On February 8, architect, critic and teacher Kirill Ass wrote on his Facebook page: "It is difficult to explain to students how best to come up with a facade when there is such a holiday on your street." These words make a wonderful epigraph to a review of anything professional topics in recent days. People are beaten and arrested in Moscow, it is difficult to think about a professional. Architects, like everyone else, were again divided into those who could not help but participate; those who cannot participate, but cannot help but think about; and those who, according to the outdated fashion of the past 2010s, do not interfere in politics and think only about their profession.
So, let's gather our strength and tell about the professional, especially since during the holidays and weekends there is traditionally a lull in the architectural columns of the press (unless they demolish something big, but this time God had mercy). And in the blogs they will certainly write something.
In Yaroslavl, its own local and very peaceful revolution is advancing (no, no, not what you thought) - the “Revolution of Social Housing”. This was the name of the competition organized with the support of Yuri Grigoryan in January. The resulting social housing projects can be seen here. The best participants in the competition were invited to a research group studying social and urban problems of the city in cooperation with the Project Meganom bureau. The other day Semyon Rastorguev published on Cih.ru the results of the workshop of the Yaroslavl Research Group. The participants identified the problems of the city and proposed their solutions. Yaroslavl is interesting in that it combines the problems of a Russian historical city, where wooden houses of the 19th century are rotting, and a big city with a lively industry and relatively large sleeping areas, summer residents and cyclists. In some places it looks like a small town and rotts there, where it is not tinted for the anniversary, but in some places it is an industrial center, and there it is - Moscow in miniature. Among the solutions, there are many correct ones, for example, proposals to solve problems “from below” look sound, but there is a feeling that researchers of Yaroslavl problems too often suggest the creation of Internet sites and applications for Android as solutions. For example: in the city it is not clear with what frequency public transport moves, the way out is to create an application in which residents could see the schedule and time of arrival of the bus. However! It is interesting to read, and the thoughts are mostly positive.
The new architectural school MARCH published on its website an interview with Igor Chirkin, the author of the School pavilion project, which will be built as part of the Muzeon Park reconstruction. The opening of the pavilion is timed to coincide with the beginning of the Arch of Moscow and the Moscow Biennale of Architecture. The pavilion will become a discussion platform and will be open all summer.
Meanwhile, there is a new governor in Perm (Viktor Basargin took office on May 5). The famous fighter against the Perm masterplan, Denis Galitsky, promptly formulated his advice for him (in the author's wording - "orders"). Of course, in the urban planning sphere, the author proposes to “stop everything”.
Natalia Shustova in her Archiblog Shu writes about the installation "Invincible Victory" by Protodeacon Peter at the Fakel Center for Contemporary Culture in St. Petersburg.
Most of the news, as usual, is about heritage and its protection.
Ru_sovarch publishes working drawings and original details of the sliding windows of the commune house on Gogolevsky Boulevard.
There was a small, but a turn in the fate of the dilapidated Yekaterinburg passage-exchange. Oleg Bukin received a reply to his letter to the Ministry of Culture. The ministry acknowledges that now "repair and restoration work" is being carried out in violation of the law, and reports on its actions in this regard.
Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg, on May 4-5, it was possible to stop the construction of a shopping center in Podkovyrovsky square on the Petrogradskaya side, and in the Summer Garden, according to gotprom, a lot of unnecessary things have appeared: new fountains, cameras on massive pillars and green gratings. However, the opinions of the LJ community save_pt_burg were divided: “it seems that these green things are pergolas” - writes one author, “these are pergolas, they were under Peter like many fountains,” another echoes him. The trellises should be overgrown with plants, and the fountains should also be covered with greenery, and everything will look as it should …
In Pskov, on May 7, they began to dig the Pokrovsky Bastion with an excavator, planning to build a large concrete staircase there. The work is being carried out by the Stroygrad company, which on Friday before the holidays promised the representatives of the Pskov Spetsproektrestavratsiya that the reconstruction will affect only the embankment. Archaeologists and restorers managed to stop the excavator, but there are fears that this is only the beginning of history, and its goal is to revive a project a year ago, involving the construction of a new tourist center near the Pokrovskaya Tower.
On the same weekend (heritage defenders are well aware that many dirty tricks are done on weekends) a crane-driller appeared next to the Moscow State Museum of Fine Arts in Kolymazhny Lane. Works day and night - reports "Arhnadkhor".
And finally - a few collections with interesting pictures.
The mgsupgs blog continues to publish essays on old building devices. This time - cranes of the XVII-XVIII centuries. Oleg Nikonychev publishes in ru_architect a collection of Barcelona balconies, and aledr shows in arch_heritage photographs of the interiors of the last Luzhkov reconstruction, the palace in Kolomenskoye, an amazingly kichevoy place, which, by a misunderstanding, is shown to the audience as the palace of Alexei Mikhailovich.
