This week Izvestia reported that the Moscow Patriarchate, the Union of Architects of Russia and the Union of Charitable Organizations of Russia will soon hold a competition aimed at finding a modern architectural solution for the image of a Russian Orthodox church. The need for such a competition, the newspaper writes, is long overdue, since modern projects of religious buildings for the most part only copy the styles of past eras.
Continuing the theme of modern architecture: the MARSH website published an interview with the founder and rector of the school, Evgeny Ass. The conversation mainly touched upon the results of the first academic year. There were several challenges ahead of the school, Ass said. They were due to the "broad" setting of tasks within the studio, which required serious research work from both students and teachers. However, despite all the difficulties, the students' projects as a result turned out to be of high quality and were highly appreciated by their English colleagues.
This week, several Moscow media outlets talked to Erken Kagarov, advisor to the city's chief architect and art director of the Art. Lebedev Studio. Together with Moskomarkhitektura, the Studio has developed a concept for the design of the urban environment, including signs and advertisements. In an interview with Moskovskiye Novosti, Kagarov said that the main problem with the improvement of the city is that this issue is not dealt with by professional urbanists, designers and architects, but by officials. And in an interview with an Afisha correspondent, the expert noted that the problem is also “in relation to the urban environment as something very simple and requiring only repair. And not rethinking and planning, and planning at the highest level."
By the way, the Russian authorities have already begun to pay attention to urbanism. Last week Vyacheslav Volodin, the first deputy head of the presidential administration, was a guest of the Strelka Institute. According to Gazeta.ru, the meeting discussed the prospects for Russian urban studies. In addition, Volodin encouraged young professionals, saying that in the near future, urbanists will be in demand by the authorities. However, in professional circles, the politician's words were treated with caution. One of the experts on the pages of the UrbanUrban portal spoke out very critically: “What will an urbanist demanded by the authorities do here? Draw beautiful pictures about cities that the federal government, in a company with developers, twirls as it wants? And then, on long, dark and cold evenings, suffer from cognitive convulsions, drink vodka and dream of emigration."
Meanwhile, during a week in St. Petersburg, at a round table, experts discussed the need to create a design code for the city, the Construction Weekly reported. The discussion was attended by architects, city rights activists and government officials. According to some experts, the design code will help preserve historical buildings and help to improve the quality of modern architecture. Sergei Tchoban cited Berlin as an example, where the design code regulates many visual parameters of buildings: facade materials, advertising placement, etc. According to Tchoban, the approval of the design code will allow architects to engage in architecture, not political games. However, some experts were skeptical about the idea of introducing the regulation, saying that the existing urban planning norms are sufficient, and the design code is necessary for customers.
And in Novosibirsk this week a round table was held on urban planning problems: in the city, conflicts around chaotic "infill development" and cutting down of green spaces became more frequent. As reported by "Taiga.info", the meeting was initiated by the Novosibirsk Union of Architects. Professionals expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of a concept for integrated development of territories, suggesting that the authorities adjust the General Plan and come to a balance between the interests of the city, residents and business.
By the way, Russia already has a successful experience of urban planning, moreover strategic - the Perm master plan. Several criminal cases have been initiated against its developer, Andrei Golovin. Lenta.ru met with Golovin and asked him, in particular, about the history of the creation of the master plan. The expert also spoke about whether the master plan, in his opinion, will be in demand by the current authorities: “the city administration is considering many projects through the prism of the provisions of the master plan and the general plan. the movement is going in the right direction, maybe not at the pace and with distortions that I do not like, but in any case, I believe that a start has been made and the effect will manifest itself in a certain number of decades."
But let's turn to the topic of heritage preservation. This week it became known that the acting. Mayor of the capital Sergei Sobyanin initiated the cancellation of approvals for construction projects in protected zones. According to Kommersant, the authorities explain this by the desire to simplify the process of approvals for business, removing unnecessary administrative barriers. Experts and City Duma deputies spoke critically about Sobyanin's initiative. Thus, the coordinator of "Arkhnadzor" Konstantin Mikhailov said that this "will increase the confusion in the security zones and cause the loss of the historical appearance of the city."
In the meantime, Gorod812 was pondering over under which mayor historical Petersburg suffered the most: under Valentin Matvienko or Georgy Poltavchenko. Some of the experts interviewed by the portal believe that at present the number of demolitions has not decreased, someone - that their number has decreased by an order of magnitude. But, which is characteristic, city rights activists note the lack of "any will" in Smolny in this matter.
Continuing the topic, "Karpovka" reported that KGIOP allowed the construction of the Okhtinsky Cape on the basis of an expert examination, which was declared invalid by the court. The delicacy of the situation is that the order of the Committee was signed with the same number as the decision of the court, which invalidated the exclusion of the Nyenskans fortress from the list of identified cultural heritage sites. City rights activists intend to challenge the decision of the KGIOP in court.
Interesting news was published this week by RBC. According to the portal, Finnish town defenders came out in defense of the inexorably disappearing historical Vyborg. They sent an appeal to the Governor of the Leningrad Region and the Minister of Culture of Russia with an appeal to take measures to save valuable buildings in the city center. Meanwhile, as reported to "ZakS.ru", the governor of the Leningrad region said that "he is ready to find money to design the restoration of the historical part of Vyborg, but support from the federal budget is needed."
