This week, the St. Petersburg media continued to discuss the projects of the four finalists of the competition for the architectural concept of the judicial district. In an interview with Gorod 812, architectural critic Mikhail Zolotonosov was perplexed about the crumpled organization of the competition and, as a result, the quality of the projects: “suddenly some pictures fell from somewhere, it is not known when they were made, I suspect that it was taken from the stocks available in the workshops, and maybe a little part-time. According to him, the competition was organized to “divert eyes”, and the winner had been chosen long ago. A similar opinion was expressed by the architect Alexander Kitsula: “I look at the competitive projects and the feeling does not leave me that they were all made in a terrible hurry and in the complete absence of time to“think and draw”.
The portal "My District", meanwhile, pondered the strangeness of another St. Petersburg competition, which started at the end of September. The competition for the development of the concept for the development of Apraksin Dvor is being held in the shortest possible time and with a modest budget of 1 million rubles. Complaining about this practice of competitive economy, the publication notes that the criterion "fast and cheap" is dubious when trying to get a quality architectural concept.
In continuation of the St. Petersburg theme - "Archipel" talked with Ilya Filimonov, the founder of the youth architectural festival "Artery". Ilya told that at the origins of the festival was the desire to save the monuments of wooden architecture of the Leningrad region. As a result, the main goal of "Artery" became educational. After all, according to Ilya, modern architectural education in Russia is far from perfect: "Now I would divide all the problems of architectural education into two groups: direct ones related to teaching methods and students, and indirect ones related to management and financing."
In the meantime, some experts offer solutions to the problems of architectural education, while others reflect on urban problems. In a conversation with Afisha, Italian transport specialist Federico Parolotto discussed how to improve Moscow. Among the proposals put forward by the expert, there are many quite unpopular: the return of squares and embankments to pedestrians, replacement of underground passages with overground ones. And also a reduction in the number of lanes for motorists on wide avenues: “the city has done a lot to make life as easy as possible for cars: it has removed left turns, traffic lights, and widened roads. But this led to the fact that the cars filled the entire space without a trace, but the quality of life fell,”says Parolotto.
Meanwhile, in Perm, discussions continue around changing the General Plan of the city. According to the Business-class portal, last week in the city administration, experts discussed the results of studies on the possibility of making changes to the General Plan for 17 urban areas. The development of these territories in aggregate will require 68 billion rubles from the budget. The opinions of experts were divided. Some considered such spending inappropriate for the city, others agreed that Perm needs ambitious goals, otherwise “only pension and death await it”.
Speaking of death, in an interview with Colta.ru, Arkhnadzor coordinator Rustam Rakhmatullin expressed the opinion that the future of Moscow architectural monuments is very depressing: “I think that further events will develop even worse than now. The tendencies that have been in their infancy for the last three years will start to grow.
Nevertheless, Arkhnadzor continues to work actively to draw attention to the dying monuments. This week, within the framework of the Day of Unified Actions and in connection with the tenth anniversary of Russian Railways, an exhibition prepared by Arhnadzor opened at the Museum of Architecture. It is dedicated to the loss of historical monuments on the railway over the past 10 years. One of the coordinators of the movement told the "Russian Blogger" that the main goals of the exposition were to draw public attention to the objects that still survived and to once again invite Russian Railways to a constructive dialogue.
It is noteworthy that active steps are also being taken in other regions of Russia to preserve the architectural heritage. A unique restoration workshop is being held in Irkutsk this week, where Russian and European restorers give lectures and conduct master classes for students, the ISTU portal reported.
