The first week of October, which traditionally marks the World Architecture Day, will be remembered by Internet users as joyful and not very happy events. On the one hand, the problems of modern architecture during this period were discussed at the highest level, but on the other hand, it is still completely unclear whether this could change anything. For example, the ru_architect community of architects discusses the results of the Meeting of the Council for Culture and Art, at which Andrei Bokov tried to draw the attention of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the fact that modern legislation effectively nullifies the possibility of holding full-fledged architectural competitions. And the blog "Architectural Heritage" discusses an article from "Moskovsky Komsomolets" devoted to the restoration work in the New Jerusalem Monastery of the 17th century, which was recently visited by Dmitry Medvedev and Patriarch Kirill. The Prime Minister praised the quality of the work going on there, but bloggers do not share this enthusiasm.
Ilya Varlamov in his blog urges readers to fight cars parked on the sidewalks of Moscow. The passionate appeal was triggered by the fact that the city authorities officially allowed parking on the sidewalks. As a result of this decision, pedestrians found themselves, to put it mildly, in a cramped position. The author writes that motorists now occupy about 67 times the area that remains for pedestrians. Continuing the theme "Blog about cities" Maxim Katz offers a detailed study of the sidewalk and parking situation on Tverskaya Street.
In another post, Maxim Katz gives advice “to improve or save the city”, based on the materials of the books and lectures of Vukan Vuchik. Thus, the author warns the city authorities against attempts to rid the streets of tram lines. “Now there is not a single country in the world, except Russia, which would remove rails in cities. The fact is that the rails are a huge reserve in order to build a very efficient, convenient and fast rail system for relatively little money. Also, Maxim Katz advises to be more careful in the construction of traffic-free expressways, which require thoughtful planning and high financial costs. As a reminder of the consequences of insufficiently balanced decisions, the author cites the Alabyano-Baltic Tunnel and Leningradka.
An excellent gift for the professional holiday was the grand opening of the restored sign over the pharmacy on Malaya Bronnaya, which the Arkhnadzor team talks about in their blog. This little miracle was made possible thanks to the efforts and financial investments of Muscovites. Let us remind you that the pharmacy at the corner of house No. 22 has existed since 1914. At the beginning of the summer, during the renovation work, the surviving fragments of an old sign were unexpectedly discovered, and just three months later the sign was restored. Its grand opening will take place today at 19:00.
The community "Architecture" in LiveJournal informs about the beginning of restoration work in the estate of Polibino-Storozhevoy in the Dankovsky district of the Lipetsk region - the first Shukhov tower and the palace of the Nechaev-Maltsovs will be restored here. At the end of the 19th century, it was here that the engineer Vladimir Shukhov first applied the hyperboloid form in architecture, which was later actively exploited by such outstanding architects as Antoni Gaudi, Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer and others. Work has already begun on repairing the foundation and preserving the structure in order to protect it from corrosion.
St. Petersburg Internet resources, still not cold after the scandalous destruction of Rogov's house, are discussing the planned demolition of the Varshavsky railway station fan. The Zhivoi Gorod magazine reports: "Not only railway tracks and related infrastructure, but also all historical buildings and structures, regardless of their cultural value and historical significance, will be demolished."
"Tverskiye svody" continue to discuss with the authorities of the city of Kashin about the removal from protection of architectural monuments. The prosecutor's office of the Kashinsky region has already joined the case. We are talking about the sale and reconstruction of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin on Chistye Prudy, as well as the construction of a boiler house in the center of Bolotskaya Square on the foundations of a destroyed 17th century church. “Before our very eyes, one of the most remarkable ancient Russian provincial cities is finally turning into a faceless settlement, in which the architectural dominants still“alive”are taken out of the historical context,” write “Tverskiye Svody”. In connection with the increasingly aggravated situation, the Kashin community sent a letter to the Prosecutor of the Kashinsky region Y. Tatintsev with a request to conduct an inspection on the fact of the removal from protection of valuable town-forming objects.
Among the positive news of the week - a photo report about the second International Festival "Circle of Light", published in the blog of photographers Alexei Kulikov and Ivan Gushchin. The festival of laser and light shows took place in Moscow for five days, and one of its central venues was the entrance to Gorky Park. The entrance was colorfully illuminated from the outside, and from the inside it was turned into a "screen" onto which all kinds of images were projected. The colorful shots clearly demonstrate how interesting the combination of graphics and color with old architecture can be. By the way, according to the authors of the blog, this kind of lighting would not really interfere with panel residential buildings.
The A4Architecture + News portal devoted a lot of material to Peter Zumthor and his Steilneset Memorial, built in the Norwegian city of Vardø. This is the first publication under the new weekly heading of the portal "Philosophy of Space". Archiblog Shu talks about the new museum of modern art, which was built in Norway by Renzo Piano.
And the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design in its blog sums up the results of the past summer, which turned out to be extremely fruitful for him: Strelka for the first time went outside its courtyard and began working with residential areas outside the city center. Through a series of workshops, students and teachers of the institute implemented targeted changes in 8 districts of Moscow, for example, they turned Voikovskaya into a playground, built an open living room in Mitino, launched a website for activists in Troparevo-Nikulino, and made films about Pechatniki.
