Evgeny Sosedov told on his Facebook page about a volunteer trip to the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Pereslegino ("an absolute masterpiece of Nikolai Lvov") near Torzhok. The condition of the church is grave: almost nothing remained of the roof, the floor rotted and collapsed. Only the metal covering of the double dome and apse is well preserved. Volunteers cleared the territory of the church and the building itself from overgrowth, and V. I. Yakubeni with young architects made measurements and recorded everything in detail. Now it is necessary to raise money for a new roof, cutting and strengthening of walls and cornices. Evgeny Sosedov states that Torzhok and the Torzhok District are very neglected, and this is surprising, "given the advantageous location of the city, the colossal tourism potential, the number and quality of monuments."
Also Sosedov reports about a big victory over Radonezh. The Sergiev Posad court satisfied the requirements of the prosecutor's office, declaring illegal the decisions to change the type of permitted use of land in the protected zone of Ancient Radonezh from "agricultural production" to "dacha construction". This means that the construction of the buffer zone with an area of almost 60 hectares is becoming impossible. It also became known that on May 20, the Ministry of Culture of the Moscow Region approved the new boundaries of the landmark "Ancient Radonezh". Until the borders have been published, therefore, it is impossible to say whether they are reducing the area of the protected area or not.
The Moscow regional branch of VOOPIiK reported in its blog that after the fire in the Dugino estate, the descendants of its owners Meshcherins and I. E. Grabar with a request to raise the issue of the restoration of the house and the subsequent arrangement of a museum in it. The fire damaged the third floor and the western wing - buildings of the Soviet period, and the historical part of the main house - the first two floors, as well as the manor park, survived. An application has already been submitted for the establishment of the estate for state protection, a response from the Ministry of Culture is expected.
Maxim Katz will present in Live Journal another study by City Projects - the transformation of Malaya Bronnaya Street (before that there were Maroseyka-Pokrovka and Bankovsky Lane). As always, the activists proposed a set of solutions: to make traffic less active, illuminate sidewalks, redistribute space in favor of pedestrians, build a bike path, and carry out improvements. For 2014-2015, the Moscow government has planned a large program to improve pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, and Malaya Bronnaya is also on the preliminary list of streets. So the proposals will be forwarded to the mayor's office, and the City Projects will follow their further fate. Yaroslav Kovalchuk wrote about this project on Facebook: “It's a pity - you won't have to live in this wonderful time - neither for me, nor for you”.
Arkady Gershman shows the incredible: in Rostov-on-Don, after reconstruction, a section of the embankment was opened. As the author writes, "everything would be fine, but they approached the improvement there seriously, and now it is a pleasure to see this place." Commentators believe that it turned out almost as good as on the Crimean embankment.
Techne.com has published Triumph Treehouse Award entries. The competition involved a careful study and research of the concept of "Tree Houses". The winner was a project by the British team Tree Hopper, which offered a futuristic aesthetic. The project of Russian participants - Artyom Shatunov and Anna Uspenskaya was also awarded a special mention. According to the jury, the project demonstrates good use of space, resembles the surrounding mountain peaks and blends well with the surrounding area.
Archiblog Shu wrote about the world's first building that produces more energy than it uses. Moreover, this is not a new building, but adapted - a power plant in the Oslo suburb of Sandvik, which was designed, built and will be operated extremely economically. Thus, the Norwegians proved that energy efficiency is "not an expensive toy, but a profitable investment of money, labor and technological development from all points of view." The architectural design was carried out by the Snøhetta bureau, the process of transforming the two office buildings into an energy-positive complex took 2 years.
Architect Sergey Estrin in his blog talks about the time it takes to create paintings. Recently, the Moscow gallery Unique Floors hosted an exhibition of his graphics, which became the first exposition of a new cycle entitled "Architect's Hobby".
ART1 chose the most interesting Vkontakte publics dedicated to architecture: a collection of Soviet modernism, the romance of sleeping areas, a photo digest of world design trends, crumbling Europe, memories of old Moscow and others. The creators of the communities told how and why they make them.
