The blogosphere again draws attention to the fate of the unique ensemble of the Solovetsky Monastery. Recently, the magazine "Arkhnadzor" published an open letter from the director of the "Rozhdestvenka" bureau and teacher of the Moscow Architectural Institute Narine Tyutcheva to the president of the SAR, Andrei Bokov, with a request to intervene in the situation with a suspicious "new building" near the monument. The protected zones of the archipelago will have yet to be approved by the end of this year, and a project for a new museum and administrative building is already traveling on the network, supported by information on the State Procurement website, where a corresponding tender has been announced. The portal "My-Solovki.rf", for example, claims that the architectural and artistic council under the governor of the Arkhangelsk region has already made its choice in favor of two projects of the St. Petersburg design bureau "ViPS". Users, by the way, are invited to vote for one of them. Narine Tyutcheva, in turn, considers neither the size of the building, nor its location - "in the visibility zone of the monastery ensemble, on the shore of the Holy Lake" unacceptable. Curious about what else is included in the federal program for the development of the Solovetsky archipelago is impossible, there is no information in the public domain, but according to Narine Tyutcheva, just 500 meters from the monastery a project is being prepared for an airport, some residential buildings, etc. All are designed "on the sly, without competition, without involving experts of the appropriate level, without legal grounds in the form of a draft regime for the use of the territory," the author of the letter concludes.
Until recently, in an atmosphere of secrecy, plans were also formed for the reconstruction of the most important Moscow squares - Triumfalnaya and Revolution Square. However, a few days ago, four projects appeared on the website of the Overhaul Department: after the fact, you can see the project of the Trio company, which won the tender for Triumfalnaya (as well as two alternative ones), and Wowhaus's project proposal for Revolution Square. Their appearance was followed by the unexpected and joyful news that the mayor's office (having heard the calls of the public?) Will announce a new tender for the reconstruction of Triumphalnaya. The blogger Ilya Varlamov, who raised the Internet against the project of the unknown company "Trio", urges to go to the end and entrust the holding of the architectural competition to the Moskomarkhitektura, and not to the Department of Tiles.
The mayor's office, meanwhile, confirmed that by the end of the year a competition for the reorganization of Revolution Square, which was included in the list of 14 "specific objects" for improvement for the next year, could be announced. We recall that Wowhaus has already presented its preliminary version at an open lecture at the Central House of Architects. The concept proposes to open the Kitaygorodskaya wall for viewing by organizing a pedestrian zone with street cafes and a museum of Moscow lamps between the wall and the Metropol. So far, nothing has been heard about Wowhaus rivals in the future competition, except for the State Unitary Enterprise “Main Architectural and Planning Administration”, about whose participation “Big City” writes. This, as well as the recent large projects of Wowhaus for the reconstruction of the Crimean embankment, Gorky Park, the park in Sokolniki, etc. makes bloggers think that architects benefit from "corrupt collusion with the authorities." Alexander Kuptsov suspects his colleagues of affiliation [For a detailed description of Alexander Kuptsov's position, see below in the comments to this review] Valery Nefedov, commenting on the project in Yaroslav Kovalchuk's blog, finds in the project “an awful lot of“dead”surface with paving” and “densely planted lanterns” however, the project appeals to many.
Meanwhile, the reconstruction - "Europeanization" of public spaces in the capital from the street smoothly flowed into the interiors of public institutions. The same Ilya Varlamov shares his impressions of the new look of two city libraries, which, according to the blogger, have become similar to modern offices.
Mikhail Belov, meanwhile, writes in his blog about how the situation with tenders for design and construction will worsen with the adoption of the new Federal Law 44. The notorious state order threatens a new wave of hack-work, Belov is sure, and no contests will help: “The public will discuss several contests, in principle unrealizable in such conditions, for which real funds, PR resources will be thrown away and, for fashion, foreign guest performers will be attracted. The quality of construction will fall, its cost will rise. The quality of the architectural idea will further devalue. Competitions to lose legitimacy and social meaning”, - such a gloomy forecast is made by the architect.
And Sergey Estrin in his magazine appeals to young architects, urging them to use drawing as much as possible in their professional thinking and not to depend on the "skill" of visualizers. Estrin emphasizes that architectural graphics are not about incubating a drawing, “with an abundance of carefully drawn bricks and crackers,” but “combining drawing and thinking into a simultaneous process”, the ability to invent and translate architectural consciousness into the language of precise and beautiful lines on the fly.
Andrey Chekmarev, a member of the arch-heritage.livejournal.com community, devoted his recent post to architectural graphics, suggesting that even a special genre of posts should be established for it - a selection of graphics on any topic. The blogger encourages both constructed and non-embodied projects to publish, because in the concept, according to Andrey Chekmarev, any architecture is always “better realized, it is more imaginative and more expensive. And then everything, as usual, comes up against the budget. As a contribution to the future collection of architectural drawings, the author of the post publishes drawings by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli.
At the end of the review, let us return to the legacy topic with which we started: the city defenders, who in the last month were busy with the news about the rescue of the core of the Bolshevsk Labor Commune - the Stroybyuro House in Korolyov, had another "hot spot". This time, the constructivist bath and laundry plant in Kolomna is in danger, according to the blog of Ekaterina Oinas. On the site of the "temple of cleanliness and hygiene", built according to the project of the students of the famous brothers Vesnin and Moisey Ginzburg, they are going to build a shopping center for building materials.
