The week on the Internet is replete with news from the capital. One of the most pressing issues is the fate of the NCCA. Anton Belov on the site Snob.ru casts doubt on the prudence of the implementation of the project of the National Center for Contemporary Art, developed by the workshop of Mikhail Khazanov. The author of the article has many questions both to the project and to the very idea of creating a new museum of contemporary art on the basis of the NCCA. 16 floors for a museum, according to the author, is unexpectedly a lot. The lack of collections of Western art, and most importantly, the lack of funds for the development and maintenance of a museum of this magnitude, make us seriously think about its future. But the fact that Moscow needs its own Pompidou remains undeniable. Another thing is that it is not proposed to solve this problem alone - from above, but by the whole world: “If we want to build a museum that we will be proud of, then we must recognize this project as public, accept everyone as his own. To realize that this is not the development of funds, but the construction of the most important institution of contemporary art in the world,”the author concludes.
Blog MGSU again returns to the main Moscow sore - traffic jams, analyzing the transport situation in the Russian capital from the 1920s to the present day. The reasons for the daily collapse of the roads are clear - the radial-ring structure of the city, low traffic capacity of the road network, lack of capillary connections, etc. However, according to the author of the article, it is possible to solve the problem, and with small means: “… some time ago specialists from the London City Hall came to Moscow to study our transport problems. Having familiarized themselves with the local traffic jams, the British came to the conclusion that the problem is quite solvable. It is only necessary to rearrange the road signs, introduce new U-turns and redirect traffic flows on some streets. In short, you don't need to build any new road junctions, you just need to learn how to properly regulate traffic."
The portal “urbanurban.ru” tells about unusual experiments on people and space: “In Copenhagen from May to September the experiment“Create your city”was held. Fifteen squares and parks became street laboratories where urban improvement projects were tested. But it turns out that the real goal of the experiment was not at all to run in a dozen projects and find out what residents think of them. All of this was part of an innovative strategy for the city's technical administration and was conceived to teach planners a new way of working."
This week, the Strelka Institute blog gave the floor to a new third set of students who talk about educational programs, urban studies and the future of the profession.
"P-Arch" (p-arch) tells in detail about the program of events. In particular, on the site you can find out what excursions - walking, bus, cycling, covering objects of historical value and modern architecture - the project "Freedom of Access" has been prepared for inquisitive Muscovites. In addition, the portal informs that the DOCOMOMO organization conducts a cycle of lectures and excursions "Everything about the avant-garde". The MARCH architectural school will also present its events.
The ru-architect community continues to follow the fate of the first Shukhov Tower. On October 8, this issue was considered at a meeting of the commissions of the Moscow City Duma. According to the expert examination, the tower is in a critical, almost disrepair condition. Yuri Volchok, the vice-president of the Agrarian Academy, called for the restoration in accordance with European practice: first, to preserve the TV tower, and then, during the nine years remaining until its 100th anniversary, to carry out the restoration work in stages. The meeting resulted in a decision to hold a special scientific conference dedicated to the rescue of the TV tower. In the meantime, the Moscow City Duma is preparing an appeal to the country's leadership with a proposal to give the Shukhov Tower the status of a cultural heritage site of federal significance.
City activists of St. Petersburg opposed the construction of a nine-storey business center in Deminsky Garden, according to the blog of the ERA group. “In addition to the fact that the construction is destroying the garden, the site in question is in the protected zone - ZRZ 2, and by the decision of the St. Petersburg City Court dated 2010-20-12, any construction activity here is illegal, since the Land Use and Development Rules on the territory of the protected zones have been declared invalid,” explains activist of the ERA group and the Mitrofanievsky union Nikolai Lavrentiev. To date, work in the Deminsky Garden has been suspended, at least for the duration of the verification of the legality of the construction that has already begun.
Another illegal construction interference was identified by the activists of the Arkhnadzor movement. We are talking about the house of Princess Golitsyna on Pokrovka - a building of the 1740s. From the record of "Arhnadzor" it follows that for several weeks without any permission from the security authorities, work was carried out at the cultural heritage site, which can only be called vandalism - some workers hammered old brickwork, others hid the smashed walls under a thick layer of cement. Fortunately, this story received a happy ending - the work has been suspended. Now the fate of the house is under the control of the Moscow City Heritage Site.
However, the situation is not so good everywhere. The same blog "Arkhnadzor" reports on the rude and unceremonious facts of handling the facades of historical buildings in Moscow. Scaffolding is hammered right into the walls of architectural monuments by incompetent workers, original decorative elements are hammered off with hammers, historical wall covering is destroyed. There are a lot of cases: Makayev's house - a tenement house of 1903 in Podsosensky lane, Nirnzee's house - the first skyscraper of the capital, 1912 in Bolshoy Gnezdnikovsky lane, an ensemble of two tenement houses on Solyanka 1912-1915. And this is not the whole list. Arkhnadzor promises to follow the fate of the affected houses, which is still unclear.
Bad news came from Mozhaisk. The site of the Regional Public Organization "Borodino-2012" writes about the demolition of an old building destroyed, oddly enough, in preparation for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino.
But, as if distracting from the bad news, bloggers this week massively offer their readers fascinating photo tours of the cities and towns of our country. So, in the live journal of the user volos_t you can see a beautiful photo report from Krasnoyarsk called "Krasnoyarsk lace". Here, lace refers to old wood carvings. Alexey Nazarov in his blog talks about Yekaterinburg, presenting to the attention of readers the mesmerizing panoramas of the city from a bird's eye view. You can read about the history and architecture of the wooden Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, built at the end of the 19th century in Ufa, in the ru_woodarch community.
