Photographer Ilya Varlamov continues to discuss the quality of the living environment in Russian cities and, in particular, suggests ten concrete steps that will make Moscow comfortable for people. These initiatives include closing the entrance to the city center, banning parking in courtyards, creating a barrier-free environment for people with disabilities, and not allowing tenants to change building facades. The author pays special attention to the development of public transport. He believes that it is necessary to place a "stake" on trams, metro and bicycle transport. At the same time, travel in public transport should be free, while all parking lots within the Third Ring Road should become paid.
The Snob portal, impressed by the lecture of the former mayor of Bogota, Enrique Peñalosa, writes that political will is needed to solve Moscow's urban problems. In particular, in order to remove the functions of the capital from Moscow. "Snob" believes that it is best to place the federal government in Nizhny Novgorod, and in ten years it can be transferred to Yekaterinburg, in another ten - to Krasnoyarsk or Khabarovsk. This will only make everyone better: the cities in which the authorities are located will get rich and grow, while Moscow will stop expanding, while maintaining its prosperity, thanks to a developed infrastructure for business, as well as a rich sales market.
In the meantime, the market is pushing out of the center of the capital everything that does not correspond to it, including the small shops that ordinary residents need. In particular, this is exactly what happens at the Patriarch's Ponds, says architect Yevgeny Ass. The semi-rural way of life of the Patriarchs of the Soviet period has now been replaced by an urbanized phase, in which there is less and less space for a measured, quiet life. The moscowwalks portal tells about the Moscow district of Kuryanovo, which, on the contrary, has changed little over its half-century history, continuing a series of publications about the residential quarters of the capital. You can also find out the opinion of professionals about the infrastructure of cities that has changed over the past 20 years on the The Village portal.
The Urbanurban portal tells about which city is the best to live in Belgium. The author analyzes the attractiveness of cities with a population of over 30 thousand people, taking as the main indicator the availability and a comprehensive range of public services - cinemas, theaters, UNESCO cultural heritage sites, hospitals and universities. As a result, Brussels, Liege and Mons became the leaders in this impromptu rating. Among the settlements located within an hour's reach from major cities, Vilward, Aalst and Ghent won.
Architect Vladimir Zlokazov in the blog "Living Streets" formulates the requirements that, in his opinion, Yekaterinburg residents should present to the reconstruction of the architectural monument "Passage" at the upcoming meeting of the City Planning Council of the city. The author believes that, first of all, a first floor full of social functions is needed. In addition, it is necessary to refuse to enter the parking lot from the main street of the city - Lenin Avenue, since in this case the square will be separated from the pedestrian street. For the reconstruction of the park, you need to hold a separate architectural competition and then choose the best project that takes into account the real paths of people movement. The townspeople should also demand that the facades be changed. Vladimir Zlokazov believes that it is best to use the tiered structure typical of Weiner Street, on which the Passage is located. In this case, the lower tier should be worked out and material, and the upper one should be simpler and weightless. The main thing is to avoid a "parody" of the building of the Yekaterinburg City Hall, which is located next door, is supported by a colleague ar-chitect.
And the Big City Buzz blog tells how Yekaterinburg can change by 2025 if it is decided to host the World Cup and Expo 2020. By this time, the Ekaterinburg-City business quarter should be completed, a multifunctional exhibition center on the border between Europe and Asia, several new hotels, including the 45-storey Radisson City hotel, and the railway station should be reconstructed.
Designer Artemy Lebedev has unveiled the competition projects for the new office of his studio, which will be located in Moscow on 1905 Goda Street. Six architectural bureaus took part in the last round of the competition, the Mumdesign workshop won, which it proudly announces on its website.
And the On The Way team is planning to build a cinema in Moscow from old wooden pallets, reports The Village. It will appear in the middle of April in the courtyard on Halabyan Street; documentaries about ecology and the structure of cities will be shown there. The initiative has already been supported by Moscow officials.
The public movement "Arhnadzor" talks about a document called "Valletta Principles" for the preservation and management of historic cities, urban areas and suburbs. The document was adopted in November 2011 by members of the ICOMOS Historic Cities and Rural Settlements Committee at its regular session in Valletta, the capital of Malta. Also, "Arhnadzor" publishes the memoirs of one of the last witnesses of the beauty and grandeur of the Bobrishchev-Pushkin estate on the banks of the Oka (the current territory of the Yegnyshevka sanatorium). During the offensive of the German troops in the fall of 1941, the house-palace was mined and subsequently blown up.
The blog "Architectural Heritage" tells about the recently restored house on Kolokolnaya, 11 in St. Petersburg, which again appeared in all its glory. Another blog post is dedicated to another St. Petersburg building - the Lalevich house at 39 Rosenstein Street, built in the Art Nouveau style. He has a different fate. Now it is on the verge of demolition and at the same time is absolutely not protected, as it is outside the security zone. Also "Architectural Heritage" tells about the history of the capital of Lithuania Vilnius, illustrating the post with engravings and paintings from different periods. And the blog daria-iz-orla published the history of the development of the central part of Orel: first there was a forest, then the trading Ilyinskaya square or simply Ilyinka, and since the 20s of the twentieth century both the square itself and the buildings surrounding it gave way to Pervomaisky square. True, during the war the square was also destroyed, but it was restored - today it is known as the Tankistov square.
