The international exhibition MIPIM-2013, which took place this week in Cannes, became the reason for numerous publications in the Moscow and St. Petersburg press.
Most of the news from the capital in one way or another concerned Greater Moscow. Kommersant announced that an agreement had been reached between Deputy Mayor Marat Khusnullin and ex-Minister for Development of Greater Paris, Maurice Leroy: a French expert will become Khusnullin's advisor in working out a concept for the development of the Moscow metropolitan area. And also, possibly, he will head the "Big Moscow" bureau, which will be engaged in the development of the General Plan of the city, taking into account the changed borders.
At the same time, RBK daily informed, the plans of the capital's authorities for the development of the annexed territories have already been adjusted. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, speaking at MIPIM, said that 1 million jobs will be created in New Moscow (instead of 2 million previously declared). Thus, another residential area will appear in the capital, which contradicts the strategy previously announced by the authorities, but is due to the quite understandable limitation of the development of transport infrastructure.
But let's turn to St. Petersburg. The media discussed the refusal of the city to participate in MIPIM: this happened for the first time in the last 15 years. According to Rosbalt, the official reason for the refusal, voiced by Smolny, was the lack of a city investment strategy at the moment. The publication put forward its own assumptions on this score: the city probably does not have new facilities that need investors. And those who need investments have managed to win the hard-hitting fame of scandalous long-term construction: the stadium on Krestovsky, Apraksin Dvor and others.
In addition, it became known that the international exhibition PROEstate is leaving St. Petersburg, moving to the Moscow site. One of the main reasons - low attention to the forum from the authorities and developers, - wrote "Kommersant".
But back to Moscow, where the discussion of problems and tasks of the city's development continued during the week. Afisha talked with Andrey Gnezdilov, appointed chief architect of the Research and Development Institute of the General Plan. He spoke about the difference between his competence and the competence of the chief architect of the city. He spoke about the norms of urban planning: "In our practice, there is one paradoxical thing - our design standards do not consider the issues of property and neighborhood." He also noted that the city, in his opinion, is stronger than people, whose task is only "to guess its movements and help its natural development."
Unfortunately, often the city not only does not receive help - it is being destroyed. A thorough article on "infill development" was devoted this week to "RBK daily". The publication recalled the times of uncontrolled and large-scale infill development that unfolded under the previous Moscow authorities. And she noticed that despite the suspension of such projects by the current authorities, infill development still takes place both in the historical center of Moscow and on its outskirts, causing significant damage to the city's fabric.
Speaking about the quality of the urban environment, we note the start of an interesting project in St. Petersburg - the first school of urban environment design in Russia has opened here, - said Petersburg 3.0.
Now a few words about publications devoted to the topic of heritage preservation. According to RBK daily, the Moscow authorities intend to allow the sale of architectural monuments. It is assumed that the building will be transferred to the ownership of the investor only after the completion of the restoration work. In turn, the coordinator of the Arkhnadzor movement Rustam Rakhmatullin, in an interview with the Club of Regions, commented on the authorities' intention: “There is no need to be afraid of the sale of cultural monuments, you need to be afraid of the state’s inability to control this private property.”
Meanwhile, the struggle for historic buildings continues in Moscow. This week, Arkhnadzor sounded the alarm in connection with the resumption of the superstructure of Volkonsky's house. City activists stopped work and held a picket in defense of the building.
And in Tyumen, as reported by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a group of architects began collecting signatures for the return of the status of a cultural heritage site to the round bath, the only representative of constructivism in the city. It is a miniature copy of the famous St. Petersburg bath. Both buildings were designed by the Leningrad architect Alexander Nikolsky.
