A discussion is unfolding caused by an open letter from the St. Petersburg Union of Architects to the director Alexander Sokurov. The epistle was triggered by Sokurov's interview to Novaya Gazeta, in which the master talks about the construction of the Okhta Center in St. Petersburg. The Project Baltia magazine cites the text of the letter: the architects assure the director that “the supporters of construction were in an absolute minority, they were an exception to the rule,” and then briefly, on 2-3 pages, tell the story of the opposition to the scandalous project on the part of the St. Petersburg union architects.
Meanwhile, critic Natalya Shustrova in her blog reacted to another initiative of the St. Petersburg union, which “… did not accept the fact that the program for the preservation of the city center was being developed without it. … It is understandable: the pie is painfully tasty. " The author gives a more than critical assessment of the virtually absent renovation program of the historical center of St. Petersburg, and cites several quotes by Jose Asebillo, in which the famous urbanist, in the author's conviction, urges "to think about the predominance of the intangible in the urban space."
In Perm, apparently, it is planned to revise the project for the reconstruction of the building of the opera house, which until now has been slowly but apparently progressively implemented (see, for example, the March report of the Russian newspaper) Perm blogger Denis Galitsky, in the context of the "process of revising Chirkunov's projects", considers the results of the 2010 competition of projects for the reconstruction of the opera house of Perm - and again criticizes the then-winning project by David Chipperfield, whose victory in the competition, as Galitsky is convinced, was a foregone conclusion. The blogger gives preference to another competition project proposed by architect Brian Avery - and encourages "decision makers" to read it carefully.
Perm architect Alexander Antonenko spoke more broadly on the same topic. He sets out in detail the history of theater design since 1956, examines in detail an article by the Project Russia magazine devoted to the competition for the reconstruction of the Perm Opera building, criticizes Chipperfield's project, describing it as “unpretentious,” and ultimately comes to the conclusion: foreign architects have shown at this competition, the level of skill is low.
Meanwhile, Moscow almost imperceptibly celebrated the next, 120th anniversary of Konstantin Melnikov: the blog of "Arkhnadzor" responded to this event with a video of the 2009 program, ru_architect - a note about the sad state of the architect's house in Krivoarbatsky lane, and https:// k-melnikov.livejournal.com/ collected some fresh information from the press about what threatens the house again escalated construction in the neighborhood.
Another anniversary - 20 years of the Center for Contemporary Art. The blog of the Museum of Architecture publishes a short note by its director Irina Korobyina about the first project of the Center for Contemporary Art on Yakimanka, Mikhail Khazanov, with old black-and-white photographs from the architect's personal archive.
Village talks about modern concrete, spiral skyscrapers and suburbs of megalopolises of different countries. The magazine also continues to publish graduation projects of Strelka students. This time the hero was the project of Dalia Safiullina from Kazan, dedicated to the recycling of panel houses.
UrbanUrban also publishes Strelka projects: Ekaterina Levitskaya writes here about her team's research into Red October as a public space this summer. The core of the study was a survey conducted using telephones and the Internet.
Living Streets, continuing their discussion of the Moscow bypass road in Yekaterinburg, are counting how many trees need to be cut down in order to build one clover junction on the Moscow bypass road. It turns out that for its construction it will be necessary to destroy a significant part of the forest park located in this place. The authors also cite an alternative project that is more economical.
The chairman of the Pskov branch of VOOPIIK Lev Shlosberg, who at the end of July actively opposed the transfer of the frescoes of the cathedral of the Snetogorsk monastery to the church, recently told in detail the continuation of another sad story - about plans for a barbaric reconstruction of the embankment of the Velikaya River.
"Arkhnadzor" informs about the demolition of the house on the Arbat and collects money for the restoration of the pharmacy on Malaya Bronnaya.
