Traditionally, the release of each collection of "Quality Architecture", presenting the best Russian projects implemented over the past two or three years, is accompanied by an award ceremony for the authors of the selected buildings, so it is not surprising that these events always attract many guests. The tenth anniversary presentation was no exception. The spacious banquet hall of the Renaissance Moscow Hotel was filled to capacity: not only the authors of the published projects and contractors gathered to familiarize themselves with the new issue of Quality Architecture, but also numerous guests of the edition, whose works had been published in it before.
The anniversary of the publication became one of the main topics of this evening. Remembering how many promising professional publications died during this time and how many beginnings died in the 2008 crisis, you understand how significant the ten-year milestone is both for the Building Technologies publishing house and for Russian architecture in general, whose annual victories are carefully documented in volumes collection. Once again, the attendees noted and the high level of analysis of published projects set by the publication - "High-quality architecture" does not just talk about interesting buildings, but makes a detailed "debriefing" of each of them, giving an assessment of the town-planning concept, volumetric composition, and constructive solutions, as well as used building and finishing materials, applied technologies and even the work of a team of contractors and suppliers of building materials.
The publisher Larisa Malivanova, one of the founders and the main inspirer of the collection, who opened the evening, said that this year architects took part in the project "High-quality architecture" and were repeatedly published on the pages of the collection. So this issue is a kind of digest, which contains the best architecture of the decade. In response to Aleksey Bavykin's remark that there is no such thing as poor-quality architecture (“if poor-quality, then it’s not architecture anymore”), Larisa Malivanova explained that the epithet, which has become a brand in ten years, refers to the implementation of an architectural idea. She was followed by the president of the Union of Architects of Russia Andrei Bokov, who thanked the editorial board for regular meetings and noted that the catalog of the best domestic buildings could become a reference point for the professional community in our difficult times.
Totan Kuzembaev noted that “High-quality architecture” is the kindest competition: “Everyone who is published is given a prize. No envy or competition. All support each other. " Indeed, all the participants in the collection were awarded prizes - gold masters, diplomas and a book by Danish architect Jan Geil (from the Krost company). And all the other guests of the evening received the collections "High-quality architecture 2013" and the "pill" for spring vitamin deficiency - pineapple.
Dmitry Barkhin confirmed that the architects themselves consider this evening not only a reason for exchanging pleasantries, but also an opportunity to talk about painful matters. Receiving the award, he shared his experiences: “We don't like classical architecture. And it is much easier for the customer to deal with an agreeable boy of about thirty who will do whatever is asked, and not what the Architecture needs. There is radical architecture (like mine), there is high-tech, and there is something in between, and, alas, it is precisely this architecture that is being built all over Moscow …"
Another important question was raised by Aleksey Ivanov, who said that he had recently talked with the editor-in-chief of the Architectural Bulletin magazine Dmitry Fesenko and learned that the publication was doing very badly. The architect called on his colleagues to help the magazine: “We are architects and workshop leaders who have used the magazine as a platform for expressing our thoughts and creative ideas more than once, and we must find resources to support the Architectural Bulletin. Andrey Bokov warmly responded to this appeal: “This is our magazine, it is a continuation of our life. In a decent, decent society, there has always been a tradition of mutual assistance, for example, collecting money by subscription. By investing in the publication, we can save him."
