This issue, the twelfth in a row, was the last, which was prepared for publication by its editor-in-chief Irina Shipova, who passed away on April 26, 2014. Therefore, the event was dedicated not so much to the publication of the magazine as to the memory of the person who invented and brought it to life. Even before the start of the official part, photographs of Irina Shipova and a kind of retrospective of articles written by her for the magazine from different years were shown on the screen at the end of the hall.
The architect Sergei Tchoban, who opened the evening, also began his speech with memories of Irina, telling about how bravely she fought a serious illness and how stoically, until the very end, she worked on the magazine. The participants honored Ira's memory with a minute of silence, and then the famous German journalist Bernhard Schultz made a short speech about her, who helped create the speech: magazine, starting from the very first issue.
For each of the issues, Irina Shipova chose one theme, equally relevant for both Western and Russian architecture, and the twelfth issue was no exception. Affordable Housing is a genre that is experiencing a real revival today. In contrast to the typologized, faceless, streamlined and lack of individuality mass housing of the recent past, today's affordable (or "social") housing is oriented towards people of different ages - the elderly and young, single and family, with different income levels and social status. The key word, of course, is diversity. However, an equally important role is played by functional mixing, based on the diverse use of non-residential ground floors, the creation of comfortable and aesthetic courtyard and public spaces already at the stage of building design, because, strictly speaking, this is what distinguishes modern housing from microdistricts and "residential cars" of the past, which, alas, for decades of exploitation have proved their "antisocial".
The magazine contains examples of the most interesting implementations in the genre of social housing over the past 3 years. These are Dominique Perrault's La Liberte towers in Groningham, the Bremen Town Musicians residential complex on Tokyo Strasse in Vienna (ARTEC Architekten), low-rise housing in Danish Sebu (C. F. Møller Architects) and a very bright London house by Metaphorm architects on Brandon Street. The theme of the issue is also examined in detail on the example of Germany, France and Spain - countries that can boast of almost the most developed tradition of social housing construction, and about the experience of Holland, whose residential complexes "for everyone" have long become an icon of this genre, speech: said architect Vini Maas, one of the founders of the MVDRV bureau.
Moscow has become a full-fledged hero of this issue. The chief architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov told the magazine about a new approach to the design of affordable housing in the Russian capital. He also became a special guest of the presentation, speaking to the guests of the evening with a lecture on urban development in the XXI century. Having dwelt in detail on the urban planning principles of creating a comfortable environment - quarters, public first floors, a variety of facades, especially courtyards, modest number of storeys - Kuznetsov presented projects developed taking into account these criteria, which are already being implemented in Moscow and the Moscow region.
Of course, while such complexes can be counted on one hand, with one hand - "Edalgo", "Wellton Park", "Aquarelle", "Microcity in the Forest", social housing on Bazovskaya Street - but it is difficult not to agree with the head of the Moscow City Architecture Committee that that the use case has already been created. Construction on the same Bazovskaya has convincingly proved that not only faceless panel housing can be built quickly and inexpensively in Moscow, but also houses with their own bright character and organizing a truly humane space around them.
The general partner of the presentation of the speech: affordable housing issue was the Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art, the general partner of the issue was the Buildx trading house.
