An unprecedented project in the history of new Russia to research and identify the best architectural objects implemented in the post-Soviet 20th anniversary has completed its work. The results of the project are outstanding buildings of the period 1992-2011, legitimately selected by the forces of public and expert councils: the long list was 60 objects, the short list was 21 objects. An open public nationwide online vote, announced on the website madeinfuture.net, defining the winner of the symbolic “House of the 20th Anniversary Award”, was terminated ahead of schedule due to technological attacks that artificially inflate the performance of objects in the rating. The exclusive decision of the curator, outside the support of the organizing committee of the award, is to annul the results of the popular vote and to recognize as winners in the equal status of the "House of the 20th Anniversary" of all objects that make up the short list.
The special project “20 years of post-Soviet Russia architecture” was implemented by curator Vika Abel in the framework of the All-Russian public architectural and construction award House of the Year / Best Building Awards, founded in 2006 by Made in Future magazine. The main idea of the annual award was a combination of expert and public assessment of the new architecture - authoritative councils, public and expert, were called upon to select long and short lists, respectively, the final vote determining the winner was announced nationwide and is held on the website of the award in open mode participation for everyone. Initially, the award chose the winner from Moscow buildings, in 2009-2010 it was also held in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg. Nikolai Malinin was the ideologist of the project, editor-in-chief of Made in Future magazine and curator of the House of the Year Award. In 2011, the organizing committee transformed the award into an all-Russian one, combining the nominees from all regions into a common list, and Vika Abel was attracted to the position of the curator. An innovation of the 2012 prize was a visual display of the number of votes in the ratings of objects during all stages of voting.
The special project “20 Years of Post-Soviet Russia Architecture” - “House of the 20th Anniversary Award” is a purposeful study of the best that was realized by architects in the period 1991-2011. The fundamental mechanism of the research was the procedure for the annual selection of the owner of the House of the Year Award: from the general list of objects of the 20th anniversary, the public council identified a long list of 60 buildings, of which the expert council made a short list - 21 objects. Unlike the annual award, where all declared objects are included in the general list, in the special project of the 20th anniversary, preliminary stages of selection of nominees were carried out through collegial ratings and polls, according to which 100 objects out of more than two hundred declared were presented in the general list. It should also be noted that specifically for this study, the collegial composition was significantly strengthened - the public council chaired by Sergei Barkhin included authoritative critics, publishers and curators, the expert council chaired by Sergei Tchoban was replenished by the authors of the objects-nominees for the 20th anniversary, who were previously members of the public advice. Thus, the authors did not participate in the formation of the long list, and at the stage of forming the short list they did not have the opportunity to vote for their own objects. In general, the stated approach, according to the vision of the collegial councils and the curator, ensured the maximum objectivity of the results.
During an open nationwide public online vote, designed to determine the winner of the 20th Anniversary House Award from the shortlist by analogy with the annual award, uncontrolled technological attacks on the site occurred, artificially inflating the performance of some nominees. In such a situation, it is possible to preserve maximum objectivity and full transparency of the results by only complete cancellation of the rating and assignment of an equivalent status “House of the 20th Anniversary” to each of the objects on the short list. This statement is an exceptional decision of the curator, made due to the lack of resources that meet the high social and cultural significance of the project. The organizing committee of the House of the Year Award refused from the corresponding support and announced its intention to name the winner, fixing the rating indicators as of the date at its own discretion.
By agreement with the organizing committee, I, Vika Abel, resign from my duties as curator of the House of the Year Award. However, while remaining the curator of one way or another completed project "20 years of architecture of post-Soviet Russia", I consider the potential of researching the activities of Russian architects at the turn of the 20th century to be unrevealed. A solution that responds to the search for visible values, correspondences and directions of development of architecture, culture and art of the period of the change of an entire era, historically can be more likely tied to the author than to a single creation. 20 years of the implemented architecture of post-Soviet Russia did not form an idea of the image of the new city, and according to the tradition of the “public nature” of the project, I propose to discuss a new perspective for the development of the idea: what is the image of the city of the author of the “House of the 20th Anniversary”? What is the best way to present the "author's city" - a list of buildings, a list of unrealized projects or a gallery of sketches? And will someone's city be viable and memorable from now on and forever? With the help of the community, I will try to answer these questions in my new curatorial project “20 years of architecture - the image of the city”. I invite advisors and partners.
Winners of the special project "20 years of post-Soviet architecture" - "House of the 20th anniversary":
1. Residential complex "Park Place", 1992, Moscow
Yakov Belopolsky, Leonid Vavakin, Nikolai Lyutomsky
2. Stadium "Lokomotiv", 2002, Moscow
Andrey Bokov, Dmitry Bush, Sergey Chuklov
3. Residential building in Molochny lane, 2002, Moscow
Yuri Grigoryan, hands. Sergey Tkachenko
4. Residential complex "Copper house", 2004, Moscow
Sergey Skuratov Architects
5. Residential house "Noble nest", 2004, Moscow
Sergey Kiselev & Partners, Ilya Utkin
6. Pompeii House, 2005, Moscow
Architect Mikhail Belov
7. Roman House, 2005, Moscow
Workshop of Mikhail Filippov
8. Hermitage Plaza, 2005, Moscow
Sergey Kiselev and Partners
9. Residential complex in Borisoglebsky lane, 2006, Moscow
Bureau "Ostozhenka", hands. Alexander Skokan
10. Yacht office 2, 2006, Moscow region, resort "Pirogovo"
Totan Kuzembaev's workshop
11. Building of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District, 2007
TPO "Reserve", hands. Vladimir Plotkin
12. Theater "Workshop P. Fomenko", 2007, Moscow
hands. Sergey V. Gnedovsky
13. Residential building with apartments in Bryusov lane, 2007, Moscow
Alexey Bavykin's workshop
14. Administrative and public center of the Moscow region, 2007, Krasnogorsk
CJSC "KURORTPROEKT", hands. Mikhail Khazanov
15. Multifunctional office and business "Danilovsky Fort", 2008, Moscow
Sergey Skuratov Architects
16. Office complex "Aeroflot - Russian Airlines", 2009, Moscow
TPO "Reserve", hands. Vladimir Plotkin
17. Russian pavilion at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai
Bureau TOTEMENT / PAPER, head. Levon Airapetov, Valeria Preobrazhenskaya
18. Campus of the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, 2010
David Adjaye, Architectural Bureau "A-B"
19. Office building on Leninsky Prospekt, 2011, Moscow
SPEECH Choban & Kuznetsov
20. FSCC for Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology, 2011, Moscow
Mikhail Posokhin, hands. Alexander Asadov, Vladimir Legoshin
21. Museum complex of the State Hermitage in the eastern wing of the General Staff building, 2011, St. Petersburg
Studio 44, hands. Nikita Yavein
Curator
Vick Abel
