The blog "Living City" published a detailed chronicle of the destruction of the Rogov House, the struggle to preserve which lasted for several years. Despite the fact that the house was entered in the register of cultural heritage sites of regional significance back in 2009 and the owner company received recommendations for the reconstruction of the monument, it was nevertheless demolished. The contractor company states that "the building was demolished as part of the emergency measures" and relies on new documents. It should be noted that the monument was destroyed within one day instead of the planned demolition date from August 24 to September 30. This haste aroused the interest of the State Construction Supervision Agency, which has already begun an investigation into the legality of the demolition of Rogov's house and verification of the documents provided. The famous director Alexander Sokurov reacted to this situation. Putting all business aside, he arrived at the place of demolition, but even his authority was not enough to stop this act of vandalism.
Activists of the public movement Arkhnadzor, in turn, are trying to draw attention to several Moscow monuments that require immediate assistance. On the one hand, this is the famous house of the architect Konstantin Melnikov, which was threatened with destruction as a result of the demolition of Melgunov's house in this quarter. Together with the Federal Scientific and Methodological Council for Cultural Heritage, "Arhnadzor" sent a letter to the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky, the Mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin, the head of the Moscow City Heritage Site Alexander Kibovsky and the head of the Moscow Architecture Committee Andrey Antipov with a request to take measures to save perhaps the most famous constructivist building the Russian capital. Another monument, the fate of which the activists of the movement are seriously concerned about, is the house on Vozdvizhenka, 9, which is actually the literary address of “Anna Karenina” and “War and Peace”. According to the developed reconstruction project, it is planned to add an additional floor to the building, which threatens to distort its appearance beyond recognition.
And, finally, Arkhnadzor is trying, if not to change, then at least to clarify the fate of a unique Moscow monument, an object of cultural heritage of federal significance - "Catherine's Hospital at Petrovsky Gate (Gagarin's House)". In June 2011, this monument survived a real attack by vandals: they not only broke the marble parts, and the unique interiors were painted with graffiti, but also managed to take away an old cast-iron staircase! As a result of numerous appeals of activists of the movement to officials, the security of the building was strengthened: the private security company was replaced, the broken windows and doors were boarded up with boards, but this was the end of the intervention of the authorities in the fate of the monument. True, over the past year, the Moscow Government issued an order that the Main Wedding Palace will be located in the palace. This document, in particular, says that the restoration of the "Palace and Park at the expense of budgetary funds is planned for 2012", but considering that it is already September, there are fewer and fewer hopes for the start of work …
Blogger Ilya Varlamov published a detailed story about the demolition of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in 1931. In his post, Varlamov collected excerpts from documents and memoirs of eyewitnesses to the explosion of the temple, as well as numerous archival photographs from various sources.
In the "Real Estate" section of the RIA Novosti portal there is a selection under the catchy title "The Ugliest Buildings in Moscow". Among the buildings that, according to the authors of the blog, have changed the appearance of the capital for the worse, are the complex on the Red Hills, the Alfa Arbat Center, the Nautilus shopping center, and the Stolnik residential building. True, who and by what criteria made this sample is not disclosed in the material.
A4 portal publishes material titled “Georgia 2.0:“People are changing architecture, architecture is changing society”. This is a very curious story about the modern architecture of Georgia and how its inhabitants relate to this genre. The text is accompanied by photographs that lift the veil of mystery over what is happening in the architecture of this country.
The community ru_sovarh dedicated its new publication to such a subspecies of panel residential high-rises as “houses with pergolas”. “In the 1960s and 1970s, it was very popular to finish mostly residential buildings with concrete birds,” reminds ked_pled, inviting the associates to collect examples of such structures. In the comments to this post, readers of the community publish photos of skyscrapers with similar finishes, built in Kiev, Minsk, Donetsk, Moscow, on the territory of the former GDR.
Architect Alexander Antonenko in his blog talks about the results of the competition for the project for the reconstruction of the Volgograd embankment: none of the projects liked the commission one hundred percent, but the winner was nevertheless chosen, although his name has not yet been advertised. “It is touching to explain why places in this competition were awarded, despite the fact that no one project was completely liked by anyone,” comments the architect. “It turns out that it is necessary to reward only for the fact that a lot of work has been invested, the participants spent time …” The project itself is already known in general terms: according to the winning concept, sculptures, fountains, promenade boulevards should appear on the embankment, although the Volgograd residents themselves are categorically reconstruction of the central embankment and are ready to defend their point of view even with the help of protest rallies and pickets.
The novate.ru portal published information about the Facebook headquarters project, for the development of which Frank Gehry himself was invited. The new headquarters of the world's largest social network will be located in close proximity to its old campus and will be connected to it by an underground pedestrian and bicycle tunnel under the freeway. According to the portal, the company's management intends to turn its campus into a real park, where there will be many trees, lawns, pedestrian and bicycle paths. Here you can work directly in the open air or arrange picnics with barbecues and outdoor games on the lawns.
The Architectural Seasons website tells about a unique residential building created by the Japanese architecture studio NAF Architect & Design from concrete blocks - waste from a cement plant in Hiroshima. And radiomapro.ru reports about one of the narrowest houses in the world, which is planned to be built in Warsaw. The width of the building, in which it is planned to create studios for young artists, will be only 133 cm.
