This year the architect Andrei Chernikhov became the curator of Zodchestvo, and it is to him that the festival owes such a progressive theme. In his manifesto, Chernikhov, however, immediately made a reservation that finding something new in the modern, constantly changing world is an extremely difficult and thankless task, therefore it is appropriate to look at this concept from a different angle. “New is not only innovation, but also a rethinking of the familiar way of life and just a well-forgotten old. After all, a tradition is only alive if it is constantly renewed. And the newest thing, according to the curator, for us today is the way government and business interact with architects. Therefore, among the main characters of the show, who received the most spacious central pavilions, this year were the Big Moscow competition (apparently, as an example of the fact that even a very strange initiative of the authorities with the help of reasonable urban planning solutions can be at least partially adapted for real life) and Skolkovo”, where both political will and the interests of the business community are conducting a chorus of architects.
The design of the exposition this year was developed by the Pole-Design Project Group, and I must say that the concept proposed by Vlad Savinkin and Vladimir Kuzmin looked very impressive in the sketches. In the main space of the Manege, the architects inscribed a conditional oval, and in it, in turn, pavilions, which together form the word "New" in the plan. It was already clear from the sketches that the pavilions would not have walls - they would simply wind orange ribbons on a metal frame, and the motto of the festival itself should have been written in the same orange dotted line, stretching it diagonally over the entrance to the hall. In reality, everything turned out a little differently. Instead of ribbons of different shades (the sketches featured red, red and yellow stripes), orange tape was used, and the theme of the festival greeted us joyfully at the entrance only occasionally - as a result, a giant screen was hung diagonally, on which the faces of architectural officials flashed, then excerpts from the manifesto, then someone's projects. However, it is difficult to argue with the fact that a thin, almost weightless screen is a sign of the very new, which this year is being intensively honored at Zodchestvo.
The pavilions, wrapped from head to toe with duct tape, look very positive. Scotch tape glares, numerous monitors glow, bright red sprinkles everywhere (however, it seems, Savinkin and Kuzmin could not have had another color). And if Yuri Avvakumov, who was the curator of Zodchestvo for the previous three years, structured the exposition by collecting scattered elements in twelve cubes of white matter, Savinkin and Kuzmin set themselves a completely different task. The idea of the unity and interconnection of everything that happens in architecture runs like a red thread through the exposition - the exhibitions are separated from each other more than conditionally, so that moving along the orange labyrinth, the visitor seems to be immersed in a stormy stream, which is called the modern architectural process.
However, this applies only to the form of presentation of the material. If we talk about the content of the exposition, then it is not going into a single whole in any way. The fact that the panorama of “Zodchestvo” was also made up by projects that are diametrically opposed both in quality and presentation, the visitor understands, barely entering the territory of the festival. The entrance to the main exposition is flanked by the pavilions of the two capitals - and it is difficult to think of any more dissimilar approaches to presenting oneself at Zodchestvo.
If you go to the left, you will find yourself in the St. Petersburg pavilion. There is a black floor and mirrored walls, and a map of Europe is engraved directly opposite the entrance, so entering St. Petersburg, you immediately involuntarily transport yourself to more distant cities - Copenhagen, Tallinn, Stockholm. The theme of the city-window to Europe has become central: they say, while Moscow is trying to organize a center around itself, we are striving to the west (as it is written in the annotation to the exposition). "If the past of St. Petersburg is a capital that demonstrates the power of the Empire, then its future is to become a key element of the Northern European marine microregion, which includes the cities of the North and Baltic Seas." As an almost finished window, New Holland is shown - a man-made triangular island surrounded by canals along which you can go to the big water and swim wherever you look. In the exposition, however, this triangle, on the contrary, turned into a reservoir in which multicolored round chips float. In itself, it looks like an attraction for children, but in fact, the "pills" symbolize all those measures to improve the urban environment that St. Petersburg needs to achieve the desired status. On the walls you can find specific recommendations and examples to follow - among the latter are the Riga Transport Corridor, Hafen City, which has been transformed into a new center of Hamburg from an industrial zone, and the stylish science city of Kista near Stockholm, and the Tallinn Urban Festival.
Moscow, too, did not deny itself the pleasure of using the capabilities of interactive scoreboards and LEDs - in the center of the pavilion of the capital, we see a metro map, where the future high-speed arteries of the city are highlighted with blue lights. And right there on the monitor there are already built and projected subway stations. And around - tablets, tablets, tablets. Kindergartens, residential high-rise buildings, general plans of microdistricts - in general, everything that makes the design institutes of the capital strong. And if St. Petersburg honestly worked out the theme "New", then Moscow presented itself at the "Zodchestvo" -2012 as it does every year. It is no coincidence that metro construction achievements are in the center of the exposition - projects of new stations traditionally receive festival awards.
