Mikhail Beilin and Daniil Nikishin are representatives of a new architectural generation who have managed to loudly declare themselves. Two years later, after graduating from the Moscow Architectural Institute, young architects organized their own creative group "Citizens / Citizenstudio". Today they have many prestigious awards, participation in exhibitions and competitions, including international ones (winners of the competition "20 best young architects of Russia NEXT-2011", KIEV ISLANDS-2012 (2nd place), participants of the exhibition "ArchMoscow-2011", CANNACTIONS-2012, etc.).
They presented four works to the jury of the Perspective. Two of them are the results of participation in international competitions. The third is the first independently implemented project, the reconstruction of a workshop of the Rot Front plant under the Glaz photo gallery. And finally, the fourth - the installation "Moscow … Waiting for expansion", a reaction to the changing borders of the Russian capital.
“The portfolio of the participants who received the Grand Prix was head and shoulders above all the others, - commented on the results of the competition jury member Nikolai Lyzlov, - What are the competitive projects alone - solid, well-developed. So the jury's decision was unanimous."
Alexander Kuptsov, who received the Grand Prix of the very first Prospects competition in 2006, and is now a representative of the panel of judges, admitted:
“This time, taking part in the work of the jury, I was really looking forward to projects worthy of the Grand Prix. The portfolio of Mikhail Beilin and Daniil Nikishin is the only one in which competition projects, implementation, and art object were presented. Besides, I was pleasantly surprised by the wide geography of projects - Ukraine, Italy, Moscow …”.
Mikhail Beilin and Daniil Nikishin told the Archi.ru columnist that the art object "Moscow … Waiting for Expansion" was created quite a long time ago, when it was not yet reliably known exactly how and in which direction the capital would expand. The architects seemed to have a presentiment of what was going on: even then they came up with the image of a hand stretched out over the southern part of the Moscow region. Later, a sarcastic manifesto was born, proclaiming Moscow the limit of the aspirations of Russians, and the final embodiment clearly demonstrated the personal attitude of the authors to the problem.
Ironic skepticism is inherent in many of the creative sketches of these architects. For example, one of the latest works that did not manage to enter the portfolio - "House_with_city" - stylization of a hut of hypertrophied proportions, in which world-famous skyscrapers serve as interior details - Empire State Building, Turning Torso, Torre Agbar, Willis Tower.
However, close-up in the architectural activities of Mikhail Beilin and Daniil Nikishin is by no means light banter, but thoughtful and highly professional works. Such works can be safely attributed to the competition project of public space improvement in Kiev "Kiev Edge", which the authors themselves called "CENTRAL PARK". It became the only Russian project to be among the finalists of the Kiev competition held in 2011. According to the terms of the competition, it was necessary to improve the territory of the green massif, which, although located in the very center of the city, was devoid of any infrastructure and programmed pedestrian connections. The approaches to the river are cut off by the motorway, the embankments are isolated from the city and are in desolation.
Mikhail Beilin and Daniil Nikishin proposed to create a unified park and recreational space, permeating it with a network of longitudinal and transverse routes. Tall wooden towers of various configurations, which were planned to be scattered throughout the park area, would serve as observation platforms, art objects, and a good guide for vacationers - so as not to go astray. It was supposed to arrange an embankment-esplanade of several levels along the river, and to fence off the highway with green walls with arched glazed openings. The access to the river would be provided through numerous crossings over the road, which are art objects in themselves.
But the authors see the value of the project not even in the transformation of the "wild forest" into a central resting place. The main idea lies in the creation of the so-called urban virtual space - in the words of Daniil Nikishin: "an ideal social network." In practice, this is implemented through the installation of information panels that involve all visitors to the park in the mainstream of social activity. The portals create conditions for the exchange of information, provide citizens with access to the latest news and events, to the resources of the city, allow them to express their attitude to certain transformations or make their own rational proposals. Thus, the path to democratization and socialization of intracity processes is being built.
Beilin and Nikishin also managed to become finalists of the international conceptual competition "Parcosolare sud" for the creation of an eco-park in Calabria, a region of Italy. Here it was required to come up with the idea of re-profiling the coastal highway, which included viaducts from the mid-20th century by Pier Luigi Nervi.
The architects proposed to narrow car traffic to two lanes (a backup was built next to it), thus freeing up space for the creation of an eco-park along the viaduct. For this, a wooden promenade deck is built on the second tier - a kind of artificial relief with numerous descents and ascents. An electric train line is laid under it, intended for the movement of vacationers - from above, a fascinating picture of the green slopes of Calabria opens.
The third tier and at the same time the most acute aesthetic line is the so-called solar energy park, or, in other words, a multifunctional shed. It has three functions: sun and rain protection, rainwater harvesting and solar energy conversion. The movable modules of solar panels were supposed to follow the sun, constantly moving like an ever-changing kinetic sculpture. Thus, the park can completely switch to self-sufficiency and even more - generate energy for the surrounding cities. The architects estimate that the generated electricity will be enough to serve 8,000 people, and the amount of rainwater collected in one year will be more than 60 thousand tons.
The austere exposition space of the Glaz photo gallery in the premises of the former factory workshop was created by the architects virtually by hand. Metal stairs, white sculptural partitions, exposed fragments of old brickwork, restored openings from glass blocks - all this is pure hand-made, which, coupled with the unpretentiousness of the loft style, brought the cost of construction to an incredibly low figure.
Another attractive feature of the project was the increase in the original area by more than a third. A small pit a little less than 1 m deep, which once served for storing nuts, has been converted into a storage facility for exhibits. The entrance to the gallery is located well above the floor level, which helped create a full-fledged storage room. The impressive height of the ceilings (7 m) made it possible to divide the space into two more levels, which were given to the actual exposition. The office space is located on the mezzanine floor. The central space is an atrium, the gallery and mezzanine surrounding it form a kind of amphitheater, which makes the room convenient for holding not only exhibitions, but also various other events, including concerts. Thus, with small means, it was possible to achieve an amazing result: the surviving fire and for a long time abandoned hall with cracked dirty blue tiles on the walls and a burnt ceiling was transformed by the efforts of the architects into a modern four-level gallery.
Presenting the main award of the "Perspective" competition to Mikhail Beilin and Daniil Nikishin, the jury especially noted the professionalism of the projects presented and the variety of solved problems, and also expressed hope for their further victories in the "Golden Section".
