In St. Petersburg this week, the results of a competition were announced for a project to adapt the Small Marble Palace, run by the European University, to modern use. The winner was the French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte. Archi.ru published his project, as well as projects of three other "star" participants: Eric van Egeraat, Rem Koolhaas and Sergei Tchoban. Reflecting on the results of the competition, the ART1 portal noted that the winning project presupposes the maximum, in comparison with other projects, preservation of the historical elements of the building. The decision of the jury appears to the publication to be absolutely logical: “The choice of a French project in St. Petersburg, where ideas about beauty are traditional, and they are wary of modern architecture, is quite understandable”.
The online magazine "EKA" also raised the topic of beauty in an interview with Mikhail Filippov, whose "Roman House", executed in a classic style, received the "House of the 20th Anniversary" award. In the conversation, they talked about the nature of classical architecture and its social service, the perception of classical buildings by modern society and the advantages of classical architecture over the "slavish consumer aesthetics of modernism."
Afisha published an interview last week with critic Grigory Revzin and architect Daria Paramonova, each of whom wrote his own book about the architectural heritage of the Luzhkov period. In the opinion of Revzin and Paramonova, at one time "Luzhkov" architecture was an attempt to "jump over the Soviet past." Despite its dubious aesthetic qualities for contemporaries, in the future, says Paramonova, "Luzhkov" buildings may become not only fashionable, but even need to be preserved: “Perhaps the most violent freaks from an aesthetic point of view will tell us about time much more accurately, that in them the emotional and contradictory anguish will be manifested more successfully”.
In the meantime, historians reflect on the buildings of the past, architects offer solutions to the problems of the present. "Moskovsky Komsomolets" spoke about the unusual project of a kindergarten, which will soon be submitted to the court of the Moscow Committee for Architecture and Construction. The main goals of the project are to make the building of the kindergarten more compact, which is due to the lack of space in the capital. And also more aesthetic and functional compared to traditional kindergartens.
Speaking of the lack of urban spaces, the ArchiPipl portal spoke with Yuri Grigoryan about preparations for the Moscow Urban Forum. The architect spoke in detail about the research "Archeology of the Periphery", which he is currently leading. Its results will be the main topic for discussion at the Forum. The main objective of the study is “to unlock the potential of the periphery and to form a guide to action” According to Grigoryan, “Moscow is an ideal city designed by Soviet architects. And he is hidden in this periphery. It must be found again."
Meanwhile, in Moscow, the arrangement of the pedestrian Krymskaya Embankment, which is planned to be opened for citizens by the end of September, is being completed. Recall that the author of the improvement concept is the Wowhaus archbureau. The Internet newspaper Cityboom recalled the history of the project, and also talked about the difficulties encountered and still arise during its implementation.
This week, the media again brought up the topic of the Perm master plan. The "expert" recalled the basic principles laid down in the document: compactness of the city's development, quarter development and arrangement of high-quality public spaces, and gave the most compelling arguments of their critics. The publication quoted the former head of the Perm administration, Arkady Katz, who believes that the main reason for rejection of the general plan is that it was imposed with the help of tough political will. In the meantime, a new candidate for the position of head of the MBU "Bureau of Urban Projects" has become known. According to the portal Properm.ru, this is the Perm architect Sergey Shamarin.
An important urban planning issue was raised this week in St. Petersburg. Smolny presented to the Council for Cultural Heritage a concept for the preservation and development of the historical center. Urban rights experts, Fontanka reported, were very critical of the document, noting that the word "demolition" occurs there much more often than the word "restoration". According to the deputy chairman of VOOPIIK Alexander Kononov: "In fact, it is proposed to introduce a special regime for the center of St. Petersburg, which involves removing it from the current legislation."
Unfortunately, the practice of removing monuments from the protection of the law is currently taking place in Moscow. In an interview with the Dozhd TV channel, Arkhnadzor coordinator Rustam Rakhmatullin described the capital's urban planning policy in relation to historic buildings over the past three years. By the way, now at Winzavod there is an exhibition of “victims of urban planning policy over the past three years”, organized by “Arhnadzor”. The report from the exhibition was published by the Science and Technologies of Russia publication.