Opposite Moscow is the stand of the Moscow Region, which not only used the thesis about “New is a well-forgotten old” as a basic guide to action, but also hung it right in front of the entrance - that is, everything is not just as always, but consciously. And between the expositions of the capital and the region there are two pavilions dedicated to the "Big Moscow" competition. The meaning of this arrangement is obvious: here is one subject of the federation, here is the second, and here is what will inevitably unite them.
As we already wrote in
the announcement of the festival, the main forces of the curator this year were thrown into convincing the regions not to be limited to the genre of reports and not to hang their stands with endless tablets. The reaction to this recommendation was very different - someone did not come at all, someone, like Moscow, ignored Chernikhov's requests. Alas, the latter turned out to be the majority, but a couple of cities nevertheless responded to the "New".
Voronezh has a very stylish stand. Everything that can be accounted for at Zodchestvo was demonstrated on a large monitor located opposite the entrance, and a kind of veil was thrown over it - a map of the city cut out of black thick cardboard.
Yekaterinburg, in turn, reported that it intends to compete for the right to host EXPO 2020. One huge tablet shows all the high-rise buildings of the city (850 in total, from the White Tower to skyscrapers that have not yet been built). Each object is accompanied by a brief annotation, and the most spectacular with such a combination is the silhouette of the city - a cardiogram of the largest metropolis on the border of Europe and Asia, showing that life is in full swing. It is worth mentioning separately the booklet published by the Tatlin publishing house for the festival - a tiny book, unfolding which reveals the whole panorama of the center of Yekaterinburg. And if skyscrapers are shown schematically on the tablet, here you can personally assess how organically they fit into the urban environment.
How the regions understand “New” can also be understood thanks to the special project of the Union of Architects “Festival of Festivals”, which contains projects awarded at regional architectural festivals in recent years. The parade is opened by the Architectural rating of Nizhny Novgorod, and the reviews of Samara, Siberia and the Far East continue. The result is a very indicative, but by no means a comforting selection, forcing one to think about what kind of architecture is actually in demand in the regions.
As at any architectural festival, there were not only regional and competitive exhibitions, but also special expositions. The quite expected contribution of the curator Andrei Chernikhov is a separate pavilion of the “Challenge of Time” award, which is held by the Yakov Chernikhov Foundation. Stylish black and white space - apparently, as a metaphor for a laboratory in which new ideas and practices are born.
A kind of response to
the recent Vienna Congress was the exhibition "Soviet Modernism: Forms of Time". The architecture of the 1960s-1980s, curator Olga Kazakova, who collected buildings throughout the former USSR, decided to show it “humanly”, through the everyday life and aspirations of its authors. All objects here are grouped by typology, which, in turn, is determined through the actions of architects who, experiencing the struggle against excesses, simultaneously "met in a cafe", "got married", "went on business trips", "worked", "rested" and etc. “To appreciate the architecture of the era of Soviet modernism fairly and at its true worth, it is necessary to look at it through the eyes of people for whom it was not the past, but the present, not the heritage, but the present,” Kazakova herself explains her plan. That is why most of the photographs presented at the exhibition are of the same age as the buildings themselves. It is no secret that many of them are now dilapidated, roughly rebuilt or completely lost, but Olga Kazakova does not urge to immediately rush to their aid, rightly believing that first you need to understand and feel their beauty and value. The photographs are supplemented with graduation projects from that era.
As a foreign "New" "Zodchestvo" shows the works of contemporary Colombian architects - the exhibition of Vladimir Belogolovsky "Colombia Transformed". The curator chose ten projects for her that not only delight the eye with their refined style, environmental friendliness and unambiguous modernity, but also serve as convincing proof that architecture can really change people's lives for the better.
And, finally, "Russian Identical" was presented by Andrey and Nikita Asadov. Having received the task from the curator to show the very essence of modern Russian architecture, the brothers convened a representative council of experts and asked its participants to name several of the most iconic buildings of recent years. The result is a very variegated selection, and, starting to think what to do with this vinaigrette, the Asadovs decided to proceed from the fact that each of the objects is Russian and created for Russia, which means it has some kind of national trait. And so the idea of this exposition was born - a kind of encyclopedia of Russian qualities: from Avos (restaurant "95 degrees" by Alexander Brodsky) and "Udali" (business school "Skolkovo" by David Adjaye and "AB") to "Immensity" ("Airbus" by Vladimir Plotkin) and "Cosmism" ("Universal Mind" by Nikolai Polissky). And for those who believe that these qualities cannot be combined in one object, the Asadovs and Maxim Malein came up with a "script" - a wooden beam, constantly changing in cross section and thus symbolizing the evolution of Russian architecture. This intricate volume is not only drawn by the method of parametric modeling, but will be embodied in all its complexity: right at the festival, simple Russian carpenters began to cut it out of a huge log. The Asadovs thereby intend to prove that no matter how complex the architecture created by Russian designers, it can be implemented. True, the deadlines should not be discounted either - having started at Zodchestvo, the carpenters hope to finish by the August "Cities".
