Architect's Breakfast is one of the long-standing traditions of the Arch of Moscow exhibition, which gives designers and investors the opportunity to meet and communicate in a relaxed atmosphere. This year the event was held in a new format - the city authorities joined the discussion. The topic, which Moskomarkhitektura together with the Guild of Managers and Developers proposed for discussion, was formulated as follows: “Key changes in the city's urban planning policy”. The discussion was moderated by the director of the guild, Yekaterina Krylova, and the director of Expo-Park, Vasily Bychkov.
The event was opened by the chief architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov, telling the audience about the main innovations. So, the order of consideration of projects has changed: now each project must obtain an AGR certificate, without which a building permit will not be issued. Also, preliminary, working reviews of projects have been introduced, which are held on a weekly basis, the work of the arch council has been resumed. Particular attention is paid to the development of competitive practice. Today, according to Sergei Kuznetsov, the competition is voluntary, but the most optimal procedure for the project, since it is the most correct and controlled form of obtaining a quality solution for a certain period of time (Read more about these and other initiatives in the recent
interview with Sergei Kuznetsov for Archi.ru).
He outlined his vision of the modern urban planning situation in Moscow and Andrey Grudin, CEO of the Pioneer company, with the support of which the "breakfast of the architect" was held. He noted that with the arrival of the new architectural and urban planning authorities, there was a clear redistribution of priorities in the development of the city, especially its center. Now it is forbidden to build offices in the center, but it has become possible to build housing, industrial areas are in the focus of attention, the development of social and transport infrastructure has come to the fore. As for the interests of developers, today the main areas of their activity remain complex investment projects, such as the development of former industrial zones, high-quality landscaping of territories, as well as participation in city programs for the development of transport infrastructure, in particular, in the construction of commercial facilities, offices and parking lots. near TPU.
In general, we note that the presence of the chief architect of Moscow at the "breakfast" at first disrupted the usual format of the meeting. Representatives of development companies, delighted with the presented case, literally showered the official with questions. Will the rules for putting objects into operation with finishing be determined? What will happen to the dilapidated housing? What should be the functional composition of the developed industrial zones? Does the city have plans to develop the largest sites in the center of the capital, say, the territory of hydroelectric power station No. 1, which is opposite Zaryadye? Investors also asked about the planned changes in the status of the apartments, which now belong to the non-residential fund, but will be revised towards an increase in the social “burden”.
Sergey Kuznetsov:
“As a matter of fact, apartments today are a semi-legal scheme, a hole in the legislation, which allows building housing without any infrastructure. After all, people also live there and, as a rule, on a completely permanent basis. Now these premises are not provided with even the elementary objects of social and cultural life, which is why the entire burden falls on the existing institutions. In return, we plan to form such a typology as rental housing. We have already provided a whole package of measures, within the general plan a section has been created on the introduction of the institute of rental housing."
Andrey Gnezdilov:
“In the general plan itself, we do not envisage the creation of districts or quarters of rental housing. Rather, we are talking about a whole complex of standardization of the new typological sector. I am worried that there are a lot of “gray spots” in the city that are not described by the norms. Designing hotels disguised as apartments is one of these gray areas. The task of urban planning is to clearly define the lines of responsibility of the city and the city dweller, private and public."
The flurry of questions was stopped by Vasily Bychkov, asking the audience not to turn the discussion into a press conference of the chief architect of the city, but instead share their impressions of the changes that had already taken place in the design and construction industry. In particular, the director of Expo-Park asked the participants of the discussion if they believed that the most difficult period associated with the economic crisis and the change in political course had already been overcome.
Andrey Grudin:
“The painful shock has already passed, we see that the market is on the rise today, and the ongoing changes are positive. Both the architectural authorities and the urban planning complex have become more attentive to the business community. I wish there was more information coverage. The more information and dialogue there is, the more accurately we will be able to fulfill the assigned tasks."
Architect Levon Airapetov looks at the situation much less optimistic :
“Developers are people who make money, but the end consumer is not interested in money, he is interested in the quality of the product. The person who sells the car has nothing to do with its production, other people assemble it, and he should not tell them how to do it. Developers have built the city that no one likes now, they have been building for 25 years. And architects today need clear rules of the game, architects are interested in creating a product on which it is not a shame to hang a sign with your name."
Sergey Kuznetsov:
“Over the years, the architectural practice has evolved in such a way that it was incredibly difficult to create a quality product. I am trying to reverse this situation. Now we are holding a competition for the development of the Zaryadye territory, in which every highly qualified architect can take part. Information about him is available to everyone. It was not easy to organize this competition, it cost me a lot of nerves and efforts. In Russia, the design planning stage is seriously underestimated. Speaking about the introduction of competitive procedures, I am actually trying to shift the tectonic strata of this misunderstanding.
As for the participation of developers in the construction of the city, “which no one likes today,” it cannot be said that architects have nothing to do with it. Was it Yuri Mikhailovich who painted those houses that are considered "Luzhkov's style"? It is not drawn by his hand. Stalin had about the same taste request, but the architects then were able to answer in a different way, and Stalin's architecture became the face of the city."
Levon Airapetov:
“Then the request was cultural, but today it is monetary … Why do developers talk to developers at an architect's breakfast? Why do developers tell me how I should design? I know all this very well. The developer's task is to give money and make a profit, my task is to create a quality product”.
