Party on the occasion of the presentation of the next issue of SPEECH magazine: more like the annual picnic of the Queen of England - punch and champagne among green lawns, trimmed bushes and gravel paths; it is a pity none of the ladies present put on their hats. However, the invitees gathered not in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, but near the School pavilion in the Muzeon art park. Therefore, after the aperitif the guests were greeted by the rector of MARCH Evgeny Ass. He said that this is the first such large-scale event in the history of his school, which will begin its educational activities in September. At the same time, he invited Chino Dzukki to give lectures for the students of the school.
Then the chief editor of the SPEECH magazine: Irina Shipova spoke about the new issue, which is dedicated to the genius loci - the spirit of the place. She explained that while such a topic may seem strange at first glance for an architecture magazine, the genius of the place has a lot to do with architecture. Indeed, any structure is characterized by a specific location in space, it is this feature that remains its main and essential component; an architect always starts designing with a study of the site, its surroundings and history, that is, with the study of the spirit of the place, which is a sign of culture. However, the issue of the journal examines this topic in a specific aspect of the relationship between new and historical buildings, newly erected structures and the existing environment. Does this new suppress the existing fabric of the city, does it destroy its spirit, does the city begin to mutate under the pressure of a large number of buildings appearing before our eyes, or does their interpenetration occur organically and without damage to the city?
Unfortunately, the conclusions are rather disappointing. A long review article about Yerevan, prepared for this issue by Andrey Ivanov, paints a bleak picture, and it is typical for almost every major historical city throughout the entire space of the former Soviet Union. The discussion on the integration of the new architecture into the historically established environment was continued by the architect and publisher of the SPEECH magazine: Sergei Tchoban. This problem, which is very painful for Moscow, is relevant for any European city, and there they are seriously dealing with it. In particular, the architect Chino Dzucchi made many efforts to understand it and find solutions, and his residential complex on the territory of a former factory on the island of Giudecca in Venice entered the annals as a successful example of such integration. Thus Cioban preceded Chino Zucchi's lecture, and after a short formal introduction by the Italian Cultural Attaché, the lecture took place.
The first part can be described as theoretical. Chino Dzukki tries to comprehend the processes taking place in modern cities, comparing them with historical cities. In a historic city, personal space exists in parallel with social space: houses protect residents, and streets provide an opportunity for communication. Historic cities are absolutely natural - both in the way they originated and in the materials: they are made of the same thing that nature is made of. In the 18th century, with the onset of the industrial era, cities began to expand to accommodate both production and the influx of people. They keep growing all the time, their growth is often uncontrollable. For example, according to the architect, a snapshot of his hometown of Milan from space looks like an image of a cancerous tumor. But the planned expansion of cities also leads to chaos, so how to restore the necessary harmony to the cities?
A modern city consists of a set of elements with different functions: housing, work, entertainment, recreation - all these elements are independent, they are not collected into a single system, and using the city, we must move between them. In the historic city, functions are combined and are present everywhere. For example, in Venice, the entire city is a recreational area. In essence, commercial centers, the so-called malls, are replicas of a model of historic cities. At the same time, they are a symbol of globalization, since at any geographic point they are arranged according to the same scheme.
Further, Chino Dzukki made a lyrical digression that we love the city not only for its architecture or environment, but as a place of our life, this sentimental and romantic attitude to the city, but is it possible with such an attitude to solve its modern problems? After that, the lecturer moved on to his own experience in solving the identified problems and spoke about the projects implemented in Rome, Venice, Milan and other cities in Italy and beyond. The photographs of most of the projects illustrate the extensive and informative interview with Chino Dzukki published in the ninth issue of SPEECH:. This issue, like all the previous ones, resembles a voluminous case study rather than a periodical, complex and very relevant, albeit not clear to everyone, the genius loci topic is considered from different angles and by different authors. This topic requires a lot of reasoning, so the magazine contains not one or two, but as many as four large interviews, and all with architects of the first magnitude: in addition to Chino Dzukki, Alexander Brodsky, Peter Zumthor and laureate of the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale of this year are represented here Alvaro Siza.
