The architects of the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design will design a huge eco-park of Russian reserves on Lake Baikal, on the site of a pulp and paper mill: Izvestia newspaper writes that the Ministry of Natural Resources has approved the foresight model of the object they have developed. Strelka itself is silent about the project, referring to the terms of the contract, but it is already known that it is based on the conversion of the existing industrial buildings of the plant, which will radically change its eco-design: for many years, production has poisoned the waters of Lake Baikal, but now it will become a center of environmental propaganda and tourism … According to the newspaper, there will be an expo center for reserves and an education center for their employees, a museum of environmental disasters and other interesting objects.
Unlike eco-Disneyland, the amusement Park of World Religions in the Moscow Region is ethically not so unambiguous. Kommersant recently cites the opinions of some experts who are convinced that religion is not what Disneyland can be made of. However, the publication below also cites successfully functioning religious parks of the world - in Buenos Aires and in the state of Florida, as well as their European counterpart in Mallorca, which is currently being completed.
In the meantime, the Paris mayor's office has authorized the construction of a Russian Orthodox cultural center, which French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte redesigned to suit the prefecture's tastes. Alexey Tarkhanov in Kommersant clarifies that not only the appearance has changed, but also the composition of the project, which has become not a single building, but a complex with a separate church. The author emphasizes that he is inscribed in the urban development very correctly and may even become "one of the most beautiful modern Russian churches."
Russian urban rights activists, meanwhile, are forced to admit that our urban regulation is far from so meticulously protecting the integrity of the urban development environment. Moreover, according to the activists of Nizhny Novgorod or, for example, Yekaterinburg, the city authorities do their utmost to contribute to its destruction. Details are in a big interview on Radio Liberty. And how in Tver in the same place the current master plan permits, and security zones are prohibited from building, you can read in the new material of "Tverskiye Svov".
Nevskoe Vremya provides an overview of five most valuable monuments of St. Petersburg, the state of which raises serious concerns. However, the creations of Vasily Stasov, Giacomo Quarenghi and Noah Trotsky can continue to be destroyed with practically impunity - the fines for such connivance are completely symbolic. For example, for damage during the vandal restoration of one of the oldest chapels in Karelia, the company that sent the would-be restorers was fined only 200 thousand rubles, reports Radio Liberty.
By the way, the preservation of the monuments is aided well by the voluntary inspection of public activists who, of course, welcomed the recent initiative of the Moscow mayor's office to make the monuments occupied by the embassies open for excursions throughout the year. To be fair, the coordinator of Arkhnadzor Rustam Rakhmatullin adds that it is thanks to this mode of use that the buildings (mainly of the Art Nouveau era) have been quite well preserved. What has come down to the present unchanged, and what has been rebuilt or lost - allows you to evaluate the new exhibition in the Museum of Moscow, made on the basis of photographs of the pre-revolutionary capital, the author of which is a descendant of French emigrants Emile Gaultier-Dufayer.
The Urbanurban portal writes about the understanding of the concept of a city as such, citing arguments on this topic from antiquity to Engels and Durkheim. Well, the author of the article, Peter Ivanov, promises to tell about the ways of thinking of the city of the 20th century, which is close to us in the next article.
