All week, the network has been discussing the appearance on Red Square of a pavilion in the form of a giant chest of the French fashion house Louis Vuitton. "Suitcase", of course, is not the first temporary construction on the square, but, apparently, its symbolism turned out to be so powerful that the public could not stand it. Rarely are bloggers speaking out in defense of heritage so loudly and loudly - this is just such a case; immediately began to write about the value of the architectural ensemble, and about the mess in the "coordination bodies", and the Public Chamber even proposed to endow Red Square with a special status of a "sacred place". The architects also spoke out. Mikhail Belov, for example, wrote that it turned out "carnival and funny"; true, this is such black humor - “the citizens of the Great Country, with the guests of the country at the same time, in a second turned into mice. As if released from this suitcase ", the architect notes, but" there are many associations and reasons for letting off steam from the whistle, for a slight superficial mockery: about the suitcase mood in the Kremlin."
“A Christmas market, a booth, they brought it - they took it away, what's wrong? - Grigory Revzin is surprised. “There, the stands are piled up every week, the creepy ones are nothing, and the suitcase is certainly a shock to the foundations. Here you have both disrespect for Red Square, and the nouveau riche are loose, and not agreed, and bad taste, and city defenders, and left-wing intellectuals - everything. Free expression of hatred towards others is the foundation of our civil society.” Feeling, in the meantime, the "carnival" element in the blogs went further and "dressed" in the corporate symbols of Louis Vuitton Mausoleum, and someone "substituted" the notorious suitcase under the statue of "Worker and Collective Farm Woman". However, there is nothing to resent and have fun over: the Kremlin took the insulting pavilion seriously and ordered it to be dismantled.
True, now, according to city rights activists Yevgeny Sosedov and Nikolai Avvakumov, admiring the architectural ensemble is hindered by the recently appeared "thematic" skating rink, which vaguely resembles the Kremlin walls with towers. However, “all this plywood hell” is taking place on the square not without a grain of historical justice, other bloggers say, recalling that for many centuries there has been a brisk trade with booths. By the way, students of De Montfort University came up with a wonderful story on a similar topic: they reconstructed medieval pre-fire London in good faith and almost scientifically - this video is published on his blog by local historian Alexander Mozhaev. Very authentic in texture, the author of the blog believes, from walls and paving to the contents of the counters and the content of the signs.
In the meantime, it remains to count on the weight of the public opinion in another scandalous story with the reconstruction of Triumfalnaya Square, which was given to the unknown firm "Trio". On Thursday, bloggers from "City Projects" gathered on the square a rally for holding an architectural competition, because, as Ilya Varlamov writes in his blog, “it is impossible for the Department of Overhaul, which cannot normally lay tiles, to choose on some incomprehensible contractor tenders for the design of the main square of Moscow. " Details and a photo session from the rally can be found here.
And in the RUPA community, architect Dmitry Khmelnitsky started a continuation of the discussion about neighborhoods and microdistricts. Khmelnitsky himself, according to him, does not understand the essence of the "reform" initiated by Sergei Kuznetsov, other than "simply reducing the average area of the microdistrict." User bzikoleaks agrees - “they are seeking to revise the norms in the direction of building compaction for the sake of increasing the developers' profits. Therefore, in support of this "revolutionary" idea, basically, some kind of abstract garbage about "loosened buildings", supposedly "disappearing spaces" and "depressed neighborhoods" is cited. And what is the real benefit to people from this and what prevents the streets from doing more often under the existing norms, the lobbyists of this idea cannot say. " - “In principle, nothing prevents the microdistrict from being located in the form of a quarter. But it is economically more profitable to build microdistricts in the form to which we are all accustomed, - Yuri Nazarov answers the question of Dmitry Khmelnitsky. - It is clear that the 19th century quarter, cut into small plots with different owners, is unrealistic now. Regulations can force developers to reproduce quarterly buildings, but it’s strange, depending on where, it’s not a fact that something good will come of it”.
The mayor's office, we recall, intends to build up large areas in the capital's Central Administrative District with modern quarters in the coming years, freeing them from the remnants of industrial enterprises. In this context, the chief architect once said the other day that housing should be built not in "sleeping areas", but in the center. “The outskirts are“the wrong format for a person to live”, blogs began to be indignant,“what else to expect from such a chief architect,”writes, for example, Igor Ryabov. “99 percent of Moscow's population now lives in the outskirts, and instead of developing the entire city and improving the lives of all Muscovites, we are encouraged to think only about the Central Administrative District and continue to demolish the historic center,” comments Evgeny Sosedov. True, Alexander Pypin is sure that "the whole dispute is due to the fact that almost the Kremlin was understood by" center ", while Kuznetsov was talking about development in industrial zones between the Garden Ring and Tretye Transportny, the user believes. “It is logical to propose to use huge territories occupied for some unknown reason for housing,” writes Irina Ivanova, who, for example, should open the huge territory of the Butyrka prison, transforming it into a museum.
Well, in Korolev, near Moscow, where activists failed to stop the demolition of a constructivist commune house, but where there is still a chance to save its unique frescoes, an urgent recruitment of volunteers is underway to transfer the murals from the dilapidated building. Those wishing to work with a saw and a drill and at the same time learn from the restorers are asked to write to the blogs of the defenders of the Building Bureau, for example, Alexandra Selivanova, Evgeny Sosedov, etc. Here you can also find a project of a "positive scenario" for the Bolshevsk labor commune complex, from which, according to Alexandra Selivanova, it is quite possible to make a modern cultural and tourist center.
