My conviction that buildings are quite utilitarian, like a tin can for a function, has not weakened over the years, but even strengthened. Most objects remain a shell for a function and, like a shell, have their own life cycle, including wear and tear. And since buildings are a kind of packaging that delimits private and public space, they automatically spread their influence outward and inward. Thus, objects that equalize the potential of the internal and external are a kind of ideal of architecture.
Therefore, I think that the smaller the building is in the building, the better it is, that is, the more it is dissolved in the environment, the more attractive it is for a city dweller or other person who does not use this building in his everyday life.
Further, I believe that the buildings included in the life of the city may be less convenient in terms of their internal functionality, but on the other hand, they are more attractive for any city dweller. There is a contradiction in this, and it, in addition to other utilitarian tasks, is what the architect is supposed to regulate.
Considering my experience from this angle, I can recall several objects that, to some extent, satisfy this criterion: they interact with a person. And from this it turns out that, perhaps, the emotional side in architecture is more important in personal perception than empty discourses about its abstract components. Therefore, the adjusted topic of my reasoning sounds like this:
Experiential architecture
Melnikov house
Konstantin Melnikov's own house in Moscow. 1927-1929.
The first trip to Soviet times. It is worth mentioning the chronology. In Soviet times, a private residential building in the center of Moscow was a paradox. Today it is no longer surprising, but yesterday it was fantastic. This house is inexpensive to build, innovative even by today's standards. The cellular system of floor membranes, windows without lintels, chaotically drawn into the masonry and not weakening it - all this and, of course, a modern look and compositional solution, even in modern times: this is already from Suprematism. Although Melnikov's genius is in its coordinates, I would say, outside the scope of style.
Krivoarbatsky lane was visited at that time by rare guests - fans of the Russian avant-garde, and this was also curious: in that Soviet, already forgotten time, to see a masterpiece of world significance, within the accessible space for travel. I think it has not lost its relevance today.
Dali Theater Museum
Figueres. Idea - Salvador Dali, project - architect Emilio Perez-Pignero. 1974.
The next shock I experienced when I saw the Dalí Museum in Figueres. I think scripted architecture is a thing of the future, something mixed in impact with cinema and theater. An architect must be a master of special effects, a spatial juggler and, in his own way, the Eisenstein of the action taking place in the dramatic scenario of his work - be it a city or a fragment of it. He must think over the effects of disclosure and displacement, the dynamics and power of psychological influence, must try using the means available to him to create a theater out of the interaction of man and space, other people and the effect of time. This is partly, albeit in a somewhat primitive form, the Dali Museum.
Sachsenhausen
Concentration camp in Oranienburg near Berlin. SS architect Bernhard Kuiper. 1936.
The camp triangle is simple and straightforward. The architect who made it certainly did his job well. Excellent visibility, commandant's office in the right place, towers are placed where necessary. The shoe test track forms the parade ground. Someone had to organize this space.
Correct and beautiful design eventually ended in inhuman use and inhuman content. Nearby, in regular rows, in accordance with the principles of the Bauhaus, are the residential buildings and barracks of the "Dead's Head" division.
And now a dilemma arises. You can competently organize inhuman processes, or you can ignorantly and thoughtlessly engage in designing right and good things. What is worse, disfiguring the good or making the terrible beautiful? The moral side of this process, the ethics of the profession and professional interests entered into an unproductive interaction here, and this left an emotional surge of about 10 points in my head. Plus, the neatness inherent in the Germans, pedantry and quality of construction are always a necessary thing, if we abstract from the camps and prisons of the Land of the Soviets.
Hong Kong
The upper viewpoint on Hong Kong Island, which overlooks Victoria Harbor and the Kowloon Peninsula, is, in my opinion, the best natural and spatial composition created with the active participation of humans. High-rise buildings scattered below and framing the bay, active movement in the bay and a huge asset of the metropolis - an alloy that merged nature, artificial landscape, the elements of water, air and earth together.
"Victoria" in Perm
Residential complex with administrative premises. Architects "A-B Studio". 2009–2011.
Composition, spatial arrangement, proportion of parts. A difficult task is the stylobate, in which the office premises are located, in the middle - communications and parking. A tower with beveled corners overlooking Sibirskaya Street. Separate territory of the yard on the podium.
Vladislav Novinsky was born in Bankovsky, grew up in Banny Lane in the city of Sverdlovsk, now Yekaterinburg. In the late 80s he graduated from SverdArkhI (Sverdlovsk Architectural Institute). Worked at the Grazhdanproekt in Perm. In the 90s he was engaged in business.
In the 2000s - director of the A + design workshop. Participated in the publication and wrote texts for the magazine "Project Prikamye", wrote for other publications as well. Participated in many architectural competitions.
Parallel life - 2nd dan Shotokan karate.
