment - the villages near Moscow. This idea was expressed by representatives of the Moscow Architectural Institute and the chief architect of the Ostozhenka bureau, Alexander Skokan. The most daring proposals were made by the OMA bureau, whose representatives dream of turning Moscow into the No. 1 mega-city in the world with a population of over 19 million people, the Antoine Grumbach et Associes team, which is thinking about creating the St. Petersburg - Moscow - Sochi axis, and the architects Urban design associates who want to split the center of the capital and spread it to different ends of the formed region. And the architect Andrei Chernikhov voiced doubts that the "Big Moscow" project would result in something more than a banal building of new territories with panel houses. It is much wiser, in the opinion of the architect, not to conquer new territories, but to use more efficiently the existing ones, for example, the capital's industrial zones.
This week the Big Moscow project was also criticized by the participants in the Public Chamber hearings. They demanded to freeze the expansion of the capital, since the public hearings required by law, as well as state and environmental expertise, have not been carried out, the Kommersant newspaper reports. Social activists noted that in its current form, the project of expanding the capital does not take into account the interests of the villagers and, moreover, threatens to destroy the environment of the Moscow region. A resolution on possible environmental harm in connection with the implementation of the Big Moscow project will be prepared in April, RIA Novosti reports. Meanwhile, the head of the Moscow City Duma Commission on Legislation, Alexander Semennikov, said that now it is too late to protest: "The suspension of the project is impossible purely technically, the stage has already passed: there was an initiative of the President, it was approved by the Federation Council, this is, in fact, a law that has come into force." All lands of "new Moscow" will be transferred to the status of "lands of settlements" in July this year, writes "Moscow News". Among others, this status will be given to agricultural and forestry lands. The master plan for the development of the Moscow agglomeration should stop uncontrolled development, but it will be ready at the end of 2012 at best.
Architectural critic Grigory Revzin discusses the results of the competition for residential quarters in the Skolkovo Technopark area. As a member of the jury, he was pleased not only by the projects, but also by the very attempt to create a “new standard of democratic housing” - the architects designed according to European standards. At the same time, the authors managed to offer high-quality architecture for less wealthy people - scientists. “It so happened in our architecture that we learned how to build a new generation of housing for five percent of the population with an income of five hundred thousand dollars a year. And to everyone else we offer products of the late Soviet construction industry, which continue to be successfully produced by hundreds of developers in Moscow, in the Moscow region, in all cities with a population of over one million,”writes the architectural critic.
New buildings have been added to the list of monuments in the capital this week. Raised their status, in particular, "House with Caryatids", "House with a knight" and the House of Guryev. The Moscow authorities have approved not only the conservation status of the monuments, but also the boundaries of the territories of cultural heritage sites, as well as the regimes for the use of land plots located within their boundaries. Good news also appeared for the Arkhangelskoye Museum-Estate: the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region declared illegal the auction for the sale by the Ministry of Defense of a land plot partly included in the protected zone of the reserve.
Strana.ru publishes photographs of the most significant destruction of the structures of the Moscow Shukhov Tower from corrosion, which mainly affected the horizontal belts. If the capital's tower is just getting ready for reconstruction, then its Nizhny Novgorod "sister" is already entering the phase of completion. The third stage of the reconstruction of the Shukhov Tower in Nizhny Novgorod involves treating the hyperboloid with an anti-corrosion compound and painting it, installing a light structure on its support, landscaping and restoring infrastructure.
But in Yekaterinburg, the fate of the architectural monument "Passage" is not determined in its favor. Members of the Public Chamber at an enlarged meeting supported the reconstruction of the building, however, recommending the developer to heed the proposals of the opponents of the demolition. The last word remains with the administration of Yekaterinburg: the reconstruction of the "Passage" will be resumed only with its permission.
St. Petersburg is also preparing for a new construction site. Already this summer, the Alla Pugacheva Song Theater will begin to be erected at the mouth of the Smolenka River. The building will be built in the shape of a diamond - the project was carried out by the British architectural bureau Populous and won an international competition hosted by an investor. Let us remind you that the diamond is not the first proposal for the architectural appearance of the future theater, at first it was supposed to be made in the form of a giant letter "P".
At the end of the review - about the new book published by the Strelka Institute. This is the work of the American architect and urbanist William Mitchell - "I ++". In it, he proposes to rethink and describe the city in new concepts and categories. “The modern city has ceased to work as a compact geographically determined community, and the traditional urban environment with its complex transport logistics and huge office districts will cease to be functional in the foreseeable future,” says Mitchell, who sees the prototype of the architecture of the future not in megastructures, but in … a compact receiver -transmitter.