Andrey Grudin:
“I would like to protect developers. An architect is, of course, a very important link, but without a developer no construction will take place at all. A developer, like no one else, understands the needs of today's client. It is impossible to create a high-quality and efficient product without a developer. Otherwise, it will be a monument to the architect's ambitions."
Alexey Bad from the company ALCON Development, in turn, explained the reasons why developers are very wary of tenders:
“In fact, as a result of the competition, we have to take a pig in a poke. And if, as the respected architect suggests, we connect at the last stage, then the situation will become even more complicated. It turns out that the competition was held without us, they gave us an incomprehensible person to whom we now have to pay money under the contract, which is a prerequisite for the competition. In my opinion, this is not entirely correct."
Sergey Kuznetsov:
“The subject of the competitive selection, of course, provides for a contract with the winning architect. The contract gives him a guarantee of the observance of copyright in the implementation of the project. But the problem of a shortage of reliable and highly professional architects does exist. We have too short a bench of reserve personnel for production forces - in construction, in design, in development. However, this does not mean that you need to abandon the competition program. All the criteria that make it possible to predict the result help to determine the detailed terms of reference, we do not urge to choose projects only by their appearance. The competition allows you to choose a project in which the right balance of external attractiveness, economic feasibility and quality of performance is observed."
Elena Gonzalez:
“I often have to deal with competitions - sometimes as an organizer, sometimes as a member of the jury. As a rule, we hold either small competitions for students and youth, or very large competitions that require serious professional experience from the participants, and it is clear that neither one nor the other is designed for an average-sized architect, which is the majority in Moscow."
Sergey Kuznetsov:
“I can say that we always recommend attracting a number of lesser known or younger offices. For example, in the competition for the 4th section of Moscow City
the rather young company UNK project won”.
Evgeny Polyantsev:
“Exactly a year ago, Moskomarkhitektura announced a competition for a project for the development of the Zaryadye territory. According to its results, a professional jury noted ten design solutions. The government changed, but we hoped for some kind of continuity. This did not happen, everyone started from scratch. And if we talk about the current model of the competition, then, in my opinion, it only formally bears the status of open, in fact, it is focused on Western architectural stars. The conditions are set under which Russian architects are forced to rush around the world like scalded cockroaches in search of stellar foreign bureaus in order to crawl into this Procrustean bed."
Sergey Kuznetsov:
“The situation is the opposite: these are Western architectural stars rushing about like“scalded cockroaches”in search of Russian partners. I know this for certain, because we help them in their search. The density of good architects in the West is ten times higher than in Russia. And now they are forced to look for strong Russian offices, which in turn have a huge choice of partners. I myself started my career with a partnership and I believe that this is a normal way to improve my own qualifications. Yes, the competition presupposes a high status of the participants. I don't think this is discrimination. For any of the Russian architects who can take part in this work, it will be a success. I am sure that in the case of such top objects as Zaryadye, it is impossible to do without injections of stellar experience. Who created today's Berlin? Is it just German architects? The city cannot acquire the status of the capital of first-class modern architecture without international participation.
As for the continuity with the previous competition, then, frankly, we could not find a form of continuity. The previous competition was very bad. There was not even any intelligible TK. Now everything is fundamentally different, the technical specification has been worked out to the nail, the technical capabilities are spelled out in the most detailed way. We understand what kind of project we want to get. And if, in the end, good results are obtained, then this competition will become an indicative example, allowing us to move towards democratization of the competitive practice."
Alexander Poduskov, KR Properties:
“Over the past year, we have held four competitions in which a wide variety of architects, both beginners and professionals, took part. We are ready to work with any designer. The question is different. In development, specialists with higher education in urban planning very often work, who perfectly understand the situation in the city. And there are very, very few architects on the market who can teach us something. Developers have to set the tone, we willingly adopt Western experience, but we would be no less willing to attract domestic specialists if they could prove to us that they can do no worse."
Anton Nadtochy:
“I remember the previous round tables, which were always held under the flag of confrontation between architects and developers. It seems to me that today's meeting shows that developers and architects have practically merged in a single impulse. I am glad that architecture is becoming for the customer no less significant factor than commercial indicators, and that the problem of dialogue between a developer and an architect is gradually fading into the background. But the problem of interaction with the state order remains. We had to face this in our practice. And here the monstrously low status of the profession of an architect, deprived of all the mechanisms for controlling the quality of the final product, immediately appeared on the surface. The second problem is government tenders, where the most important criterion is cost. If the city wants to achieve the appearance of high-quality architecture, this system must be radically changed."
Sergey Kuznetsov:
“I understand how strong the pressure of the customer, time and money can be. But the architect is still responsible. I myself went through such situations - and not only in Moscow, but also in even more difficult regions. For example, in Kazan we have built a Sports Palace, a very high-quality structure has turned out. But this required a colossal expenditure of energy and effort. The new regulations for the approval of the AGR carries a fundamentally new clause: Mosgorstroynadzor does not issue a construction permit and does not accept for operation an object that does not correspond to the design architectural solution. This means that now the state supervision is an ally of the architect in the implementation of architectural supervision. I believe this is a landmark step for all of us in the fight for quality control.
As for tenders, we have Federal Law No. 94. It is a big problem for us, it is not easy to integrate into this law with our competition program. But architecture is a special product that cannot be put on a par with the purchase of cans. I believe that only after achieving a good result can the need to revise the law be proven - not vice versa. When we overcome the initial period, when we will have certain achievements, then it will become much easier to move on. Too little time has passed today. It's not scary to move slowly, it's scary to stand still."
