This week, the winners of the first stage of the competition for the development of a landscape and architectural concept for a park in Zaryadye were announced. As reported by Gazeta.ru, the following architectural bureaus are: Diller Scofidio + Renfro from the USA, Gustafson Porter from Great Britain, Turenscape from China, the Dutch bureau MVRDV in a consortium with the Russian bureau Atrium, the Dutch bureau West 8 in conjunction with the Russian bureau Boris Bernasconi, Russian team TPO "Reserve" with landscape architects from Germany. Grigory Revzin, commenting on the selection of the jury on the pages of Kommersant, noted that “the selection of these applicants allows us to more or less confidently talk about what the final project will not be like. With all the differences between the three Western and three Russian teams, they are all fans of the architectural avant-garde, so it would be strange to expect from them a traditional composition with a central alley and a main square with a statue in a fountain. " Revzin also praised the chief architect of Moscow, Sergei Kuznetsov, for "having succeeded in defending the park's non-commercial program, as well as making the competition international." After 3 months, the finalists will present the final concepts, from which the winner will be selected. In the meantime, the authorities, without waiting for the completion of the project, decided to open Zaryadye for visitors right now. As Izvestia wrote, an information pavilion and viewing galleries will be created in Zaryadye during the construction period.
Meanwhile, Gazeta.ru met with one of the jury members - Canadian city planner Gaetan Royer. In his opinion, the decision to create a park in Zaryadye is "very bold and forward-looking." However, much in the capital requires changes in terms of modern urban planning. This includes both the excessive number of cars and the small number of residential areas in the center. And the first step towards the implementation of constructive changes, according to the expert, should be political will.
Speaking of the changes, the correspondent of the Slon.ru portal talked with the architect Dasha Paramonova, the author of the recently published research book on Luzhkov's architecture. According to Paramonova, since Luzhkov's departure, Moscow architecture has become more restrained and adequate: “We are now gaining experience. From a wild and emotional industry, we gradually come to a normal life. Nevertheless, the researcher believes that in order for new processes to take root, it will take no less than a century. At the same time, Paramonova noted that the activities of young architects actively participating in high-quality and small projects (like the competition for the temporary Garage pavilion) already gives reason for optimism.
Continuing the theme, Moskovsky Komsomolets published an interview with the curator of the Avangard Prize, which is awarded to the best young Russian architect. Anna Medleva spoke about ambitious plans for the development of the award, about how Avangard is being promoted abroad, and also noted that her team is in dire need of like-minded people.
But back to the news that came to us last week: The Village spoke in more detail about 5 pilot projects for transforming Moscow libraries into high-quality urban spaces, developed by the architectural and urban bureau Svesmi.
In the meantime, in Moscow there is a gradual accumulation of positive changes in the urban environment, the scandalous case of Andrei Golovin, who was developing the Perm master plan, continues to develop in Perm. This week, the portal Properm.ru reported that the head of the Bureau of Urban Projects is going on an indefinite leave. Golovin motivated his decision with the following: "It has become dangerous to work, any action by the Bureau is regarded by the investigation as a reason for initiating new criminal cases." Commenting on the situation with Golovin's departure to IA Regnum, Evgeny Sapiro, deputy chairman of the board of the Perm community, noted that now the master plan may be unclaimed, and the advantages that it gave are: the systematic development of the city's appearance according to the conceived plan and “a brake against ruling arbitrariness, amateurism, whims "- very likely will be reduced to naught.
But back to the good news. This week, according to the ISTU website, an urban planning workshop was held in Irkutsk, which was attended by both students and young specialists, as well as professionals. They were given the task of developing a concept for the development of the historical center of Irkutsk, which has preserved the wooden buildings with unique "lace" houses of the 19th century. The concept should focus on the careful preservation and adaptation of historic buildings to modern use.
Meanwhile, a scandal erupted in St. Petersburg this week. At the beginning of the week, it became known that Russia sent to Cambodia, where the 37th session of the UNESCO Committee is being held, a document subjecting the border of the World Heritage Site "Historical Center of St. Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments" to a significant reduction in the number of protected sites. As reported by IA Regnum, not only is the authorship of the document unknown (it does not have a signature), it was also not submitted for discussion by either experts or the public. Investigating the situation and interviewing experts, Novaya Gazeta quoted the words of the head of ICOMOS: “The worst thing in this list, which came from nowhere and was proposed by someone unknown: while maintaining almost all the components, almost all the elements were thrown away”.
Officials reacted immediately: both the Foreign Ministry and Smolny denied involvement in the scandalous document, Karpovka said. According to Fontanka, the author of the document was KGIOP, which expressed in its defense that a working, highly generalized version of the document became available to the public, and officials did not plan to exclude objects from the list.
Nevertheless, experts reacted to the situation rather harshly. On the pages of Online812, city rights activist Yulia Minutina reflected on the fact that reducing the number of protected objects could be beneficial, first of all, to the construction business. And Alexander Karpov, director of the ECOM Expertise Center, expressed the opinion that the officials who prepared the document were only “broadcasting the position of interested business structures. And large developers are interested in this, who believe that they will be able to build more square meters if they are not constrained by the restrictions of the protection status, The Village reported. However, there were also other opinions. In an interview with Petersburg 3.0, architect Nikita Yavein said that what had happened was “an elementary provocation, someone wants to be promoted as a city defender at the expense of this”. And he noted that the UNESCO list really needs to be shortened.
