Let's start our review with the news that pleasantly surprised the Internet community this week. Afisha reported that the Shchusev Museum of Architecture has launched an effective advertising campaign to more actively attract an audience, including non-professional ones. According to the director of the museum, Irina Korobyina, “the museum did not carry out advertising campaigns as such, but now it is obvious to us that we need to declare and promote the brand of the Museum of Architecture itself”.
Meanwhile, on the pages of Ogonyok, Grigory Revzin reflected on the ambiguity of the results of the competition for the project of the Museum and Educational Center of the Polytech. According to the critic, the competition went well and calmly, in a word, in a European way, and as a result the city received a "logical and realizable" project. And there seemed to be a reason for joy, but, alas, a scandal erupted in the architectural environment as a result of the competition. The winning team of Massimiliano Fuksas is accompanied by the Speech bureau, whose partner was previously the chief architect of the capital, Sergei Kuznetsov, who chaired the jury of the competition. As a result, some architects spoke out against "architectural corruption and disrespect." “We do not go with architectural competitions. We somehow relate to them romantically, somehow we get it with the altar of justice, where everything should be according to the truth of the heart. And somehow, to my liking, it turns out that the main thing is to reduce competition,”Revzin comes to a disappointing conclusion. Nevertheless, the summary of the article sounds more optimistic: “… everything turned out as usual - there is corruption all around, but there is no happiness. I’m thinking, maybe it’s good that the feeling is as usual? Maybe it will slip under this sauce? And then under all the others, we have already tried to build something interesting. All Moscow has been built in all fairness."
And Sergei Kuznetsov, in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, once again focused on the importance of the revived competitive practice, which, in his opinion, will help to restore order in the market monopolized by a “narrow group” of Russian architects: “they have learned not to let foreigners, young architects to order - also . As a result, not only the quality of architecture suffers: young Russian architects simply do not have the opportunity to develop, becoming competitive, '' Kuznetsov is convinced.
In the context of architectural competition, an interesting article was posted by Big City, having talked with the heads of the Wowhaus bureau Oleg Shapiro and Dmitry Likin (recall that they were engaged in the improvement of Gorky Park, and recently proposed a concept for the development of the Crimean Embankment and the Boulevard Ring). The secret of success, in their opinion, lies in rethinking the profession of an architect: “The profession of an architect is no longer about building a house. 85% of architecture is now not the construction of new volumes, but renovations, reprogramming of the environment, landscapes. As if an addition to the conversation was the conversation between Shapiro and Likin with Afisha. They, in particular, talked about the main rule of work with orders coming from city authorities.
This week, the publication also published an interview with the historian of architecture, culturologist Vladimir Paperny, who shared his opinion on the modern “star architecture”: “… star architecture today is still the most noticeable thing that happens. it is a complete lack of interest in context. Now there is a struggle between stardom and conscientious architects who know and can use the same language that the stars use, but only try to keep themselves in check and solve problems, and not express themselves. Which of them will win, I do not know."
But let us turn to St. Petersburg, where the architectural biennale opened this week. According to the organizers, the best projects and buildings of St. Petersburg architects over the past two years are presented there. A report from the exhibition was published by "Fontanka", calling the exposition formed "around two Yavays".
Continuing the theme of St. Petersburg architecture, we note the original idea for the recently opened second stage of the Mariinsky Theater, whose appearance was sharply criticized by the public. Art1 has published a project by the creative team of Clever's, which proposed to "drape" the building.
In the meantime, another interesting, this time urbanistic, initiative has emerged in St. Petersburg. The Village and Art1 spoke with Oleg Pachenkov, who oversees the SAGA research project aimed at improving the city's public spaces. The expert stated one of the main tasks of the project as follows: “We expect to find points of intersection of four main stakeholders - citizens, business, experts and officials. Because we believe that only together they will be able to create a truly working public space”.
And in the small town of Zarechny, Penza region, active townspeople have not only initiated, but already 70% implemented the project of arranging public space - UrbanUrban told how it was.
And in conclusion, a few words about the topic of heritage preservation. The Arkhangelskoye Estate Museum, which has been conquering its security zones from the Ministry of Defense and development structures for several years now, received hope for salvation. This happened after the chairman of the Moscow branch of VOOPIiK Yevgeny Sosedov drew the attention of President Vladimir Putin to the problem. Details are in the material of Gazeta.ru and in an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets, who spoke with Sosedov.
