In St. Petersburg, builders and Orthodox patrons have come up with an initiative to build a 168-meter bell tower for the Smolny Cathedral, Karpovka reported last week. The ensemble of the Smolny Monastery was designed by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli back in the 18th century, but it never came to the construction of the bell tower. Experts assessed the idea ambiguously. In an interview with IA "Dialogue", specialist of the St. Petersburg branch of VOOPIIK Elena Minchenok called the initiative "falsification of history." And "St. Petersburg Vedomosti" reminded that such construction is impossible without violating the laws on heritage protection: “Building on the territory of the Smolny Cathedral and near it is strictly prohibited. In addition, the new bell tower will invade the historic Neva panorama protected by UNESCO."
Continuing the topic, "Moscow News" talked with Mikhail Kesler, Chairman of the Commission of the Union of Architects of Russia on religious buildings, about the state of church architecture. According to the expert, modern architects strive to bring something new and original to the temple architecture, but so far the results are inconclusive: “due to the lack of sufficient knowledge among architects, from the lack of an education system related to the practice of temple building, the authors of the projects are rather thoughtlessly adopting samples of the past, trying to somehow combine, copy them. " The publication also talked with the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Temple Maker" Sergei Chapnin, who expressed the opinion that the image of an Orthodox church in the 21st century has not yet been formed, and this creative search will take at least 10 years.
Meanwhile, Moskovsky Komsomolets spoke with the Minister of Culture of the Moscow Region about the difficult situation with the restoration of churches that are heritage sites. According to the official, the problem is that parishes are trying to restore churches on their own, while violating laws on heritage protection due to lack of funds and, as a result, receiving devastating fines.
In the meantime, officials are trying to resolve the collision that has arisen, Fontanka was trying to figure out how the law on increasing fines passed by the State Duma would help preserve the historic center of St. Petersburg. Both city rights activists and developers agreed that such a measure is insufficient, one of the reasons is that the law does not provide for a ban on the demolition of ordinary buildings in the historical heritage zone.
There was some good news this week. Kultura TV channel announced the start of a campaign for the census of architectural monuments. Subsequently, the collected data will be used to compile the All-Russian Register of Architectural Monuments - a complete list of objects subject to protection. The work is scheduled to be completed by 2018.
In the meantime, city rights activists and the authorities are dealing with the painful problems of heritage preservation, active Petersburgers continue to contribute to the creation of a comfortable city. Last week, ITMO University hosted a presentation of the new master's program “Design of Urban Ecosystems”. The program director, architect Mikhail Klimovsky was interviewed by the Bumaga online newspaper. According to him, the main goal of the program is to train qualified specialists in the field of urban planning and management. Mikhail also outlined the structure of the teaching process and explained why foreign specialists would be actively involved in teaching.
And The Village published an interview with Daniyar Yusupov, co-curator of the recently launched urban research project SAGA. The expert told how the Jan Gale method will adapt to the St. Petersburg realities and why a successful public space should be self-developing.
Meanwhile, Petersburg 3.0 asked the Dutch architect Winy Maas, who had previously participated in competitions for the concept of the development of New Holland and Apraksin Dvor, about why foreign architects are striving for Russia, what kind of architecture St. Petersburg needs, and whether it is possible to form a harmonious urban space that unites the center and new areas.
Not only the St. Petersburg mass media paid enough attention to urban planning issues last week. RIA Novosti published a report from the public hearings: Muscovites discussed with the authorities the fate of the Luzhniki sports complex, which will soon undergo a large-scale reconstruction. Continuing the theme, Moscow 24 recalled the history of the construction of the sports complex and two large-scale reconstructions of the Grand Sports Arena in the past.
And the Business-class portal asked the Perm experts about their attitude to the idea of a “compact city” and to what extent this idea is realizable in Perm.
